Story kiosk location
- Corner of Preston and Gladstone
Important dates
- (1952) – The year the clubhouse of Ottawa St. Anthony Italia Soccer Club was founded, just down the road at Preston and St. Anthony.
Audiofile
- No
Who lived here?
- This area, known as Little Italy, has been home to a large Italian immigrant community since the 1900s.
You are standing next to the "Bambini" sculpture showing a child's view of Italy's most popular sport, soccer.
Photo courtesy of the Italia Soccer Club
St. Anthony’s is one of Ottawa’s oldest and most prestigious soccer clubs, named after the community’s patron saint, St. Anthony of Padua.
Up the hill, you can see St Anthony’s church, a keystone of the Italian community since 1913. One of its striking features is its beautiful artwork, and here you can see an original watercolour sketch by Guido Nincheri of one of the mozaics.
We deliberately chose to place our installation beside the imposing artwork designed by Chantal Gaudet known as Bambini. It captures the excitement and enthusiasm of children watching a soccer game and not only celebrates the passion Italians have for the beautiful game, but family and community that are such a vital part of life in Little Italy.
Acknowledgements
This story was researched and developed by Emily Barsanti-Innes and Kelsey Bodechon as as a contribution to the Workers’ History Museum’s Capital History Kiosk’s project for Ottawa 2017. It formed part of her course work for Professor David Dean’s graduate seminar on museums, national identity, and public memory (Department of History, Carleton University). Emily and Kelsey would like to thank Luciano Pradal for his contribution: “Grazie, les Gemelli”. Our special thanks to the St. Anthony’s Soccer Club for their support, particularly in lending us the photograph from their club premises in Little Italy.