William Livingston, pastor of St. Peter's, invited the growing Italian community to use the lower church for Masses offered by Rev.

Joseph F. Sheahan, recognized that these Italian parishioners would be better served by a priest who spoke their own language and was familiar with the community's customs.

Nicola Pavone, who was born at Trivento, Italy, on August 18, 1878, ordained at a seminary there December 23, 1901, and studied at La Minerva University in Rome.

From 1903 to 1904, he had a bishop's secretary in Trivento, then he taught at the seminary at Larino before arriving in New York on December 20, 1905, where he was assigned to St. Peter's in Poughkeepsie.

[1] In a gesture of friendship and gratitude to St. Peter's Church for having hosted the Italian community prior to the building of Our Lady of Mt.

Pavone asked the pastor of St. Peter's at the time Monsignor Joseph Sheahan to offer the first Mass in the newly built Mt.

On April 30, 1932, Father Joseph Maria Pernicone was appointed fourth pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

[4] In 1935 Father Pernicone established Our Lady of Mount Carmel School which was staffed by the Sisters of St. Francis.

Joseph Raimondo was pastor, the congregation moved into the former St. Peter's church edifice at 97 Mill Street, when St. Peter's parish re-located to the southeast corner of Dorsey Avenue and Violet Avenue in Hyde Park, NY.

(Currently, Astor Services currently occupies the original Church building on Mount Carmel Place.

Richard LaMorte continued to serve the community, even as many second and third generation Italians who grew up in the Mount Carmel neighborhood, moved out of the City of Poughkeepsie into the surrounding Town of Poughkeepsie but continued to return to Mount Carmel as their neighborhood church.

Still home to several Italian restaurants and bakeries, the area is widely referred to as Poughkeepsie's Little Italy.