Seven Santini Brothers (also Santini Brothers, Inc.) was a full-service American moving, storage, and relocation company that was founded by seven Italian immigrants. The seven brothers were Pasquale, Pietro, Paride, Rinaldo, Agostino, Goffredo, and Martino, five of whom started the business in 1905, with the last two others joining in 1907. The firm dissolved in 1993.
Pasquale Santini, the eldest of the seven sons of a farmer living in the Tuscan Hills of Italy, decided to join the tide of immigration to America, the land of opportunity. In 1896 he went to America where he got a job with a cousin who was in the moving business. After saving enough money to send for his brother Pietro, and with the two of them working, they were able to send for three more of their brothers. In April 1905, the five brothers decided to start a moving business of their own in the Bronx, New York. By 1907 they amassed sufficient money to send for the two remaining younger brothers. Their inherent honesty, promptness, courtesy, and care in handling of all materials soon earned them a fine reputation which, originally by word of mouth, spread throughout the entire area. [1]
From 1913, the company was located in a building at 607-609 Jackson Avenue. In the mid-1920s Santini acquired the ten-story building at 1405-1417 Jerome Avenue on the corner of 170th Street. This became their main office, while their Jackson Avenue facility became a branch office. An ad for the Seven Santini Bros. from 1935 gives their address as 1405 Jerome Avenue. [2] [3]
In 1935, Pasquale Santini died at the age of 61. His obituary notice in the New York Herald Tribune credited him with founding Santini Brothers. [4] In 1954, Paride Santini, age 75, died. His obituary in The New York Times read:
Paride L. Santini, a member of the firm of Santini Bros., Inc., moving contractors and warehouse owners at 1405 Jerome Avenue, the Bronx, died Thursday in Mount Sinai Hospital after a long illness. His age was 75. Mr. Santini was one of seven brothers who came from the town of Fondagno in Tuscany, Italy. They started the moving and storage warehouse business in 1905 at Westchester and Jackson Avenues, the Bronx. Their initial equipment was a horse and wagon. The business has progressed since that time into one of the best-known companies in this field. Five of the brothers survive. They are Peter, August, Martin, Godfrey and Rinaldo Santini. [5]
Goffredo (Godfrey E.) Santini remained as president and chairman of the board until he died in 1956. [6] [7] [8] Leadership of the firm was then turned over to Martin, who retired in 1964, [9] and then Goffredo's son Godfrey F. Santini. Rinaldo was the last to die in 1980. [10]
Goffredo attributed the success of the Santini organization to "a genuine desire to do a good job, and sincere interest in the customer's problem in a spirit of helpfulness... while we are in business for gain, we always consider profit as secondary importance to a job well done. A satisfied customer will pay dividends in the long run." [11]
Ultimately the Seven Santini Brothers grew into one of the world's largest moving, packing and shipping organizations, with offices and warehousing facilities from coast to coast and in six foreign countries. Their notable clients included the Smithsonian, [12] the Museum of Modern Art, [13] Joseph Hirshhorn, [14] the Estate of American painter Morris Louis, [15] and the Chrysler Museum of Art, [16] and one of their renowned employees was James Lebron, a master art handler and installer. [17]
In 1974, Santini opened industrial packing facilities in Houston and Galveston to service their oil and energy industry clients. In 1981, part of a Bronx park was renamed to Seven Brothers Square, honoring the company. [18]
As economic conditions changed, the Santini family eventually sold the company to another moving and storage company in 1988, whereupon the new owners decided to dismantle and sell the various operations of the company. By 1993, the company was completely dissolved. [19]
Leonard Walter Jerome was an American financier in Brooklyn, New York, and the maternal grandfather of Winston Churchill.
The Bedford Park Boulevard–Lehman College station is a local station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Bedford Park Boulevard immediately west of Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, it is served by the 4 train at all times. It is also the only station on the Jerome Avenue Line north of 170th Street that is not located above Jerome Avenue. This station was constructed by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company as part of the Dual Contracts and opened in 1918.
The Fordham Road station is a local station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Fordham Road and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, it is served by the 4 train at all times. This station was constructed by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company as part of the Dual Contracts and opened in 1917.
The 176th Street station is a local station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 176th Street and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, it is served by the 4 train at all times. This station was constructed by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company as part of the Dual Contracts and opened in 1917.
