As the sun rose for Festa in Nonantum on Sunday, neighbors on Adams Street woke to a surprise fresh coat of red, white and green paint down the middle of the roadway.

The colored lines in the middle of the street, symbolizing Italian heritage, had been painted every year for Festa since 1935. But the city had the lines removed and replaced with yellow lines in  late June, setting off a firestorm of outrage at Mayor Ruthanne Fuller.

By the end of the weekend, the mayor was not at Festa. But the red, white and green lines were. And a couple of the crosswalks had been painted to match.

Adams Street is long, so the painting was more than a one-person job. Jordan Wagner, a member of the Adams Street Shul, said he did some of the line painting Saturday night but didn’t say who else did. A few nights earlier, a man was charged with defacing property when he spray-painted Italian colors onto the street. But the Saturday night paint job was a concerted effort.

“Yesterday,” Nonantum resident Fran Yerardi posted on social media Monday morning, “our Catholic community celebrated a cherished tradition, because our Jewish neighbors were willing to fight to ensure we could. Only in America.”

Adams Street neighbors repainted the red, white and green lines onto their street for the annual Italian-American Festival over the weekend. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

Indeed, Nonantum’s history has intertwined its Italian and Jewish families for more than a century. Large numbers of Italian and Jewish families arrived in the 1880s, when Irish and other European immigrant communities had already established themselves in the area. This formed a kinship between the Italian and their Jewish neighbors that grew stronger with time.

Wagner, at a recent demonstration at City Hall, noted that Nonantum families tend to stay in the village with their kids and grandkids, making it one of the rare real neighborhoods still remaining in the area.

“In the rest if America, every seven years or so, somebody changes jobs, buys a house and goes somewhere else,” he said. “There aren’t any neighborhoods left that are really close to big cities like Boston. Nonantum is the one I know.”

That bond was on full display Sunday as a Catholic procession stopped in front of a Jewish Shul to thank its members for helping make an Italian festival special.

Adams Street crosswalks have been repainted red, white and green in honor of Nonantum’s Italian community. Photo by Bryan McGonigle