2803 23rd Avenue
Agostino Maffei was born in San Genese, Italy in 1885 and emigrated to the US in 1902. He had an eighth-grade education and could barely sign his name; he told one census taker he could not write. As of the 1910 census he lived with his new bride Angelina (nee Ardisson; 1892-1985) in Jackson, Amador County, where he worked in a gold mine; by 1918 they lived in Alameda and he worked for an ice company. He’s listed in the 1920s and 1930s Alameda directories. The papers show she was very active at the time with the Alameda Review Women’s Benefit Association while he was a local stalwart in the Woodmen of the World and the Elks. They had no children. The names he went by in the papers went from Augustine to Augustus, then August, and finally Gus. Maffei died in 1978 and is interred in Chapel of the Chimes.
The sidewalks hint that Maffei had a history, presumably as a former partner with someone else. Maybe he was the loser partner and got to keep the stamp, with the partner’s name chiseled off, while the partner had a nice new one made. The business was at Maffei’s home, 818 Pacific Avenue until 1937, then 831 Lincoln Avenue. He retired some time before the 1950 census.
I don’t see many sidewalk contractors from Alameda in Oakland. This is the only Maffei mark I’ve found here, but they seem to be plentiful in Alameda. They all look like this one.
Oakland Underfoot 
26 March 2023 at 7:06 am
I’ve run across some of these recently in Alameda. The earliest I’ve found with a distinct year is from 1925, and the latest from 1937. All have the same stamp design with the first part of the upper line “erased”. One stamp where the last numeral of the year is unclear (if there’s one there at all) retains the “&” in the upper text and still adds the hand-drawn “A” as well. I have not yet found an example with the “erased” name during a few exploratory walks in Alameda.
There are similar 1920s stamps in Alameda from an Alameda-based company called MacKenzie & Lundberg. I’ve found a few of these, including one with the Lundberg portion “erased”. I don’t know whether that MacKenzie was related to the one whose 1950s stamps are found in Oakland.
1 January 2025 at 5:22 pm
Bio is newly updated.
1 January 2025 at 5:36 pm
Still on the lookout for one of these with his old business partner’s name included 🙂
I have seen a few variations on this stamp in Alameda though most are nearly identical to the one in your photo. Saw one with a hand-drawn rectangular frame around it, one that was an entirely hand-drawn “A Maffei” and one stamp with the upper part as “A & Maffei” (with the “A” hand-drawn as usual), confirming there was originally a “&” in the stamp.