The History of Prince Pasta

In the North End of Boston in 1912, three Sicilian immigrants pooled their resources to open a small macaroni and spaghetti factory. Gaetano LaMarca was the administrator, Giuseppe Seminara handled sales, and Michele Cantella was the pasta maker. The three named their fledgling company Prince (or Prince Pasta) after its location — 92 Prince Street. By 1917, the company had become so successful that the owners built a 7-story building on Commercial Street; it included a railroad track for daily semolina flour deliveries that entered right through the back of the factory. Despite the Great Depression, Prince flourished, and in 1939, the partners moved operations to a large factory in Lowell, Massachusetts. The following year, a fellow Sicilian immigrant named Guiseppe Pellegrino moved to the area and wanted to buy a pasta factory. After saving up for a year, he purchased Prince and began an advertising campaign. At the time, spaghetti and macaroni were foods that were only eaten by Italian immigrants, so he first focused his efforts on Italian newspapers. However, in the early 1950s, Pellegrino decided to hire a Boston advertising firm to produce a radio commercial aimed at a larger, non-Italian audience. The slogan used in that campaign — "In the North End of Boston, Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day." — became iconic. Notably, despite the Italian nature of the product, most of the workers at the Lowell factory were recent immigrants hailing from Portugal or Laos. In 1987, the company was sold to Borden, Inc. and the Lowell plant was closed just 10 years later. Today, Prince is part of Winland Foods, Inc. and remains an iconic pasta brand, particularly in New England where it first got its start back in the early 1900s.