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Nicoletti’s Market: Anchor of Bygone Italian Neighborhood in New Canaan
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To most New Canaanites, the municipal parking lot on Locust Avenue is no more than just that—a convenient, slightly off-the-beaten-path place to park when shopping or dining in downtown New Canaan. Its only notoriety in recent years has been as the subject of debate over plans for a tiered parking deck and also its proximity to the site of the planned new Post Office. Even so, for generations of New Canaan residents, the parking lot was once the site of a bustling, tight-knit neighborhood. Small wood-shingled houses and ramshackle multi-family dwellings dotted the property that was affectionately coined “Guinea Alley” by its own residents due to the large contingent of Italian families who lived there. The Locust Avenue neighborhood—wonderfully described by Mario “Ben” Benedetto in his book “The Old Neighborhood,” published by the New Canaan Historical Society—was a snapshot of multi-cultural America at its best.