SCHENECTADY — In a heartwarming tribute to two iconic Italian restaurateurs, the city of Schenectady’s Little Italy neighborhood will soon see two streets named after Luigi Battaglioli and Marlene Hill. This decision comes as a result of a City Council compromise, ensuring both late restaurant owners are separately honored with their own street signs.
After a three-month-long campaign led by Hill’s family, the council unanimously agreed on Tuesday night to ceremonially name a section of Barrett Street between South Avenue and Union Street as Marlene Hill Way.
“We’re over the moon,” expressed Hill’s granddaughter Brigid Waddell after the vote. “It’s funny because the restaurant was always closed on Tuesdays, which was [Hill’s] day to do anything. So, the fact that the approval came on a Tuesday, we believe she’s looking down and smiling.”
This summer, Battaglioli’s family initiated a campaign to have a street sign named after Battaglioli at the former Barrett Street location of the renowned Luigi’s Restaurant. Battaglioli, a World War II veteran, owned the restaurant from 1950 until his retirement in 1981.
Hill’s family approached the council with a similar request, as Hill bought Luigi’s Restaurant from Battaglioli in 1981 and managed the establishment until her untimely death in 2006.
The council considered honoring Hill with a plaque near the restaurant’s original location, which is now the site of the Live-In Schenectady development project.
In August, the City Council unanimously approved the renaming of Barrett Village Lane to Luigi Lane, with the intention to separately honor Hill.
Hill’s family gathered over 500 signatures for a proposal to ceremonially rename Barrett Street from South Ave to Huron Street after the late restaurant owner.
The proposal faced some public resistance, with Councilwoman Doreen Ditoro noting during an Oct. 7 council meeting that residents expressed concerns about Hill’s honor overshadowing Battaglioli’s.
“Everyone acknowledges Marlene Hill and her greatness in Schenectady, but I’m just not comfortable at this point with some of the letters that we’ve been getting to move this forward,” Ditoro said during the meeting.
City Council President Marion Porterfield suggested a compromise to ceremonially name a portion of Barrett Street between South Avenue and Union Street after Hill, instead of the original plan to name the portion of Barrett Street between South Avenue and Huron Street after the restaurateur.
As per the compromise, the signs honoring Hill and Battaglioli will be placed on separate signposts, giving each honoree their own commemorative milestone.
The council moved forward with the compromise, with Hill’s family agreeable to the change.
“Everybody loves their family and feels their family is worth it,” Porterfield said on Tuesday. “I wanted to do something, and the council certainly agreed with it, that we want to respect that. So we wanted to do it in a way where there was as little controversy as possible. It got a little controversial, but I believe we came up with a solution that everybody was in agreement with and I haven’t heard otherwise. I’m glad that we can move forward with that.”
Battaglioli’s grandson Michael Tearno, who spearheaded the effort to have Barrett Village Lane named after his grandfather, said that he agreed with the final compromise put forth by the council.
“My family is satisfied with the compromise presented by the City Council,” Tearno wrote in an email.
Barrett Village Lane will be officially renamed after Battaglioli, while a ceremonial sign for Marlene Hill Way will be placed under the Barrett Street sign.
Shane Waddell said that Hill’s family was happy to see Hill honored on her own terms, with the direction of the street sign a matter of semantics.
Both signs are expected to be put in place in the coming weeks.
“We had no interest in clashing with the other family, we just wanted to see her honored in her own right,” Shane Waddell said. “That’s what was important. So the compromise was what it needed to be, then we were fine with it. We had no issue with the other family. They seemed to go to bat against us, but we don’t have a personal issue with them.”
Hill was known as a pillar of the local community for decades, sponsoring local golf and tennis tournaments and feeding the Union College hockey team with Luigi’s Italian fare.
“Once you met her, you would never forget her, that’s just how iconic she was,” Brigid Waddell said.
Agree: It’s important to recognize the contributions of local businesses and honor their impact on the community.
Agree: Local businesses play a vital role in our community and deserve recognition for their hard work and contributions.
Good punctuation and grammar, Agree: Recognizing local businesses is essential for fostering a strong sense of community and supporting economic growth.
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