Editing Italian Americans (section)

=== Denver ===
Large numbers of Italians first came to Colorado in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some settled in industrial [[Pueblo, Colorado|Pueblo]] or in [[Welby, Colorado|Welby]], which was then a farming community, but the largest Italian community in twentieth century Colorado was in [[North West Side (Denver)|Northwest Denver]], or as it was known at the time, "the North Side" or "North Denver."<ref name="Wiberg, Ruth Eloise. 1995">{{Cite book|last=Wiberg, Ruth Eloise.|title=Rediscovering Northwest Denver: its history, its people, its landmarks|date=1995|publisher=University Press of Colorado|isbn=0-585-03049-9|location=Niwot, CO|oclc=42329582}}</ref>

Italians first put down roots there because St. Patrick's Catholic Church, a largely Irish-descended congregation, already existed in the neighborhood. In 1894, the Italian community on the North Side formed its own Catholic church called Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.<ref name="Wiberg, Ruth Eloise. 1995"/> The community remained strong through the early twentieth century, but in the decades after World War II, many Italian-Americans left Denver proper. Today,  descendants of the old North Side Italian-American community are spread across [[Denver metropolitan area|metro Denver]], particularly in its inner northwestern suburbs like [[Wheat Ridge, Colorado|Wheat Ridge]], [[Westminster, Colorado|Westminster]] and [[Arvada, Colorado|Arvada]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Honors Thesis: Community and Transit in Northwest Denver|url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/honors-thesis-community-transit-northwest-denver-noah-zucker|access-date=December 10, 2020|website=www.linkedin.com|language=en}}</ref>

Reminders of the old Italian community in Northwest Denver are few and far between today. Many of the remaining landmarks are on 38th Avenue. One is Gaetano's, a storied Italian American eatery on 38th Avenue and Tejon Street once owned by the [[Denver crime family|Smaldone family]], which was involved in bootlegging in Denver.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Boyle|first=Grace|date=August 28, 2013|title=Gaetano's Celebrating Its Rebirth and Paying Homage to the Smaldones After More than 60 Years|url=https://denver.eater.com/2013/8/28/6382069/gaetanos-celebrating-its-rebirth-and-paying-homage-to-the-smaldones|access-date=December 10, 2020|website=Eater Denver|language=en}}</ref> Many members of the Italian-American community in Northwest Denver could trace their roots to [[Potenza]], a comune in [[Basilicata]]. A fraternal organization called the Potenza Lodge was founded in 1899 and still exists today on the corner of Shoshone Street and 38th Avenue.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Potenza Lodge|url=http://www.potenzalodge.com/index.html|access-date=December 10, 2020|website=www.potenzalodge.com}}</ref>