Angiolina Cella and her fortune as emigrant in New York in early 20th century
- Mandilli de Saea
- 9 hours ago
- 7 min read
Her name was Angela, known as Angiolina. She was born in a small mountain village called Santo Stefano d’Aveto, in the high Aveto Valley in the province of Genoa, in the 70es of the 19th century. Angiolina was pour and illiterate, as most of the population of her native area, when, at just 16 years of age, she married Giovanni Cella from the same vilage.
Both peasants and vegetable growers, they decided to follow the invitation of an acquaintance named Agostino Garibaldi, who had already emigrated to New York over two years earlier. Agostino urged them to take courage and join him, because he had his own store where he sold household items and food, but it was difficult to get fresh vegetables because there were few growers and demand outstripped supply. Angiolina and her young husband didn't have enough money to live on, because seeds were too expensive, but significant demand came only from the Genoa market, and there, competition was fierce. A life of hardship was the driving force that pushed them to decide to migrate to New York. It was in the late 80es of the 19 century, and Angiolina was only 17 years old.
Their families trusted them with their decision and with big sacrifice provided them with the money to pay for the voyage, as well as enough to live on for a year once they settled in New York.
They left Italy from the port of Genoa on one of the new motor-powered ocean liners; the journey took about 30 days, and another 10 or so for medical checks and the requirements they underwent at the immigration control center on Ellis Island.
Angiolina and Giovanni, being so young, lived for a while at Agostino Garibaldi's house. Following his instructions, they chose a first plot of farmland. This land was in the center of New York, where today you'll find Times Square, Broadway, and the Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue, close to Central Park in Manhattan. In 1887 and 1888, downtown New York was very different: small manufacturing companies, artisans, and plenty of free space, unused land available for low-cost acquisition.
They began growing the vegetables most in demand by wealthy families. They soon settled on the same land with a two-door store. Their business grew rapidly, and by 1929 the store had expanded to seven entrances. Angiolina arrived illiterate, but she had the skills of an entrepreneur and therefore knew how to generate excellent margins.
Angiolina Cella had three children. She was widowed in 1925. Giovanni Cella died of pneumonia.
And here begins the second part of this incredible story. Angiolina didn't know of Rockefeller Junior's existence; but Rockefeller Junior was aware of this Italian-American store and its lady owner. His bank had purchased all the land and assets where the 19 office buildings now stand, in what, at that time, was then the largest real estate complex in the United States, on Fifth Avenue. Rockefeller's dream was to give a boost to the American dream, creating a lasting positive trend. This dream, which was quickly realized, was missing one piece, the most important for Rockefeller J, the theater he had already named Radio City.
For Rockefeller, Radio City was meant to represent, and for future generations as well, the beating heart of American artistic culture. His vision was correct. The greatest artists of music, dance, and drama have performed in this theater then. Even today, the end-of-year shows are sold out as early as September.
Angiolina and her children were thrilled that skyscrapers were being built around their store. They simly thought was that they would increase their clientele.
But that wasn't the case.
One afternoon, an elegant gentleman in a dark formal suit entered their store. He wasn't a customer, he was a lawyer. He introduced himself directly to Angiolina and handed her a folder full of papers, with the recommendation that she read its contents; he would return the next day to ask her opinion.
Angiolina pointed out that she was very busy and wouldn't guarantee the reading for the following day. The envelope contained a purchase offer for the store, proposed by Rockefeller Junior's real estate company. Obviously, the proposed price was very attractive.
Angiolina, intrigued, read the contents and realized that the proposer's goal was not to take over the business, but to rid the neighborhood of his store—a business that had supported and represented, and still did, all her and her children's entire life. Accepting the offer was unthinkable.
Thus began a series of increasingly substantial purchase offers, all rejected. Having reached a limit beyond which even the real estate company's top executive couldn't go, he, during a visit to the store, asked Angiolina the real reason why she was refusing even a very high offer. The answer was that as a young girl, she was forced to live in suffering and even eating grass to survive. And her concern was for her three children who, with the business in operation for 39 years, would be able to live a comfortable life for many years to come.
