A retired lawyer from Sault Ste. Marie celebrates the working-class neighborhood in which he grew up with a new book, The West End: a magical place created by giants.

At the turn of the 20th century, Sault Ste. Marie’s West End was home to many European immigrants who came to Canada in search of a better life.

Frank Sarlo’s grandfather originally emigrated to Chicago from Italy, but ended up in Sault Ste. Marie with the promise of work on the railway.

“He came to this area and then ended up working at the paper mill and worked there for the rest of his life,” Sarlo said.

When his grandfather first settled in the West End neighborhood of Sault, his family was still in Europe.

“When he saved enough, he brought his wife, my father and another child,” he said.

“My grandmother and two young children came 11 days by boat, then three days through the forests of northern Ontario to arrive in Sault Ste. Marie.”

At first, Sarlo said, there wasn’t enough housing available for all the newcomers looking for work, so many of them lived in tents.

“They had to go through squalid conditions when they got here,” he said.

Sarlo said Algoma Steel, the city’s largest employer, eventually built boarding houses for its workers.

He recalled that the West End was a small area, just over a square mile, but many of the descendants of these workers went on to have successful careers as lawyers, doctors, business owners businesses and educators.

Sarlo remembers being outside “from morning to night” as a child.

“And sports was our life,” he said.

Famous names from the West End

The West End has produced a large number of professional athletes, relative to its small size.

NHL players include Tony and Phil Esposito, who both grew up in the neighborhood, as well as Lou Nanne, Gene Ubriaco and Don Grosso.

On November 14, Sarlo is hosting an event at the Marconi Multicultural Event Center in Sault Ste. Marie to celebrate the West End.

Ubriaco will come from Chicago to be a keynote speaker, and the event will serve as a fundraiser for Sault Ste. Trust fund for Marie Group Health Center.