Goat Island Project Aims to Connect Community to Heritage
- Avery Martin
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
Southington’s historic Goat Island area is on track for a revival.
Located at 5 East Summer Street, near downtown Plantsville and just off the Farmington Canal Trail, Goat Island is a 6.4 acre open-space property once used by Southington’s Italian-American community for various purposes, including as a communal kitchen.
Southington’s UNICO Club is aiming to restore the area, and the town has been involved with the planning.
The Open Space and Land Acquisition Committee hosted a discussion about the plans on September 3.
“The whole idea was that it was really a good piece of property to invest in,” said committee member Robert Berkmoes of the town’s purchase of the land two decades ago. “Because of the river, because of Rails to Trails, and because of the oven, we thought there was some historic value there.”
Often regarded as the ‘Ellis Island’ for Southington’s Italian community, Goat Island was a first stop for many new immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. First acquired in 1885 by Gennaro and Luigi Angelillo, the land was in an area of town where Southington’s first Italian immigrants settled. A communal bread oven provided a place for families to cook traditional favorites in a shared setting. New arrivals to town also lived on the property as they waited to find more permanent housing.
A wooden structure once stood on the site and housed the iconic bread oven. That structure collapsed during the winter of 2010-2011, and since then the area has become overgrown with trees and brush. Nevertheless, volunteers are hoping to turn back the clock.
UNICO aims to restore the collapsed building to its original specifications, complete with working ovens and cooking area. They hope to use the space to educate the community about local Italian-American history, and the cultural traditions immigrants brought to their new home.
“UNICO members are currently working to resurrect the oven as both a cultural and educational offering for residents,” reads a statement on the UNICO website.
UNICO also has plans for transforming the property into a recreation site.
“Wouldn't it be nice someday, maybe five years down the road, to have a little nature center there, if it cleans up nice? We’d have a river, we’d have fishing, we’d have hiking,” said UNICO member Ann Marie Conaty at the meeting.
The land was sold to the town of Southington by its last owners, the Angelillo family, in 2007. UNICO has previously leased part of the open space property for $1 a year from the town, with the aim of recreating the ovens and structures. It hopes soon to renew that lease.
“This is the peoples’ project and we look forward to working with as many volunteers as we can,” Conaty told the Outsider. “We’ll have a master plan but no boards, no politics. The only politics will involve getting approval to move forward with a grant from the state. We have a committee quilting the plan together: Dave Lavallee from Wetlands, Chris Palmieri from Open Space, Billy Della Vecchia and Mike Fasulo from UNICO, and me. It is getting really exciting now!”
Conaty plans to begin cleaning up the area along with other volunteers. The group will remove dead trees and bushes, add parking and create pathways around the property. If all goes well, there will also be a pollinator garden, fishing spot, birdhouses, and sitting area.
Conaty said that anyone who is interested in volunteering for this part of the project should reach out to her at kcamaj@cox.net.
The Southington Outsider is collaborating with UNICO on a short documentary about the history of the island and its connections to Southington’s Italian-American community. The documentary should be completed and released this fall.
