The area, also called the River Street Historic District, was the city’s first Italian immigrant neighborhood. The Little Italy San Jose group, founded in 2010, raised the gateway arch on March 27, 2015, restored a 1910 house as a cultural center and museum, and has held an Italian festival every October since 2016.
Visit San Jose notes that Henry’s Hi-Life occupies the old Torino Hotel, where Italian farmworkers once lodged.