Federico Macaroni, 1000 Chartres

by nolahistoryguy | Aug 22, 2025 | 1900s - 1910s, 1920s-1930s, French Quarter, Sicilians in New Orleans

Sicilian companies like Federico Macaroni created home-grown pasta products.

Federico Macaroni on Chartres Street

Franck Studios photo of the Federico Macaroni manufacturing plant, 1000 Chartres Street, corner St. Philip. The Federicos were one of several Sicilian families operating pasta factories in the Vieux Carré, beginning in the 1890s. The photo is undated, but likely from the early 1920s.

Original Building

This 1917 photo of 1000 Chartres shows the three-story building originally used by the Federicos. Their business grew so much, they demolished this structure in favor of the four-story building still standing.

Unintended Consequences

Sicilian grocers in New Orleans found it easy to import various products from back home in the 1880s and 1890s. Lemons from Sicily were in great demand throughout the latter half of the 19th Century. Simply put, as Professor Nystrom explains, cooks found Sicilian lemons to be of much better quality than those from California.

So, merchant shipping between Sicily and New Orleans increased dramatically. That enabled grocers to ship pasta, meats, cheese, and other products over. While Americans lacked interest in pasta sales, the lemons presented a major problem. Growers like the co-operative that later became SunKist lobbied Congress for relief. The government agreed. The US imposed import tariffs on Italy in the late 1897s. The government worded the tariff language broadly. This raised the price of lemons, but also on pasta. Local Sicilians took this as an opportunity. There really was no particular value to Sicilian-made pasta. New Orleanians in “Little Palermo” duplicated the products from the old country, with great success.

1000 Chartres

The Vieux Carré in the early 1900s was not the “magic” neighborhood it is now. We recognize and respect its importance in the city’s story. The Sicilians had little interest in preserving Colonial New Orleans buildings. The real estate was cheap. Nobody stopped them from tearing down older houses. Up went factories, like the first three-story plant at Chartres and St. Philip. By 1920, the Federicos outgrew that plant. They demolished the building, replacing it with the existing four-story structure.

Fire and re-purposing

Federico Macaroni suffered a major fire at the 1000 Chartres plant in 1927. Fights with insurance companies went to court. The company eventually closed. United Paper Company occupied the building in the wake of the pasta company. Now, the Louisiana State Museum owns the building. It houses artifacts for the various museum properties such as the Cabildo and the Presbytere.

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