ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at Polish and Italian American neighborhoods in order to show how the appearances of ethnically defined settlements are related to their histories as well as the experiences of people who occupy them. Most Italian and Polish immigrants, rural peasants who shared a common, Roman Catholic, religion came during the period of "mass migration". Immigrants are a larger proportion of the local populations as Italian American ethnics have moved to Staten Island and an even greater segment of Polish American ethnics left for the suburbs. The built form of Italian and Polish communities in the United States is derived from social and physical settlement patterns imported or inherited from the old country. In many American cities, Italian entrepreneurs dominated the decorative ironwork and residential masonry industries. The American public is unaware of the diversity among Poles and Polish Americans. Polish cultural circles, intellectual associations, and other examples of a more cosmopolitan culture are seldom recognized as ethnically Polish.
