21 replies to this topic

[mcheiss]

I thought I would make a thread devoted to Tontitown, since it is an interesting town with a rich Italian heritage.

My first post is about a new shopping center coming to Tontitown. It's suppose to be coming to the intersection of Arkansas 112 and U.S. 412, behind Mary Maestri's restaurant. Lo and behold, this will be an italian themed shopping center that will be between 40,000 SF and 50,000 SF. There also are six outparcels planned to border both highways that the developer will either sell or build-to-suit.

[mcheiss]

Forgot to post, but Wal-Mart is also looking at ground in Tontitown for a Neighborhood Market at the same intersection of Arkansas 112 and U.S. 412.

[masons_dad1]

^
Good news for Tontitown! It's a rather boring little town and it's about time there's some new developments heading their way. With the loss of, first, Hanna's Candle Factory Outlet and then the Grapevine Mall, things were not looking too good for "Tinytown."  

[Mith242]

Yeah I'd like to see Tontitown being able to do something that will also help it hold on to it's heritage.  There's the Tonitown Grape Festival obviously that's a pretty large event.  I think the Italian language has pretty much already died out there.  I just hope it doesn't end up as just a bedroom community to Springdale and the rest of the area.

[edensfall]

Mith242, on Oct 21 2006, 07:00 AM, said:

Yeah I'd like to see Tontitown being able to do something that will also help it hold on to it's heritage.  There's the Tonitown Grape Festival obviously that's a pretty large event.  I think the Italian language has pretty much already died out there.  I just hope it doesn't end up as just a bedroom community to Springdale and the rest of the area.

As far as language, thats only half true, not some much the kids, but alot of adults and my grandparents speak it alot, my brother speaks even more than i do, but we are all very proud of our heritage.

[Mith242]

edensfall, on Oct 22 2006, 05:03 AM, said:

As far as language, thats only half true, not some much the kids, but alot of adults and my grandparents speak it alot, my brother speaks even more than i do, but we are all very proud of our heritage.

That's interesting to hear.  I thought the older people still might speak some but I didn't think it probably went any further than that.  Is it ever spoken outside the home?  I'm also curious if you might be able to answer a question for me.  Do you have any idea what part of Italy the original settlers came from?

[masons_dad1]

edensfall, on Oct 22 2006, 05:03 AM, said:

As far as language, thats only half true, not some much the kids, but alot of adults and my grandparents speak it alot, my brother speaks even more than i do, but we are all very proud of our heritage.

Would you want to see Tontitown become an Italian themed attraction like some people suggest? The Grape Festival is great, but would you really want everything in Tontitown to become an imitation of the real Italy?

[Mith242]

masons_dad1, on Oct 22 2006, 10:39 AM, said:

Would you want to see Tontitown become an Italian themed attraction like some people suggest? The Grape Festival is great, but would you really want everything in Tontitown to become an imitation of the real Italy?

I know that's not really what I had in mind.  But I also don't want it to simply become just another bedroom community and it loses all it's Italian heritage either.

[masons_dad1]

Mith242, on Oct 22 2006, 12:33 PM, said:

I know that's not really what I had in mind.  But I also don't want it to simply become just another bedroom community and it loses all it's Italian heritage either.

Dunedin, Florida is a Scottish community, but except for a few Scottish-style businesses and restaurants you'd never know it. Dunedin holds the Scottish Games once a year which is a celebration of their towns heritage. Other than that the town really is just a bedroom community to Clearwater, Florida. Dunedin never lost it's cultural heritage much the way Tontitown hasn't. I think if Tontitown grows too much it could definitely just become another small town with little heritage to speak of.

[mcheiss]

There's a few Irish and German cities out in Texas that really celebrate their heritage. Mitchell, Texas is one that seems to pop in my head. I drove through that city once, and it seemed that every business was an irish one.

[edensfall]

Mith242, on Oct 22 2006, 06:45 AM, said:

That's interesting to hear.  I thought the older people still might speak some but I didn't think it probably went any further than that.  Is it ever spoken outside the home?  I'm also curious if you might be able to answer a question for me.  Do you have any idea what part of Italy the original settlers came from?

Out side the home yes, atleast amongst the elderly. Most of my family is from the southern part of Italy around what you would call the "tip of the boot" and around Sicily in the Messina province.

[masons_dad1]

mcheiss, on Oct 23 2006, 12:51 AM, said:

There's a few Irish and German cities out in Texas that really celebrate their heritage. Mitchell, Texas is one that seems to pop in my head. I drove through that city once, and it seemed that every business was an irish one.

That's cool. I think Tontitown could do something like that without a bunch of national chains popping up everywhere. The new Italian themed strip mall sounds like it will be nice as long as it's not full of non-Italian businesses. Tontitown might also need to create some more revenue building events like the Grape Festival in order to promote more Italian owned businesses.

[edensfall]

masons_dad1, on Oct 22 2006, 10:39 AM, said:

Would you want to see Tontitown become an Italian themed attraction like some people suggest? The Grape Festival is great, but would you really want everything in Tontitown to become an imitation of the real Italy?

