Correspondent photo / Susan Wojnar “Tootsie,” wife of the founder of The Brier Hill Festival, Dominic Modarelli, reflects on Brier Hill with family friend, “Sambo.” Nicknames are a part of the Brier Hill culture.

YOUNGSTOWN — Dina Modarelli, native Brier Hill resident and daughter of Dominic “Dee Dee” Modarelli, founder of the Brier Hill Festival, said, “It’s really about family and neighbors. My father’s dream was to create an event that would bring all the families and neighbors back to the Brier Hill to re-unite through food, music, bocce, wine and camaraderie.”

This past weekend’s festival was the 33rd gathering.

“He wanted everyone to come back and relive the days of their youth and remember the vital parts of their heritage,” Dina Modarelli said.

She operates the ITAM Club Post 12 bar at the corner of Calvin and Victoria streets in Brier Hill. Her father, Dominic, bought the bar 42 years ago. It was previously named Kayos’s Bar.

She showed off the Italian War Memorial, across the street from the ITAM, that her father — first generation son of immigrants from Italy — erected to honor Brier Hill war veterans. Her father was skilled in brick laying and masonry and did all the work on the memorial by hand. Friends and neighbors would pitch in on the weekends. He later would build a pavilion and bocce courts to provide shelter and a means of connecting for those coming to the festival. Modarelli makes sure the memorial and surrounding gardens stay pristine.

“My father loved gardening as did most of our friends and neighbors from Brier Hill. Everyone had a beautiful garden,” she said.

Brier Hill is the city’s first Italian settlement on the lower North Side, near the site of the former Brier Hill Steel Company, which was bought by Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. in 1923.

The neighborhood was originally owned by industrialist George Tod, who farmed the brier-covered hills in 1801. He named his farm Brier Hill.

The area around the farm began to attract immigrant workers, mostly Welsh, Irish, Germans, African-Americans and IItalians. They came first to work in the nearby iron ore mines and later for the steel and iron works once the first blast furnace was built by the Tod family in 1847.

The area is relatively isolated from the city of Youngstown and so established its own school, churches and post office. Though several other districts in the Youngstown area have thriving Italian populations, such as Lowellville, the near East Side, Smoky Hollow and Struthers, Brier Hill is generally regarded as Youngstown’s “Little Italy.”

One of the festival’s most popular food items is Brier Hill pizza. This homestyle pizza, made with “Sunday Sauce,” bell peppers and Romano cheese, has its origins with the homemakers of the early neighborhood.

Also popular and special to the neighborhood is “Wine and Peaches,” which is homemade wine that has been infused with locally grown peaches.

Nancy Modarelli, festival goer and native of Brier Hill said, “Everyone had fruit trees when I was growing up. Fig, pears, peaches, apples. Many of the residents made their own wine.”

The festival celebrates this with a homemade wine competition each year.

Nancy Modarelli went to school at St. Anthony of Padua in Brier Hill with her sister, Kathy Pompoco. St. Anthony’s is a vital part of the neighborhood, and their volunteer pizza makers take orders for Brier Hill pizza every week with pickups every Friday. There is a procession from the festival to the church to receive a blessing at the close of each festival. Pompoco married her husband, Jack Pompano, at the church.

The sisters stated that their grandparents immigrated to Brier Hill from Italy. Kathy noted the camaraderie everyone from the neighborhood had.

“Everyone knew each other and helped each other,” she said.

Her favorite food memory of the old neighborhood is homemade sausage from Romanio’s Market in Brier Hill.

Patricia A Barbone and husband Ronald Barbone said their parents grew up in Brier Hill and they come every year to soak up the Italian heritage.

Seated together on a memorial bench for Dominic Modarelli in front of the ITAM was Modarelli’s wife “Tootsie,” and family friend “Sambo.” They only wished to be known by their nicknames and joked about how everyone from the old neighborhood was given one. Sambo recalled playing in the gardens when growing up and the homemade wine his parents made. He spoke about how many of his friends and family from the neighborhood were gone, but he joked, “I run the place now.” Tootsie did not grow up in the neighborhood, but learned about it through her husband’s memories.

Working the door at the ITAM was lifelong resident of Brier Hill, Renee Olesky. Of German and Polish descent, she noted the diversity of the area.

“We had every type of person living in the neighborhood,” she said.

She grew to love Italian cuisine and fondly remembers the smell of the tomatoes cooking for “Sunday Sauce,” every Sunday morning, wafting through the neighborhood. She also commented on the neighborhood’s fondness for nicknames. “They dubbed me ‘The Godmother,'” she said with a chuckle.