I’ve always been curious about the formidable entrance of this ordinary brick building at Mulberry and Mosco Streets in Chinatown.
This corner has an illustrious past. For much of the 19th century it was a particularly dicey part of the old Five Points slum known as Mulberry Bend (below, at the point where this former cow path literally bends).
By the turn of the 20th century it was a central part of the teeming “Italian Colony,” as some called it, aka Little Italy.
The building entrance is designed to communicate strength and power: marble columns, terra cotta ornamentation, steps that elevate visitors above the sidewalk, all topped by a mean-looking eagle with wings spread, ready to take flight.
What was this Greek temple–like entrance for, exactly? A bank.
Number 28 Mulberry was once the doorway for the Banco Italia, which in 1881 served the growing Italian immigrant community pouring into Mulberry Bend.
The founder was Antonio Cuneo (left), who arrived in the New York in the 1850s. (In the above photo with the oyster vendor, 28 Mulberry can be seen without its decked-out entrance.)
Cuneo made his money first by selling nuts and fruits from a pushcart, operating a grocery store and fruit importing concern that made him the city’s “banana king,” then buying up real estate.
Though Banco Italia’s showstopping doorway may have convinced many newcomers to open accounts there, Cuneo was something of a shady character.
“In 1887, a United States Congressional investigation found that the bank operated under a padrone system, a labor arrangement where the bank, for a fee, operated an agency in Naples that coordinated prepaid steamer tickets and requests for underpaid labor,” states The Big Onion Guide to Historic New York City.
This didn’t diminish Cuneo in the eyes of his community. When he died in 1896, hundreds packed St. Gioacchino’s Church on Roosevelt Street. An overflow crowd of mourners on the street was so large, a police detail was brought in.
The bank now houses a funeral home, and the ornate entrance seems strangely appropriate.
[Second photo: NYPL; fourth photo: NYPL;
Tags: 28 Mulberry Street, Antonio Cuneo Banca Italia, Italian Immigrants Mulberry Street, Little Italy Mulberry Street, Mulberry and Mosco Streets, New York in the 1880s, Nolita Streets
Ephemeral New York 
October 22, 2018 at 9:17 am |
At our face book page ‘The New York Photo Detectives’, we covered the classic street vender photo of that intersection and solved the mystery of the turn of the century Italian Pharmacy and doctor’s office, just across the street, on the NW corner Of Mulberry and Mosco Sts! Check it out! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1780786712241755/permalink/1962964254023999/
October 22, 2018 at 1:13 pm |
My father’s cousin, J. lee Dabbs, got in on the ground floor of Bank of America when it was founded as the Bank of Italy in San Francisco after the earthquake in 1904. He made a bundle of money, probably not all of it legally.
October 22, 2018 at 5:00 pm |
Uncle Sam was born here (i.e., there). In the 1830s, 27 Mulberry Street (an address which has been obliterated by today’s Columbus Park) was a tenement across the street from No. 28. No. 27 was a rendezvous for the feared Dead Rabbits gang. It was also the birthplace of Uncle Sam. In 1823, Daniel McLaren was born at No. 27. By the 1860s, McLaren, under the name Dan Rice, was America’s most famous clown. He once performed his act for Abraham Lincoln. McLaren’s costume featured his signature red-and-white-striped silk pants with velvet trim. Wearing these trousers, Rice became the visual inspiration for “Uncle Sam”. Uncle Sam has at least two more New York City connections. On March 1, 1810, Isaac Mayo, a 16-year-old midshipman on the U.S.S. Wasp, wrote a letter from his post at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in which he referred to the United States as Uncle Sam. A century later, James Montgomery Flagg based his image of Uncle Sam on Rice. Flagg created the most famous recruiting poster of all time–the World War I era ‘Uncle Sam wants YOU for the U.S. Army!’
P.S. this is from herewas (herewas.com).
P.S.S. I adore ephemeralnewyork. I have not missed a week in years!
November 11, 2022 at 6:21 pm |
I always thought Uncle Sam was originally based on Sam Wilson, a Troy NY meat packer, who supplied meat for the War of 1812
November 12, 2022 at 12:56 pm
Wilson stamp “u.s.” gave rise to the phrase “uncle sam” but not the look. Mclaren (aka Dan Rice) originated the look of Uncle Sam (striped costume, white goatee, etc.) and performed in that role. Thanks for pointing out Wilson though. i should have acknowledged him
October 22, 2018 at 8:01 pm |
I did a pen sketch of this lovely, ornate doorway last year, the Wah Wing Sang Funeral Home. I love it!
October 23, 2018 at 2:08 pm |
Another interesting post. One nit – I believe it is the Banca Italia not Banco Italia.
November 13, 2018 at 3:42 am |
I went to a funeral at the funeral home there once…I vaguely remember that entrance.
March 18, 2019 at 6:43 am |
[…] Here it’s held court for 178 years, watching Mulberry Street’s fortunes rise and fall as the neighborhood went from fashionable to working class to an enclave of poor Italian immigrants by the early 1900s. […]
March 18, 2019 at 9:25 am |
[…] Here it’s held court for 178 years, watching Mulberry Street’s fortunes rise and fall as the neighborhood went from fashionable to working class to an enclave of poor Italian immigrants by the early 1900s. […]
April 26, 2020 at 7:26 pm |
In front of “A. Cuneo Banker” was “Farmacia Italiana, Ufficio Del Dr. P. FERRARO”. So, in the film “The Godfather Part II” in the scenes filmed at E 6th Street, Manhattan (between Av. A and Av. B), F.F. Coppola installed a same cinema set: “Farmacia Italiana, Ufficio Del Dr. P. FERRARO “. It’s seen when Vito Corleone (Robert de Niro) talks with Signor Roberto in the street when he leaves the “Barber Shop” »
December 21, 2020 at 2:14 am |
[…] many Little Italy neighborhoods is it? Based on one of the postcard captions that mentions Mulberry Bend, this is the Little Italy of Mott and Mulberry Streets. Manhattan had others, one on Bleecker […]
December 21, 2020 at 9:57 am |
[…] many Little Italy neighborhoods is it? Based on one of the postcard captions that mentions Mulberry Bend, this is the Little Italy of Mott and Mulberry Streets. Manhattan had others, one on Bleecker […]
June 9, 2021 at 5:48 pm |
I’m a bit thrown off by the vendor photo. It shows A. Cuneo Banker on the north east corner of Mulberry. The ornate entrance described would be at the corner where the vendors are standing. It is on the south east corner, facing Columbus Park. There is not description in the story (that I have read) that mentions the relocation to the opposite corner.