Oakland Underfoot

Frank Coelho Vieira (1885-1940) first appears in the newspapers in 1926 as a “sewer and cement contractor,” at this address, where city directories show him living there, with his wife Ida (Fereira) and children, as early as 1912 and into the 1930s. They had at least three children. He was born in Portugal, like many Oakland Portuguese-Americans, but Ida was Hawaiian Portuguese, like many others. He’s buried in Hayward at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.

His stamps are few. I’ve documented dates from 1935 to 1938.

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.

Patrick Joseph Ryan (1868-1929) was born in Turles, Ireland. He emigrated in the late 1880s to Massachusetts, where he married Margaret T. Meade, a daughter of Irish immigrants. They lost three children in infancy but had better luck when they moved west to Oakland in the early 1900s decade, where they lived at 937 26th Street and had two healthy daughters. He became a naturalized citizen in 1918. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, division #2, sponsored a Mass for him when he died. He’s buried in Hayward.

The Oakland directories list him as a cement worker or contractor from 1904 to 1915. In the 1920 census he said he was a street cleaner for the city, and the 1925 directory listed him as a laborer.

His stamp was always a cockeyed thing with missing and misaligned letters. I have recorded dates of 1910, 1912, 1913 and 1914.

Edwin Lewis George (1847-1920) was born in New Sharon, Maine, one of four children of farmer James P. and Betsey L. George. He moved to Oakland in 1882; he’s listed in the 1884 directory as a farmer living at 484 25th Street. He was registered to vote in Rocklyn in 1884 and in Penryn in 1886, where he must have been a quarry worker. Later in his voter registrations in Oakland, he called himself an expressman (1888-92), a gentleman (1896), a laborer (1898), and a concrete worker (1906-08). He married “Millie/Nellie” Chapman (1848-1928) in Maine in 1866; they had no children. The couple occupy separate niches at Chapel of the Chimes.

As of 1900, Mr. George was carrying out his concrete business at 1046 62nd Street, where the couple moved in 1891. The house numbers appear to have been changed since then, though.

E. L. George marks are almost nonexistent in Oakland, and I’ve found only one with a date of 1912. This example is at 1229 55th Street in Emeryville, one of two on the property.

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.

John Astorino (1891-1982) has a sparse record but a familiar story among Oakland’s concrete contractors. He was born Giovanni Astorino in San Giovanni in Fiore, a town at the foot of Italy. He emigrated to Utah in 1923, after his father died, and in 1925 married Caterina Fratto (1903-1978), another native of San Giovanni in Fiore. He worked in the coal business at the time. Eventually they had eight children. It appears that they moved west after the war. The 1950 census states that two of their sons were concrete workers, who presumably worked with him. He later moved to Dublin and died there.

Astorino stamps are usually light and rarely show all the characters, including the phone number GL1-5236 and the address 709 26th Street, where the family lived as of 1949. But his marks are unmistakable — he’s the only sidewalk maker in Oakland who used a hexagonal stamp. I have documented seven different dates from 1951 to 1962.