A Sad Event for One AMHS Family in D.C.’s Italian History

By Joseph “Sonny” Scafetta, Jr.

AMHS Secretary Sonny Scafetta’s uncle Antonio tragically lost his life in an industrial accident in Washington, D.C.

The May 17 talk on the history of the Italian community in Washington, D.C., brought sad memories for Secretary Sonny Scafetta whose family suffered a tragic loss in the city.

Antonio Scafetta was born in the community of Pollutri in the province of Chieti in the region of Abruzzo on July 25, 1889.  He was the first of nine children born to Filippo Scafetta (1862-1944) and Angela Vittoria Crugnale Scafetta (1870-1951).  In 1902, his parents purchased a farm on the northern outskirts of the city of Vasto along the coast of the Adriatic Sea.  When he was 18, Antonio traveled to Naples where he boarded the S.S. Nord America.  The ship arrived at Ellis Island in the New York city harbor on October 19, 1907.

He then traveled by train to Union Station in Washington where he boarded with Francesco Tana, a native of Vasto, and his family.  Tana, who had lost a foot in a train accident and was now running a grocery store with his wife, was able to obtain for Antonio a job as a porter at Union Station with the Washington Railroad Terminal Co.  When his younger brother, Michele Scafetta (1891-1971), arrived in 1909, Antonio and Michele rented a flat together at 238 Quincy Place, N.E. in Washington.

In 1910, Antonio quit his job for a higher paying but dangerous position with the Washington Trolley Line Co.  He was assigned to work in a pit changing electric switches under trolleys on T Street between Third and Fourth Streets in northeast Washington.  Outside the city, each trolley derived power from a “shoe” that was pushed along a central live third rail between the two outside rails for the wheels of the car.  Upon reaching the edge of the city, each car stopped over a pit in which a man switched power from the shoe to an overhead electric line.    On June 12, 1911, there was a heavy rain storm which filled the pit with about six inches of water.  There was no drain and no electric light in the pit.  Antonio was tall, over six feet, and was wearing rubber boots because of the accumulated water.  When he climbed down a ladder into the pit that evening, he apparently did not notice that the electric power line was sagging down.  Consequently, he walked into it, and the line hit his forehead, shocking him and causing him to fall down.  When he fell, his arm flayed out and touched the 550-volt live third rail.  He died instantly.

The circumstances surrounding his death made page one of the Washington Post newspaper the next day under the headline “Volts Kill A Pit Man” and on page 2 of the rival Evening Herald.  His funeral was held on June 14, 1911, at St. Mary, Mother of God, Roman Catholic Church, 727 Fifth Street, N.W. in Washington.  He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, established in 1857 at 1300 Bladensburg Road, N.W.  His burial plot is located in Section 49, Line 33, Site 18.  A simple, flat, plain granite stone marks his plot.

The 22-year old was recently married and left an infant son, Antonio Jr.  After Antonio's death,  his widow took their infant and returned to her family in the city of Formia in the region of Lazio.  Antonio Jr. eventually married and had a son Stefano who came to work in Washington as a conservator for the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1974. Stefano gave a well received presentation on art conservation to the AMHS in 2025.

Because Antonio’s death was ruled by the deputy coroner to be caused by his own negligence in not seeing the low-hanging electric line, his widow was not awarded any workman's compensation.  Later, the Washington Trolley Line installed drains and electric lights in the pits.

In 1912, Antonio’s brother Nicola (1893-1979) immigrated to Washington to live with Michele, and another brother Giuseppe (1896-1975) came in April 1915 before Italy got involved in World War I in May of that year.  Michele then returned to Vasto to join the Italian Army which made him an interpreter for the British Army.  Nicola returned to Vasto in 1932 after he lost his job as an electrician during the Great Depression.  Only Giuseppe remained for the rest of his life in Washington.  He became a real estate salesman.  He had a son Joseph Jr. (currently the AMHS Secretary) who became a lawyer. Sadly, tragedy haunted this branch of the Scafetta family as well. A second son, David Paul, who was a life insurance salesman, was murdered by three robbers in Philadelphia in 2004. A third son, Michael, died from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) when he was three months old.

Summer 2026