Dominick DiSabitino's two brothers decided to leave their home in Abruzzi, Italy in the early 1900s to avoid compulsory service in the army. Not wanting his sons to lose a sense of their family, their father decided to move the entire family to the United States. They arrived in Wilmington in 1906, and within a few years the family built a new house on one of many vacant lots along Lincoln Street. "There were swamps in there," DiSabitino remembered. "You could hear the frogs and the crickets…It was all empty….We pioneered this big house."

Dominick's father worked long hours in construction for little pay, but saved enough to invest in a house and to start his own business. He landed several good jobs and his sons and cousins began to work for the company, which was unique because it was owned by one Italian family

For the DiSabitinos, Wilmington was a place of opportunity, unlike some of their fellow Italian immigrants who had less chance for advancement because they knew only one trade. Young Dominick, who had left before high school to help in the family business, began to take night classes learning how to understand architectural drawings and estimate materials, and bookkeeping courses at Beacom School.

Over time, the city's Italian community grew around social clubs and St. Anthony's Church, which sponsored an Italian Festival each year beginning in the 1930s. Although Dominick DiSabitino remembered being called names because he was Italian, it did not hold him back "because we were anxious to work and willing to work and we were forging ahead all the time." DiSabitino descendants continue to work in the construction business in Delaware today.