'Greetings from Pleasant Valley' (Methuen, MA)
An immigrant story. One of many in the North East. Many European immigrants came - one way or another - to New England, New York, the whole Northeastern seaboard to start new lives. Most all, at one time or another, worked in the mills. My Grandmother did. My Grandfather did along with his whole family. He took the tried and true Irish route out of the mill. He became a cop.
I spent a lot of time in the Valley. Eating and visiting mainly and having homemade wine when I was of age. Apple juice. Fresh fruit, fresh meat. My brother married into a long established Sicilian family that lived there.
Coming from the area is one reason I "get" immigration. ~ pinto
By Yadira Betances
November 9, 2013
'Greetings from Pleasant Valley'
Photo exhibit focuses on Italian farms.
METHUEN — Old photographs of Italian immigrants at their farms, family gatherings and dinners have been pulled out of drawers and albums and moved to the walls of Pizza King at the corner of Salem and Loring streets in Lawrence.
“Greetings from Pleasant Valley!” features pictures from the farms belonging to the Terranova and Avarino families taken in the late 1940s and 1950s.
Tom Grassi owner of Image Tech took the 3-by-5 inch photographs and enlarged them without losing any definition.
“I enjoy seeing happiness on people’s faces as they remember childhood visits to their Nonna’s farm in Methuen,” said Christine Lewis, exhibit curator. “My wish was to share those happy thoughts through this pop up exhibit.”
Lewis said she found it fascinating that Methuen’s Pleasant Valley area was transformed from Yankee farms to small weekend gardens by Italian immigrants.
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According to her research, more than 100 years ago mill workers in Lawrence leaped at the chance to buy small plots of fertile land on Pleasant Valley. In 1906 the Italian surnames begin to appear on this area’s land records. By 1909 journalists referred to Pleasant Valley as “Little Italy on the Merrimack.”
http://www.eagletribune.com/latestnews/x1442604350/Greetings-from-Pleasant-Valley