Joe Triberti and Frank Massaro were another of many Italian immigrants who left their mark on our sidewalks.
Giuseppe Triberti (1887-1940) was born in Castelnuovo, Italy. He and his wife Concettina had one child, a daughter.
Fiorentino Massaro (1894-1981) was born in Montaldo Scarampi, Italy. He and his wife Adele had three children, two daughters and a son. He immigrated in 1910 or 1913 (sources differ), worked on a farm in Chowchilla for a while, then turned up in San Francisco as of 1916. Later the family lived in various East Bay cities.
Both men lived in North Oakland when their partnership began and were tight with the East Bay Italian community by marriage and association. Frank Massaro made quite a name in the 1950s-1960s in local bowling leagues. Both are buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Triberti & Massaro first show up in the papers in 1924 in a notice awarding them the contract to build the Carrington Stairs, centerpiece of the Jungle Hill area. Their first newspaper ad, in 1926, gave their address as 635 44th Street, an address now under route 24. They soon expanded outside Oakland and took on bigger jobs. In the ads Triberti always called himself Joe while Massaro used his initial, though later in life he went as Frank.
The Triberti & Massaro stamp never changed. The mark is usually lightly incised, and many are almost indecipherable. Their work is widespread but infrequently dated; dates are always scrawled inside the mark by hand. I’m confident of dates between 1924 and 1940, the year Joe Triberti died.
After Triberti’s death, Frank Massaro continued to lay sidewalks under his own name, headquartered in Oakland, but he apparently lived elsewhere. In the mid-1950s he started business in El Cerrito with his son Giovanni “John” as Massaro & Son Cement Construction Company, continuing until his death.
The solo Massaro stamp used the same escutcheon as Triberti & Massaro, but I’ve found no examples with a date. They are quite scarce.
Oakland Underfoot 
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