The Greening of Bergen County, New Jersey and One Italian-American Family’s Success in America

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 27, 2009 -- "The Greening of Bergen County, New Jersey and
One Italian-American Family’s Success in America"

Maywood, New Jersey, February 25, 2009 ― Maine Evergreen Nursery, Inc., a prominent wholesale nursery business in New Jersey announced the publication of Leaving Santa Croce: The History of Maine Evergreen Nursery and the Costa Family in America, 1901-2008 on Wednesday, February 25. Maine Evergreen Nursery was founded in 1963 by Carmen Costa, son on Salvatore “Sam” Costa, the first member of the Costa family to immigrate to America in 1901 from Sicily.

Russell P. Trocano, Esq., general manager of Maine Evergreen and the great-grandson of Salvatore Costa, introduced the book to “green industry” landscapers and garden center owners at a nursery trade show being held in New Jersey.

Said Trocano, “Our family oversees the fourth generation of businesses that we have established in this region. From the 1910s until the 1960s, we owned one of the largest grocery marts in Hackensack. Since 1963, our family and Maine Evergreen employees have been responsible for beautifying much of the New York metropolitan region. I decided it was time to tell our success story.”

To chronicle the family’s history, Trocano engaged New York City independent historian, C. Kay Larson, MBA, who specializes in business writing and early American history. Larson dug into Bergen County tomes to show that its horticultural traditions go back to the first Dutch settlers of the 17th century. Leaving Santa Croce traces Bergen County’s history from that period to the present, folding in the family and business story, as well as that of late-arriving immigrant groups.

Says Larson, “I was happy to make the significant case that Bergen County’s past traditions are linked to the Costa family’s success in the nursery business. Although a short work, this may be the only one that takes readers through four centuries of Bergen County history with all groups included.”

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"Leaving Santa Croce is a fascinating history of an Italian-American family who utilized the values of family, individual responsibility, and hard work to become very successful in America―a tale rarely told in the context of colorful regional, community, and business history. Although short, this is an all-American story in the end."

― Frank Sorrentino, Ph. D., Deputy Executive Director,

Italian Historical Society of America

Copies of Leaving Santa Croce may be ordered from Maine Evergreen Nursery, Inc., 203 W. Pleasant Ave., Maywood, NJ 07607. Phone: 201-843-6808 Publication data: ISBN 978-578-00580-5; 80 pp., illustrations, bibliography; $ 12.00 plus shipping and handling. Publisher: Maine Evergreen Nursery, Inc., 2008

Costa family     Maine Evergreen Nursery