February 2014
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February 2014 A Tampa Immigrant’s Business Story of the Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families Kenneth C. Ferlita, AIA
description
A Tampa Immigrant’s Business Story of the Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families. Kenneth C. Ferlita, AIA. February 2014. FICARROTTA FAMILY Santo Stefano Quisquina , Sicily. Family relatives in Sicily [ circa late 800s ]. Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families. FICARROTTA - FERLITA - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of February 2014
February 2014
A Tampa Immigrant’s Business Story of the
Ficarrotta – Ferlita FamiliesKenneth C. Ferlita, AIA
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
FICARROTTA FAMILYSanto Stefano Quisquina, Sicily
Family relatives in Sicily [circa late 800s]
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Giuseppe R. Ficarrotta[1868-1909]
Giuseppe R. Ferlita1886- 1949
FICARROTTA - FERLITAWEST TAMPA – YBOR CITY
TIMELINE CHARTFicarrotta – Ferlita Families
1891
Giuseppe Ficarrotta
immigrated to Florida
[Worked in St. Cloud Sugar
Mills]
1905 1909 1912 1924 1936 1944 1949
1800s 1900 1910 1940 1950s19301920
Giuseppe Ferlita
immigrated to Tampa
Giuseppe Ficarrotta
killed.Ferlita
Macaroni Factory
est. 1912 in Ferlita’s
home on 518 Green St.,
West Tampa
Ferlita Macaroni Factory
expands to Ybor City into new building
Ferlita Family
Move out of Ybor
factory into a South Tampa Home
Inter-national Bank ‘s
Loan Due
Giuseppe Ferlita
dies
1940
Ferlita Macaroni Factory
expands to larger
factory.633 Union St, West Tampa
WEST TAMPA WEST TAMPAYBOR CITY
Ferlita Macaroni Factory forced to
relocate to 2001 N
Tampaina, West Tampa
1915
Ferlita Macaroni Factory
expands to 644 Main
Street,, next to family bakery in
West Tampa
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Main Street, West Tampa [circa 1895]
WEST TAMPAFLORIDA
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Giuseppe R. Ficarrotta1868- 1909
Giuseppe R. FicarrottaWest Tampa City Councilman
Giuseppe Ficarrotta immigrated from Santo Stefano Quisquina, Sicily to the United States in 1891 and after working at the St. Cloud Sugar Mills for about a year, settled in West Tampa. His wife Maria Nicolina Pirello joined him in 1892.
Within 10 years he had prospered to open a bakery and a feed store . He was a founding member, along with Hugh MacFarlane to establish the West Tampa Building & Loan with a stock capitol of $900,000. He served on the West Tampa City Council.
His murder was never solved but the newspaper accounts indicated because he was one of West Tampa’s wealthiest businessman, two unidentified men approached him to extort $10,000 to aid id bribing a criminal friend from jail, but because he refused was killed.
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
www.WestTampaMurder.com
WEST TAMPA1909 Murder
Tampa Police Department 1900s
1910 Ficarrotta & Albano Lynching
[Howard and Kennedy]
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
WEST TAMPACondolence Letters
Maria Pirello Ficarrotta
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
www.WestTampaMurder.com
WEST TAMPA1909 Murder
West Tampa Constable Fernandez Gonzalez
Acting Municipal Judge Granville Larimore
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
WEST TAMPAFLORIDA
G. Ficarrotta & Co. Bakery – Rosario Ferlita Bakery
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
WEST TAMPAFLORIDA
Bakery & Macaroni Factory
MAIN STREET
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Giuseppe R. Ferlita1886 - 1949
Giuseppe R. FerlitaFerlita Macaroni Co.