Rockefeller was briefed in detail.
The new Radio City theater was Rockefeller Junior's final and most important dream. Construction was supposed to be carried out in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera; but following the stock market crash of 1929, the Metropolitan withdrew from the project. Rockefeller remained the only investor, and time was running out. In December 1929, he decided to confront Angiolina Cella personally. He showed up in Angiolina's store with the top administrator, whom Angiolina had already met. He explained his dream to Angiolina, in his most heartfelt tones, saying that this dream required a sacrifice from her; a sacrifice well rewarded. At the end of his speech, Rockefeller Junior took a book of checks from his inside jacket pocket. He opened it and signed only the first one at the top. He handed it to Angiolina with a pen, inviting her to write down the amount of her dreams. Angiolina wrote the amount: two million dollars. She wrote it thinking to get the bidder out of her way, once and for all. Rockefeller Junior agreed and, to Angiolina's great astonishment, he had the purchase and sale agreement drawn up.
Angiolina closed her business at the end of the month; it was Christmas 1929. Her property remained intact until May 1930, when bulldozers demolished it to lay the first foundations for Radio City Music Hall. The new structure began operations on December 27, 1932. It had a seating capacity of approximately 6,000 seats.
What was Angiolina Cella's life like after the sensational sale? It was a life always in the heat. She spent long periods in South America and just as many in Italy during the hot summer sun. He went to Heaven after a heart attack in 1935.
Nothing is known about his three children and their families. They certainly had no problems surviving.
This aerial view shows the site of the projected Rockefeller Center in New York, prior to the beginning of demolition works, in June 1930. Two hundred and twenty-nine brownstone buildings are to be demolished in a three block area, stretching from West 48th Street to West 51st Street, and between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, to make way for the $250,000,000 commercial and cultural complex in the heart of New York City.
In 1928 John D. Rockefeller leases land from Columbia University for the future site of Rockefeller Center. The land covered nearly all of the area in the three square blocks bordered by Fifth Avenue, the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), and 48th and 51st Streets.
Rockefeller’s original vision was to create a commercial office building community and a new home for the Metropolitan Opera Company. The stock market crash of 1929 thwarted these plans however, as investors withdrew from the project. A determined Rockefeller chose to move forward with the project, opting to create an exclusively commercial business complex.
Aerial view of the demolition prior to construction of Rockefeller Center, August 1931. The area west of 5th Avenue was considered poor to working class, and Rockefeller saw his project as urban renewal. The two well-known holdouts, the townhouses at 1240 & 1258 6th Ave, are visible in the center of the picture along 6th Ave. Hurley's on 49th St had been a bar since 1897, and was at the time of the photo a speakeasy (there were many in the area).
Nowadays considerations over the destruction of that area of Manhattan give the following version of the story: "It wasn’t urban renewal, it was wholesale removal of a poor community that didn’t have a strong enough voice, enough connections and enough money to stand up for their rights or grease the right palms. Still happening today all over the five boroughs.
As a proof of what also Angiolina went through, this is an esplicative link:
Construction begins on America's largest privately owned business and entertainment complex of the pre-war period. Throughout the Depression, the construction of the center provided jobs for tens of thousands of laborers and helped boost the building industry in New York City. Construction of Rockefeller Center began in 1931 & the first buildings opened in 1933. The fourteen original buildings and their accompanying attractions were completed in 1940.
Center Theatre opens in 1932. Originally called the RKO Roxy Theatre when it opened, the Center Theatre featured both live stage shows and screened films. During the height of its popularity in the 1940s, its understated Art Deco–inspired design stood in stark contrast to the lavish Radio City Music Hall nearby. It is the only building from the original Rockefeller Center plan that has been torn down.
Opening night at Radio City Music Hall. Originally intended for vaudeville-style shows, these proved to be a failure in the cavernous 6,000 seat hall. Within a year, Radio City Music Hall became a movie house, with films presented with stage shows, including a performance by a group of female dancers, The Rockettes, who, along with the annual Christmas Spectacular, have been the most popular attraction at the hall ever since.
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