It was Mrs. Sargent’s admiration for the Italian work ethic that encouraged Sargent & Co. to recruit Italian men to come to New Haven to work for the hardware manufacturer. When the immigrants arrived in New Haven from Ellis Island, those who were conscripted to work at Sargent, which was located on Water Street in a large multibuilding complex, were generally assigned a place to live on Wooster Street in a rooming house. It was convenient for them to walk to work, and it allowed for single men to save funds in order to bring other family members over to join them.

Not all those who settled in Wooster Square and other neighborhoods in the city had the means to come here as a family. Very often, individuals came here alone and other family members followed. My grandfather Francesco came from Amalfi at the turn of the 20th century with his family — my grandmother, father and his two sisters — to work at Sargent.