The 170th Street station is a local station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 170th Street and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, it is served by the 4 train at all times. This station was constructed by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company as part of the Dual Contracts and opened in 1917.
Highbridge is a residential neighborhood geographically located in the central-west section of the Bronx, New York City. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are the Cross-Bronx Expressway to the north, Jerome Avenue to the east, Macombs Dam Bridge to the south, and the Harlem River to the west. Ogden Avenue is the primary thoroughfare through Highbridge.
Bedford Park is a residential neighborhood in the northwest Bronx, New York City, adjacent to the New York Botanical Garden. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Mosholu Parkway to the north, Webster Avenue to the east, East 196th Street to the south, and Jerome Avenue to the west.
The IRT Jerome Avenue Line, also unofficially known as IRT Woodlawn Line, is an A Division New York City Subway line mostly along Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. Originally an Interborough Rapid Transit Company-operated route, it was built as part of the Dual Contracts expansion and opened in 1917 and 1918. It is both elevated and underground, with 161st Street–Yankee Stadium being the southernmost elevated station. The line has three tracks from south of the Woodlawn station to the 138th Street–Grand Concourse station. The Woodlawn Line also has a connection to the Jerome Yard, where 4 trains are stored, just north of the Bedford Park Boulevard–Lehman College station.
Saint Raymond's Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery at 2600 Lafayette Avenue in the Throggs Neck and Schuylerville sections of the Bronx, New York City, United States. The cemetery is composed of two separate locations: the older section, and the newer section, both east of the Hutchinson River Parkway. The Bronx–Whitestone Bridge is located adjacent to the cemetery's newer section, while the neighboring Throgs Neck Bridge can be seen from a distance.
Jerome Bailey York, commonly known as Jerry York, was an American businessman, and the chairman, president and CEO of Harwinton Capital. He was the former CFO of IBM and Chrysler, and was CEO of Micro Warehouse. He was a chief aide to Kirk Kerkorian and his Tracinda investment company. In February 2006, Kerkorian helped elect York to the board of directors of General Motors, from which he had previously resigned.
Morris Heights is a residential neighborhood located in the West Bronx. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: West Burnside Avenue to the north, Jerome Avenue to the east, the Cross-Bronx Expressway to the south, and the Harlem River to the west. University Avenue is the primary thoroughfare through Morris Heights.
The Bronx Lyceum was a building in the Bronx, New York City erected on the southeast corner of Third Avenue and 170th Street by Henry Zeltner in 1870 across the street from his brewery. The structure was at first known as Zeltner's Hall and was surrounded by a picnic park. Following the sale of the entertainment and meeting hall by the Zeltner family, the property was called Niblo's Garden, a familiar name borrowed from an early New York opera house on Broadway, near Prince Street that was razed in 1895. The building was used as a meeting hall by politicians and union members, and served variously as an entertainment hall, skating venue, and amusement park until its destruction by fire in 1929.
Jerome Avenue is one of the longest thoroughfares in the New York City borough of the Bronx, New York, United States. The road is 5.6 miles (9.0 km) long and stretches from Concourse to Woodlawn. Both of these termini are with the Major Deegan Expressway which runs parallel to the west. Most of the elevated IRT Jerome Avenue Line runs along Jerome Avenue. The Cross Bronx Expressway interchanges with Jerome and the Deegan. Though it runs through what is now the West Bronx neighborhood, Jerome Avenue is the dividing avenue between nominal and some named "West" and "East" streets in the Bronx; Fifth Avenue, and to a lesser extent, Broadway, also splits Manhattan into nominal "West" and "East" streets.
Tim Rollins was an American artist who together with the art collaborative K.O.S. formed the art-group Tim Rollins and K.O.S.
Jerome A. Chazen was an American businessman who was the founder and chairman of Chazen Capital Partners. He was also one of four and last surviving founders of Liz Claiborne.
The Church of St. Jerome is a Roman Catholic parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 230 Alexander Avenue, Mott Haven, Bronx, New York City.
Morris Mohr was an American lawyer and politician from New York.
Bernard C. McDonnell was an American lawyer and politician from New York.
Rinaldo Paluzzi was an American-Spanish Abstract Art and Geometric abstraction painter and sculptor in the post-World War II era. He was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and died in Madrid, Spain.
The Riverside Memorial Chapel is an American Jewish funeral home chain with their main facility at 180 West 76th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. The company has been owned by Service Corporation International since 1971.