Oakland Underfoot

Sebastiano “Sebastian” Avena (1875-1934) was from Carrú, in northeastern Italy, and immigrated with his wife Anna (Soda; 1874-1953) and son Francesco Dominic “Frank” in 1902. They built a house in west Berkeley in 1912 at 1021 Snyder (later Heinz) Avenue. The 1920 census listed them there with four children: Frank (born in France), Mary (born in Pennsylvania), Amerigo “Ted” (born in West Virginia) and Marguerite (born in California). He appears to have taken up the business by 1915 from Francesco, a family relative. His Avena & Sons firm was active as of 1925-1930 with sons Frank (1901-1980) and Ted (1906-1978).

After Sebastian’s death, Frank worked for the city for a while, then revived the firm with his son Frank Adam (1922-2007), and changed the stamp from “S. Avena & Sons” to “Avena & Son,” apparently by erasing the first and last letters of his father’s stamp.

I have only one dated example of each from Oakland, typical for a Berkeley firm.

This entry was posted on 12 May 2025 at 9:09 pm and is filed under  Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.