The Zittos were a Sicilian family who came to America around 1890 and initially settled in Boyle Heights. Parents Natale (c. 1846-1910) and Concetta (c. 1852-1918) and sons Victor (1884-1975) and John (1887-1942) set up a vineyard here in 1907 on what was appropriately named the “Italian Tract”; it would be one of the last vineyards in this area. After Natale’s death, Concetta married an Englishman named William Colan in 1912, but it went south a year later when it was discovered that Colan hadn’t divorced his first wife. Victor and John eventually moved up to Tujunga to subdivide the vineyard land into housing. Zitto Lane was named in 1926. The next generation of Zittos – first cousins Harry (1907-1989) and Nat (1907-1981), born just a week apart – each ran his own service station on Foothill Boulevard. Harry’s, in fact, was just down the hill from Zitto Lane. He later managed the Saugus branch of Patio Pizza, a small local chain that disappeared after 1977.
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