Matilda Pimento, a native of the Dominican Republic, attends services in Spanish at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church on Federal Hill. At left is Rosa Rivera, 9, of Providence.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

PROVIDENCE –– Stroll down Atwells Avenue and all signs tell you that you’re in Rhode Island’s Little Italy.

There’s the grand archway, holding up a large copper pinecone, or pigna, a traditional Italian symbol of welcome and hospitality. There’s the freshly painted white and green stripe down the middle of the road — the colors of Italy. There’s the neon pink glow from the sign above Joe Marzilli’s Old Canteen, which has been serving traditional Italian cuisine on Federal Hill for three generations.

Walk farther down the strip, though, and its clear there’s more here than Federal Hill’s nickname would suggest.

New restaurants are bringing different flavors, from Lebanese and Caribbean to Chinese and sushi. Where old neighborhood markets and delis once stood are new businesses — designer clothing stores, art galleries, tattoo parlors and car accessory shops.

Among them is Mr. Pockets, a Middle Eastern wrap shop, that now occupies the former Coin-O-Matic Distributing Co. storefront, where the late mob boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca once ran his criminal empire. .

“Do people ask about it?” said Eli Merhy, a Lebanese immigrant who opened the shop earlier this year. “Sure, people ask. They ask to see the basement. … But there’s nothing down there. No cash, no hidden stash of loot. I wish there was.”

On nearby residential streets, African-American and Latino families — and more recently college students — have moved into the multifamily houses once filled with Italian immigrants and their children and grandchildren.

“The neighborhood now represents all walks of life,” says City Councilman John J. Lombardi, a lifelong Federal Hill resident who has represented the neighborhood for 25 years.

It is a “melting pot,” agrees Michelle Ahlborg, president of the Federal Hill Commerce Association, a group of Atwells Avenue businesses that is looking for ways to better market the neighborhood’s increasing diversity.

One plan is to remake a faded yellow mural depicting a Roman-style aqueduct — and portraits of the mural’s benefactors — that is visible from Routes 10, near Dean Street.

“We need something that represents Federal Hill as whole,” says Ahlborg. “It has to recognize our past as a Little Italy and the more eclectic neighborhood of today that is more of a diverse cultural mecca.”

FEDERAL HILL became home to many of the state’s Italian immigrants in the early 20th century, when the region was a booming manufacturing center. By 1930, people of Italian heritage numbered over 50,000 in Providence, one fifth of the city’s population. Most lived in or around Federal Hill.

Even as many of the city’s factories closed after World War II, Italians held fast to their neighborhood. But by the 1970s, the Italian population began dropping and the minority population began growing. From 1990 to 2000, according to the most recent data available, the neighborhood’s population of African Americans had tripled to 15 percent and its Latino population doubled to more than 30 percent of the population.

According to Providence Plan, a nonprofit agency that compiles neighborhood data, close to half the children attending Federal Hill’s public schools today speak a primary language other than English.

The change, while it might not be evident on the more tourist-centered Atwells Avenue, is visible throughout the neighborhood.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, a Catholic Church built in the 1920s off Atwells Avenue to serve the growing Italian population, has become a largely Latino congregation.

The Rev. Raymond Luft, pastor for almost two decades, introduced Spanish Masses in the 1990s. Today the weekend Spanish Masses have more than double the attendance of the English ones, he says.

The neighborhood, which has the highest concentration of rental units in the city, has also seen a surge in college-aged youths, in part because of increased enrollments at the city’s colleges. Johnson & Wales students, in particular, have a strong presence on the Hill, with about 320 students living in a pink high rise dormitory off Dean Street.

Young professionals, artists and recent college graduates, have also moved into the neighborhood, says Emily Walter, a recent Rhode Island College grad who lives in an apartment at Federal and Vinton streets.

“The neighborhood is evolving as the city is evolving. This is a majority-minority city, and Federal Hill is no different,” says Lombardi, the neighborhood councilman.

SOME LONGTIME RESIDENTS are wistful about the old Federal Hill. They have fought the growth of Atwells Avenue businesses — particularly nightclubs and lounges — and complain about the traffic that clogs the street on weekends.

Dolores Cascella has spent 40 years on the hill, nearly half in Dominica Manor, a senior-citizen high rise at the gateway to the neighborhood, where she is the tenant association president.

She misses walking to the old-fashioned butchers, grocers and bakeries that have been replaced by more high-end stores. She says the neighborhood feels less safe, not as well maintained, and less of a community where “everybody knew everybody.”

Like many other Dominica Manor residents, Cascella, 72, is on a fixed income and rarely eats at the nearby restaurants. “The prices are ridiculous. It brings a lot of outsiders, I guess, which is good for business,” she says.

While Atwells Avenue has become increasingly upscale, nearly 28 percent of Federal Hill families lived below the poverty line in 2000, according to data from the Providence Plan, compared with 24 percent citywide. The median household income was also far lower than the citywide rate.

Still, owners of some of the neighborhood’s oldest restaurants welcome the changes and agree they should be reflected as Federal Hill merchants try to market their neighborhood.

“It needs to be more of a destination,” says Robert Antignano, president of Angelo’s, a landmark restaurant on Atwells Avenue. “We’re not just Italian restaurants. We’re shops too — clothing, pastries, and salons…It’s not all Italian and that’s OK.”

Ahlborg, of the merchants association, says there are some things the neighborhood can do, such as installing more hanging flower baskets and planters and expanding sidewalks to encourage more al fresco dining. Replacing the faded mural overlooking Route 10 would be a visible way to tell visitors what Federal Hill is all about today, says Ahlborg. For starters, unlike the current mural, it should have the neighborhood’s name. The 1980s mural was partially financed by prominent Rhode Island Italians and bears portraits of them or their relatives with the backdrop of a stylized Roman aqueduct.

Ahlborg says the merchants association plans to commission an artist to repaint the mural and has sought proposals through the colleges and local arts organizations. It’s also seeking donors.

“It’s needed. There has to be something there for tourists and for us in the neighborhood.”

Anything else, Ahlborg says, “I’ll leave it to the artist.”

pmarcelo@projo.com