The West End Dante Alighieri Lodge

The West End Dante Alighieri Lodge, a chapter of the Order Sons of Italy, was founded on November 28, 1926. The Order Sons of Italy reflected the values held by the West End’s Italian-American immigrant community in the early twentieth century.

The Order Sons of Italy (Ordine Figli d’Italia) was founded in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood, by Vincenzo Sellaro, M.D. and five of his fellow Italian immigrants, on June 22, 1905. The Sons of Italy was created as a mutual aid society to provide Italian immigrants with a wide range of services, from free schools that taught English and helped Italians pass the US citizenship test, to credit unions, life insurance, and financial support for the elderly. On November 27, 1926, Italian-Americans in the West End founded their own chapter of the Order Sons of Italy: the West End Dante Alighieri Lodge 1435. The Lodge’s namesake was Dante, the Italian author whose epic poem Divine Comedy, published in 1320, narrated the author’s journey through the nine circles of Hell. The West End Dante Aligheri Lodge held its initiation ceremony on November 28, 1926, at 2 PM, in a hall on Green Street. The event was sponsored by Lodge Liberta e Patria 676, a Boston chapter that previously organized the initiation of the Sons of Italy’s Medford Lodge on June 7, 1925.

At the Order Sons of Italy’s initiation ceremonies, the new lodge would publicly appoint its first officers, and the “venerable” (president) of the sponsoring chapter gifted a large bouquet of roses to the new lodge for good luck. The opening ceremony for the West End Dante Aligheri Lodge featured a large crowd of invited guests and two of the West End’s Italian societies in attendance. The West End Lodge’s first officers were Carmelo De Modica (venerable), Mariano Pomodoro (assistant venerable), Vincenzo Megna (ex-venerable, who filled in when the venerable was unavailable), Michael Carchia (orator), Gaspare Tornullo (recording secretary), Giovanni Scarfeo (financial secretary), Giuseppe Freno (treasurer), and trustees comprised of Salvatore Castro, Carmelo Solani, Leo Amato, Giuseppe Mantea, and Giuseppe Pomodoro. The “Hymn of the Order” was sung by Giuseppe Russo, alongside a group of women: Margherita Megna, Mary Megna, Agnes Freni, Antonietta Freni, and Josephine Pustizzi, with J. Ingo at piano. At the conclusion of the Medford Lodge’s initiation ceremony in 1925,  those in attendance sang the Italian national anthem, then “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The West Enders at their own ceremony undoubtedly did the same.

The Order Sons of Italy’s initiation ritual committed the new officers to the organization’s principles. The recording secretary conducted the roll call for each officer who made their own distinct pledges. The venerable asks the assistant venerable “upon what principles is our Order based?” The assistant venerable is to reply, “On the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and its insignia is a Golden Lion on a white field.” The motto of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” was directly inspired by the French Revolution of 1789. The venerable proceeds to ask the orator, “what does our Order intend to do?” The orator replies:

The by-laws referred to in this initiation ritual were approved by the Order Sons of Italy’s Supreme Convention, held in Washington, D.C. in 1917, New York in 1919, and Trenton, New Jersey in 1921. The preamble, at the time that the West End Dante Alighieri Lodge was founded, declared not only that “all men have been created equal,” but also that Italian immigrants “contribute, as people of other nationalities do, their energies and their labor.” The by-laws also declared that “the cult for the land of their adoption,” referring to the United States, “constitutes a sacred duty” because they benefited from America’s opportunities and thus had the obligation to devote themselves to the nation’s advancement. Each Lodge was granted permission to pay a “sickness subsidy,” no greater than $10/week, to members, as well as a “burial subsidy” no larger than $200 for the families of the deceased. Members of the Order had to “be of sound morals,” hold “a dignified and honest occupation,” and prove by a medical certificate that they were physically fit. The by-laws regularly referred to “brothers and sisters” as members, not just men; today the national organization is called the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy.

Italians began moving from the North End to the West End in the late 1920s, when the West End was primarily Eastern European/Jewish, and became the West End’s largest ethnic community by the early 1940s. The West End Dante Alighieri Lodge represented one of the earliest efforts by Italian West Enders to build community around the shared appreciation of their heritage and the country where they built their new lives.