Oakland Underfoot

Ensor Harrison Buel (1908-1992) was a prominent contractor in Berkeley for many years. Ensor was the maiden surname of his mother, Viola May Buel, and Harrison was the middle name of his father Emmanuel “Harry” Buel. His uncle was sidewalk maker W. E. Ensor, who also used a horseshoe stamp. He married Edna Potts (1917-?) in 1944, a schoolteacher. They had no children. They lived at 45 Edgecroft Road, up by the Arlington, but by 1980 he’d moved to Vacaville, where he’s buried.

Besides laying sidewalks, Buel constructed buildings and worked with Bernard Maybeck on several projects. He mastered the technique, advocated by Maybeck, of casting concrete walls containing lattices of glass bricks. Several examples survive in Berkeley, such as 1025 Carleton shown here (also 1007 University and 805 Camellia and around the foot of Bancroft Way).

He was a member of the Master Concrete Contractors Association in 1934, although I haven’t found an example yet of his Concrete Master number (3, 9, 10, 11 and 15 are unattested so far). His firm was prosperous enough to field a baseball team in the late 1930s.

I have documented Ensor Buel marks with dates from 1934 to 1949. At first his were hand-drawn scratches, but by the late 1930s he’d cultivated an elegant hand-drawn mark with distinctive flourishes.

In 1940 he adopted a horseshoe stamp similar but not identical to that of his late uncle W. E. Ensor. I’m sure there’s lots more of his work in parts of Berkeley I haven’t visited yet.

William Edwin Ensor (1881-1931) was a Maryland native who came to San Francisco with his wife, the former Mary Agnes Lewis (1874-1961). It was just after the 1906 earthquake, and concrete work was abundant. By 1911 they’d moved permanently to 2708 Tenth Street, Berkeley. They had eight children; their son Charles was also a concrete worker. He and Mary are buried at Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito.

In Berkeley he worked at first for the Esterly Construction Company, then later at the Navy yard on Mare Island. His concrete business is first recorded in the 1926 directory, but his sidewalk stamp first appeared in 1922.

I have recorded Ensor’s horseshoe stamp with dates from 1922 to 1931. His nephew Ensor H. Buel adopted the same format for his stamp. He also drew a mark by hand, a rectangle with “ENSOR” inside in large, blocky letters.

Natale Lena (1885-1977) was born on a farm near Lucca, Italy, and came to America in 1902, arriving in the Bay area five years later. By then he knew enough about the concrete trade to get work in San Francisco. In 1908 he moved to Alameda and worked for the contractor Alexander LaPlant. He went solo in 1914, but a few “Lena & Helling Makers” stamps exist in Oakland from a collaboration with William G. Helling with dates of 1913 and 1915.

Merritt’s 1928 History of Alameda County states, “When he started in business for himself in Alameda he began in a small way. All concrete at that time was mixed on boards with a shovel, and a wheelbarrow was used to transport it to the concrete forms. The people of Alameda can well remember Nat Lena and his start in the cement contracting business but he laid a fine foundation for his future enterprise, and today he ranks as one of the largest and best known cement contractors in the Bay cities, while his equipment is modern and up to date in his line.” By the early 1930s his company operated from a compound in Oakland at 1174 19th Street, which still survives.

Nat and his wife Emma (1888-1954), who married in 1907, had no children. He was a member of the venerable Oakland Rotary Club for 46 years, and a Mason as well. Commenter Linda Hamilton recalled, “In 1978, following his death, Nat left $85,000 to the Club’s scholarship fund started with funds left by Sugar and Rice Manufacturer Al Saroni upon his death in 1961. By 2009, the Saroni-Lena Scholarship Fund provided one million dollars to over 600 Oakland teens to go to college.” And it’s still going strong.

Lena marks in Oakland run from 1920 to 1953. At first he used a racetrack-format stamp, though he would sometimes draw a mark by hand.

During 1934 he switched to an arched-text stamp with the name “Nat. Lena,” and he got a new stamp without the period after “Nat” in 1946.

Merritt’s history also notes, “He is one of the prominent members of the Cheese Rollers Club of San Francisco, an Italian organization, in which the members play a game similar to the American game of bowling, excepting that they use balls of cheese instead of wooden balls. Mr. Lena is an expert player and has won a number of prizes at this game.”

