Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Charles
(I thought I asked this before, but I just did a search for Vibiana, and came up with nothing...)
This photo is from approximately 1899, and looks over downtown, facing south, from the direction
of Fort Hill. I have highlighted St. Vibiana.
Besides St. Vibiana, are ANY of the other buildings in the photo still standing?
Original (MUCH LARGER) photo on Shorpy:
https://www.shorpy.com/node/7263?size=_original#caption
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Diligent search of the enlarged version of this at Shorpy will reveal, on Main St., the Castruccio grocery store, known as La Mariposa. Here is a detail from that image:
No, this building does not still exist! But it appears that the Castruccio Bros. and their grocery store have not been mentioned previously here, and merit being recalled.
From
The Illustrated History of Los Angeles County (1889), with further notes by me:
“The store, which is a large double room, with a rear alley communication for receiving and delivering goods, is stocked with a complete assortment of standard groceries and provisions, also wines, liquors and miscellaneous articles for household use. The house was established in 1868 [
by James R. Moiso and Peter Castruccio], and hence is one of the oldest in Los Angeles; and the policy of its management has been so straightforward and honorable that it has customers who have dealt with the firm for fifteen years. It has a large patronage among the Spanish-speaking people of the city and surrounding country, as also many American ranchers, and enjoys a large restaurant and hotel trade, the average volume of business being $10,000 a month. The members of the firm own the brick building in which the store is situated”; Peter (Pietro) Castruccio returned to Italy, but brother Giuseppe took over; the store proper closed in 1904 (Giuseppe had died in December, 1903).