Not necessarily, nothing could ever replicate our home country. And I'm sure every one knows that Olive Garden isn't  authentic Italian cuisine, but I want to see more family owned restaurants out here, and a farmers market, offering home made wine, we have several vineyards out here, I just mainly want to keep the culture alive, not some much an attraction, but a distinct, rare Italian vibe in NWA. I dont know how many of you have ever been to the Tontitown Park but we have a nice Boche court, that is a very very old Italian game. Every day at noon about 12-15 middle aged to elderly men and some times children meet up at the park and play for quarters. It's a very fun and challenging game. Wal-Mart actually sells Boche sets in Springdale, but thats the only place i know of that sells them around here, well besides the flea markets. Oh that reminds me, we deffinately have a ton of flea markets here, but most of them are pretty nice, i want to see some more out here. In two years i plan to run for city council, right now they are trying to re-evaluate the current building codes, hopefully we can get something figured out so we can get rid of all those nasty looking sheet metal facades on the older buildings.

[masons_dad1]

edensfall, on Oct 23 2006, 01:26 AM, said:

Not necessarily, nothing could ever replicate our home country. And I'm sure every one knows that Olive Garden isn't  authentic Italian cuisine, but I want to see more family owned restaurants out here, and a farmers market, offering home made wine, we have several vineyards out here, I just mainly want to keep the culture alive, not some much an attraction, but a distinct, rare Italian vibe in NWA. I dont know how many of you have ever been to the Tontitown Park but we have a nice Boche court, that is a very very old Italian game. Every day at noon about 12-15 middle aged to elderly men and some times children meet up at the park and play for quarters. It's a very fun and challenging game. Wal-Mart actually sells Boche sets in Springdale, but thats the only place i know of that sells them around here, well besides the flea markets. Oh that reminds me, we deffinately have a ton of flea markets here, but most of them are pretty nice, i want to see some more out here. In two years i plan to run for city council, right now they are trying to re-evaluate the current building codes, hopefully we can get something figured out so we can get rid of all those nasty looking sheet metal facades on the older buildings.

More family-owned businesses would be good... more national chains would be bad. I've heard of Boche, but I've never played it. Good luck running for city council. This area needs more young, open-minded people helping to make decisions.

[Mith242]

mcheiss, on Oct 23 2006, 12:51 AM, said:

There's a few Irish and German cities out in Texas that really celebrate their heritage. Mitchell, Texas is one that seems to pop in my head. I drove through that city once, and it seemed that every business was an irish one.

Yeah down in the Texas Hill Country there's a number of German towns.  It seems the German heritage held out there a lot better than say Stuttgart Arkansas.  But at least it still exists.  There were a number of German settlements in Arkansas.  There was a Hermannsburg in Washington County near the Benton County line but it died out long ago.

[Mith242]

edensfall, on Oct 23 2006, 01:12 AM, said:

Out side the home yes, atleast amongst the elderly. Most of my family is from the southern part of Italy around what you would call the "tip of the boot" and around Sicily in the Messina province.

Interesting, granted I don't go to Tontitown that often but I had never heard Italian spoken.  But it's nice to hear that people still speak it there.  I guess I should have guessed that Tontitown was settled by immigrants from the south part of the country.  It seems that almost all immigrants were from that region.

edensfall, on Oct 23 2006, 01:26 AM, said:

Not necessarily, nothing could ever replicate our home country. And I'm sure every one knows that Olive Garden isn't  authentic Italian cuisine, but I want to see more family owned restaurants out here, and a farmers market, offering home made wine, we have several vineyards out here, I just mainly want to keep the culture alive, not some much an attraction, but a distinct, rare Italian vibe in NWA. I dont know how many of you have ever been to the Tontitown Park but we have a nice Boche court, that is a very very old Italian game. Every day at noon about 12-15 middle aged to elderly men and some times children meet up at the park and play for quarters. It's a very fun and challenging game. Wal-Mart actually sells Boche sets in Springdale, but thats the only place i know of that sells them around here, well besides the flea markets. Oh that reminds me, we deffinately have a ton of flea markets here, but most of them are pretty nice, i want to see some more out here. In two years i plan to run for city council, right now they are trying to re-evaluate the current building codes, hopefully we can get something figured out so we can get rid of all those nasty looking sheet metal facades on the older buildings.

I know grapes had been a big part of that area.  Although for a while it was mainly concord grapes used for juice.  I had wondered if anyone grew wine grapes.  I know officially there aren't any vinyards in this part of the state.

[edensfall]

Pianalto Farm's has two grape vinyards, half of one is used for wine production. As for Italian immigrants, Northern Italy, or "The Alps" are mainly settled by very very wealthy people, so there is no need to move. Southern Italy is a bix mixture of the two social classes. In Italy your either realy rich, or realy poor, there is no middle class there.

[Mith242]

edensfall, on Oct 23 2006, 06:43 AM, said:

Pianalto Farm's has two grape vinyards, half of one is used for wine production. As for Italian immigrants, Northern Italy, or "The Alps" are mainly settled by very very wealthy people, so there is no need to move. Southern Italy is a bix mixture of the two social classes. In Italy your either realy rich, or realy poor, there is no middle class there.

Can I assume the wine production is just for themselves?  I don't recall ever seeing any for sale by them.

[Mith242]

The 109th annual Grape festival starts today.  I was curious, has there been a festival every year.  I have heard other festivals claiming to be the longest running festival in the South and so on.  I wasn't sure if these are just idle claims, or perhaps the Grape Festival has missed some years.  Maybe some don't consider NWA the 'South' or something.

[Mith242]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, there will be a few grapes there.  Sounds like one grape variety, the Fredonia, survived the harsh frost earlier in the Spring.