Like so many other Chicago-area Italian Americans, Ron Onesti traces his stateside roots to the legendary Taylor Street Little Italy on the city’s Near West Side. His father’s parents settled there when they arrived from Italy, his father grew up and made lasting memories there, and Onesti was born in the neighborhood and went to school at St. Callistus until the third grade.

As a result, Onesti has long harbored a dream to create a museum celebrating the countless Italian immigrants who risked so much to start a new life in America, and to locate that museum within the epicenter of their arrival in the Windy City. That dream will soon be a reality as Onesti gears up to open the Chicago Museum of Italian Immigration at 1501 W. Taylor St.