Buffalo

                      After leaving Robertsdale, the Coniglio family: Gaetano Coniglio, Rosa Alessi Coniglio and their sons Gaetano (Guy), Leonardo (Leonard), Raimondo (Ray) and Felice (Phil) came to Buffalo, where they moved into a historic part of the city, the Erie Canal District, variously known as Canal Street, the Five Points, and "the Hooks".  According to Gaetano's 1924 naturalization papers, they came in 1921, after the neighborhood was already mostly Sicilian and its primary street, Canal Street, had been re-named Dante Place.  The photo at right shows Ray at about six years old, in 1924 or so.

                      The whole neighborhood came to be known as Dante Place, and the Coniglios moved into 18 Peacock Street, a three-story brick tenement crowded with other other families.  Carmela (Millie) was born in that building, on the 27th of May, 1923.  The neighborhood was bounded by the rough pentagon shown in red on the map below.  The green rectangle near the center of the map shows the location of 18 Peacock Street.    The red rectangle just outside the area shows 58 Lloyd Street, where Angie Bongiovanni Coniglio's grandparents lived during the same period, with Angie's aunts and her mother, Mary Lanza. 

                       Although the infamous neighborhood had calmed down since its earlier heyday of bars, brothels, men being "Shanghied" for work on lake steamers, and other nefarious activities, it was still a rough neighborhood.  Not the least worry was the closeness to the Erie Canal, where Phil had a close call, falling into the cruddy waters.  Years later we found out that the young man who pulled him out was Vincent (James) Gaglione, father of Jim Gaglione, who was a high school classmate of Ange's at Lafayette High School!   The Gagliones lived at 112 Dante Place, shown in blue on the maps below.  

                       And Joseph Genco, father of Josie, Trudi, Marilyn, and Ange's fraternity brother Sam Genco, lived with his parents at 42 Fly Street, the four-story tenement shown at the right above, and in yellow on the maps.   By 1925, Gaetano had moved the Coniglio family to the East Side, where the family had more space in a real "neighborhood", at 309 Myrtle Avenue.

                        Click on the map below to see more detail.  The neighborhood began to be "renewed" after a disastrous tenement explosion on New Year's Day, 1936, and today is no more, replaced by the Marine Drive apartments, the Erie Basin Marina, the Buffalo and Erie County Naval Park, the I-190,  and the Skyway.  The second map below shows the area as it is today, with shading showing where the old canals and slips were.  It also shows the spot where 18 Peacock Street once stood, smack in the middle of the Marine Drive apartment area.  The old Commercial Slip, the first part of the Erie Canal District Redevelopment Project, has recently been re-watered.