Livio Giovanni Scaramelli (1902–1969) was born in Lucca and emigrated from Italy at age five to Alameda with his mother Maria, joining his father Pietro who had emigrated five years before. He went by Lee John Scaramelli off and on during his life. He married Alma Ballwanz at age 22, at which time he worked as a welder. His father died in 1915 and in 1923 his mother married tile worker Antonio “Anthony” Falcier (1870–1949), another Italian immigrant, who trained Livio in his business, and in 1924 he appeared in the directory as a tilesetter. By 1926 he’d changed his listing to cement contractor and started to advertise in the papers. He moved a few times in Alameda, but from 1934 to 1949 he was at 815 Santa Clara Avenue before relocating to Walnut Creek. He advertised his services (for patios and floors) as late as 1957. He died in Carson City, Nevada.

In 1938 a newspaper puff piece said about him, “‘Lasting Satisfaction’ is his motto, and the only order he gives the five men working for him is: ‘The best is none too good.’ . . . [He] has the gold of kindness in his nature . . . is never a backslider in boosting the home town and would find friends even on Robinson Crusoe’s island.”

L. Scaramelli sidewalk stamps have dates from 1927 to 1954. In the 1940s he drew his dates by hand in a sure, elegant script.

They all have a period—“Scaramelli.”—at the end.

From Frank C. Merritt’s History of Alameda County (1928):

“Cement has taken its rightful place high in the list of the leading building materials and is now practically indispensable in the construction of modern business blocks and residences. One of the leading cement contracting firms in the East Bay district is that of Riechel & Bredhoff. The senior member, Olaf Riechel [1877-1946], was born in Chicago, Illinois, February 21, 1878 [sic], and received his early education in the schools of that city. When twelve years of age he accompanied his parents on their removal to Alameda, California, and in the public schools of this city completed his studies. When seventeen years of age he went to work for Powell Brothers, with whom he learned the trade of cement working. He was promoted to the position of foreman and eventually became superintendent of construction, having in charge the erection of the Orpheum Theater building and other, important business structures, as well as large apartment houses and fine residences. He remained with that firm for twenty years and in 1918, formed a partnership with H[arold]. G[eorge]. Bredhoff, under the firm name of Riechel & Bredhoff, and engaged in the cement contracting business. They are doing a large business in their line, particularly as subcontractors, besides which they have laid many miles of cement walks and curbs in the East Bay cities. They did the cement work on the Heald Business College building, the Lynn building and the Barber block, as well as apartment houses and homes, and also erected the cement walls around the Pacific Gas and Electric plant on Thirty-first street, Oakland. They have likewise been very successful in building and selling homes.

“H. G. Bredhoff [1888-1975] was born in San Francisco, California, on the 8th of March, 1888, and received his educational training in the public schools of Alameda and Oakland. On leaving school he learned the trade of cement worker and was employed on the construction of the old Realty Syndicate building in Oakland. He was with Powell Brothers for sixteen years, leaving the employ of that firm to enter into business with Mr. Riechel. He is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.”

Riechel was the son of German and Danish immigrants, and Bredhoff had German grandparents.

The firm operated out of 2509 Clement Avenue, Alameda.

Riechel & Bredhoff stamps appear on Oakland sidewalks with dates from 1921 to 1951. They have two forms that I call the high and low arch. The low arch is much less common, but both stamps have comparable age ranges. I didn’t differentiate them at first, so there’s still more research to do.

Ferdinand Charles Stolte (1889-1983), the son of German immigrants, was raised in Oakland and became a successful builder of high-end homes, apartments and commercial buildings in the area. He’s interred in the Mountain View Cemetery mausoleum with his wife, the former Elizabeth Moran of Crow’s Landing, and their son F. Charles Jr.

Merritt’s 1928 history of Alameda County reported, “He is painstaking in the fulfillment of his contracts, employs none but expert workmen and the work done by him has been uniformly satisfactory to those who have employed him.”

I have recorded a few dated Stolte marks ranging from 1931 to 1951.

Berkeley Cement originated in 1947 according to its website; however, I have documented three examples of a Berkeley Cement stamp from 1946 with a horseshoe design. At first it was a partnership between Alfred Marian Fadelli (1911-1985) and Frank Massaro, of Triberti & Massaro fame, that was dissolved in 1958.

Alfred’s sons, the late Andrew A. Fadelli and Ronald Fadelli, joined the firm soon after. Why “A. Fadelli Sons” is on their stamp is unclear; the name was never used formally that I can tell, and Alfred was alive and listed with the sons in the 1967 directory. Perhaps the sons specialized in sidewalks in their early years.

The firm, still owned and run by the Fadelli family, offers a wide range of construction services with union labor.

Most examples of the A. Fadelli Sons stamp are undated. I have found only a few dated 1962, and all examples appear to be around that age.