Giuseppe R. Ferlita immigrated from Santo Stefano Quisquina, Sicily to USA in 1905. He first worked as a cigar maker until his father purchased a bakery in West Tampa . With a loan from his brother-in-law, James Ficarrotta, and assistance from good friends like Angelo Mortellaro a businessman and founding member of the Italian Club, his macaroni factory was on Main St in a building owned by his in-laws. The business continued to grow and relocated to a new factory on 22nd Street and 6th Avenue. As pasta shipments expanded as far north as Georgia, again the factory was in need of expansion. In the late 1930s the business moved Union Street in West Tampa, but was forced to relocate again due to a new Public Housing development. Shortly after the final move to Tampaina Avenue ,WWII broke out and other finances difficultness began to strain the business. The bank called in the loan to buy the business for the banker’s son and within five years Giuseppe Ferlita died in 1949.
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Giuseppe Ferlita marriage to Maria Paola Ficarrotta
WEST TAMPAFLORIDA
Giuseppe Ferlita marriage to Vicenta Ficarrotta
19201911
Maria Paola Ficarrotta was separated from her parents at the age of four and wasn’t reunited until she was fifteen years old. She married her childhood friend in Tampa at the age of 23,. Sadly her life was cut short at only 30 when
she died of Spanish Flu. That same week the Ficarrotta Family lost two other siblings also to the flu.
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
L-R: Vincenta Ficarrotta, Mary, Rosario (standing), Paul, Joseph, Jr. and Giuseppe Ferlita
FERLITA FAMILY1920
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Certificate of Citizenship - 1938
FERLITA FAMILYGiuseppe and Vincenta Ferlita
Certificate of Naturalization - 1942
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
Ferlita Macaroni Factory [1930s]
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
Ferlita Macaroni Delivery Truck [1930s]
Paul Ferlita standing on truck [1928]
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
Ferlita Macaroni Factory
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Ferlita Macaroni Factory – Ybor City
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Ferlita Macaroni Factory & Family Residence – Ybor City
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
Ybor location “For Sale” after the factory was relocated to West Tampa
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Ferlita Macaroni Factory – Union Street
WEST TAMPAFLORIDA
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Ferlita Macaroni Factory – Union Street
WEST TAMPAFLORIDA
Diesel Generator
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
WEST TAMPAFLORIDA
Angelo Massari1883 - 1970
International Bank of Tampa 300 West Fortune Street
1946
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
FERLITA MACARONI FACTORYREBIRTH
Before Restoration of the Ferlita Macaroni Factory
[2009]
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
Restoration of the Ferlita Macaroni Factory [2010]
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
Before Restoration of the Ferlita Macaroni Factory [2009]
Old Residential Entrance
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Ferlita Macaroni Factory – Today
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
Ferlita Macaroni Factory – 2009
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Ferlita Macaroni Factory “Then & Now” - Ybor City
YBOR CITYFLORIDA
February 2014
QuestionsThank you – Kenneth Ferlita, AIA
www.Ferlita.com
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Hugh MacFarlane1844 - 1896
WEST TAMPAFLORIDA
West Tampa's birth came fast on the heels of this new burst of economic activity. Hugh C. Macfarlane (1851-1935), a transplanted Scotsman, moved to Tampa in 1883 after hearing about the real estate growth while practicing law in New Orleans. After arriving in Tampa to practice law and he rose quickly in the community and in 1887 was appointed City Attorney.
In 1892, Macfarlane purchased and platted 200 acres of land just west of the Hillsborough River for development. Macfarlane began offering factory sites and three story brick buildings to manufacturers. To encourage factories to relocate to West Tampa he and some investors, built an iron drawbridge across the Hillsborough River at Fortune Street and later financed a streetcar line.
Dozens of cigar companies and thousands of people moved into the new city resulting in capital investments of over $2 million in West Tampa, a staggering sum in those bygone days. Three short years later, on May 18, 1895, West Tampa was incorporated, boasting 3,500 residents with businesses and community services.
Ficarrotta – Ferlita Families
Hamilton Disston1844 - 1896
ST. CLOUDFLORIDA
Hamilton Disston, was an industrialist and real-estate developer who purchased four million acres of Florida land in 1881, an area larger than the state of Connecticut, and reportedly the most land ever purchased by a single person in world history.
