Puricelli block 1999

Description:
Stone and concrete blocks from the front yard wall/fence at the home of Innocente and Madeline Puricelli at 4912 Shatuck Avenue (east side), Temescal district, Oakland, Calif.

Date of Document:
1999

Document Author:
Jeff Norman

Geographic Location:
4912 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland, Calif.

Context:
Innocente, a stone mason, built the house, adding many decorative elements, including the faux stone window embellishments and the mosaic wall in front. There were no windows on the north side of the house, probably because it abutted the Key System Western Car Barn. The house was demolished circa 1999 to make way for the new North Oakland Post Office (the final phase of the Temescal Plaza shopping center). Temescal resident, Jeff Norman, received permission from the developer, Berkeley Land Co., to remove all of the blocks making up the mosaic wall in front.He and Bruce Douglas, Remi Rubel, Thad Shaffer, and Leiko and Bob Yamamoto Pech hauled them to Bruce's and Jeff's yards for storage, and later, in the fall of 2004, dispersal among various Temescal neighbors). On June 15, 2003, Innocente and Madeline Puricelli s daughter, Rena Stagnero (age 78), told Jeff by telephone that her father, who had nine siblings, left his birthplace the Lake Como region of Italy when he was eleven, working in Switzerland, France, and Germany before coming to the U.S. Her mother was from the same area, although they first met in the U.S. When Innocente was 67, he began building a second family home, in a similar architectural style, in Lake County. Innocente died in 1970. The family sold the home at 4912 Shattuck following Madeline's death in 1980. Rena was born (circa 1925) in a house the family was living in on 48th Street and Shattuck Avenue; they moved into the 4912 Shattuck Avenue residence when Rena was 8 years old (circa 1933). Rena's brother-in-law told Jeff at the dedication of the PostMark Temescal public art project (October 18, 2003) that Innocente got the semiprecious stones used in the mosaic wall from the wife of a geology professor at UC Berkeley after the professor died. [Jeff Norman note]"Before the Puricelli house was constructed, a two-story steam laundry building occupied the site." [Jennifer Dowling note]