Initially dedicated in 1979 to honor the locally famous Palumbo family who helped many Italian-Americans assume daily life upon immigrating to the city, the Palumbo Recreation Center has since aged and has come to require maintenance. The City of Philadelphia, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Capital Projects Office and the Office of Councilman Mark Squilla teamed up in 2015 to ensure it remains a “clean, safe and ready to use facility.”

Although initially members of the Friends of Palumbo Rec applied for a $10,000 grant to solely focus on the remodeling of the kitchen, upon realizing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania would not award it to them because they did not own the real estate, the members reached out to Squilla, seeing as the City owns the park and rec center. Upon hearing what the park and center-goers had to say, Squilla agreed to use the $10,000 grant to remodel the kitchen, and asked if there was anything else that needed to be done.