175th Anniversary Heritage: the Cassaretto Family

By Kathy Brown, Groveland Yosemite Gateway Museum/Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society

In the 1970s, when Irene Clark was doing her series of historic Groveland pen and ink sketches, this very historic building served as Tiano’s Market. This sketch shows it with the adjoining but separate building, Tiano’s Cafe, which is now Cocina Michoacana. The peaked roof building on the left has had many names through its long history. Today we know it as the Helping Hands Thrift Store.

Beneath this building’s facade lies the story of Garrote’s first commercial business, a trading post founded by Casimir Raboul which existed on this spot c.1849. The earliest Tuolumne County tax records for this area in 1852 show a building on this lot and an adobe brick trading post is confirmed in the 1855 tax rolls. In 1873 Raboul sold his store for $500 in gold coin to Michael Noziglio who lost his Big Oak Flat business in the 1863 fire that destroyed that neighboring Gold Rush town. Noziglio married Rosa Cassaretto in 1874 but sadly he died the next year. Widowed Rosa’s brother, Luigi (Louis) Cassaretto, arrived from Italy to help her run the business in 1876 and the Cassaretto Store was transferred to his name in 1879.

Descriptions of the Cassaretto General Store say it carried clothing, food, medicine, wine, liquor and cigars. A coffee grinder and scale were on the counter along with cones of sugar. Wooden barrels of pickled foods, beans and grains stood on the floor. Mining equipment and pots and pans hung from the ceiling. They took orders for hogs, chickens and beef, butchered or alive, which they provided from their ranch at Big Creek. The ranch also supplied vegetables and fruits. Farming and ranching equipment could be ordered through the store. A sign over it’s door read “Pioneer Merchant, Dealer of Dry Goods, Boots, Shoes, Fine Groceries and Provisions.”

As the Cassaretto family rented this building out through the years it went through a series of name changes - Cassaretto’s, Pigg’s, Red and White Store, Ken’s, and as seen in Irene Clark’s sketch, Tiano’s. But through it all the building’s ownership has always remained in the Cassaretto family, as it does now operating as the Helping Hands Store.

Prior to 1900, the Cassaretto family with their 9 children made the peaked-roof attic above their business their home. Their store did so well that in 1898 they hired architect Edward Cobden along with carpenters Tom and Walter Coyle and Ed and Charlie Harper to build the lovely home seen in Irene Clark’s “Cassaretto Home” print. It was built on a lot Louis had purchased in 1879 when the store was transferred to his name. The home with its attractive L-shaped front porch has remained relatively unchanged since the family moved into it in 1900. A well just to the east of the house served as Groveland’s water supply in the early 1900s.

Unfortunately shortly after moving into the home, Louis’ wife Adelina died in 1902 at only 39, and Louis died in 1905, leaving their nine children to care for each other. Oldest son Frank took over management of the store at age 22. In 1918 he built a second store to serve the Hetch Hetchy boom times on the west side of the home - the building we know as the Community Hall. In the 1936 son Joseph married and he and his wife Lena moved into the Cassaretto home between the two stores. The Cassarettos served the Groveland community in many ways

- donating land for a GCSD water tank, serving their church and many civic organizations.

Perhaps one of the most appreciated was Lena’s establishment of a small library for local citizens in the pantry of her home.

For most of the life of the house, a beautiful wisteria graced the eaves of the front porch. Joe and Lena’s son Leonard, recently deceased, maintained the perfectly manicured home and yard. Like the store, the Cassaretto home remains in the family and is the oldest continuously one-family owned home in Groveland.

Photo shows Floyd Cassaretto with adopted bear cub. Cassaretto's second store (now the Community Hall) and home in background.

Rosa Cassaretto, born 1881 the oldest of Louis and Adelina’s nine children, grew up in the Cassaretto home. Circa 1898 she married Henry De Ferrari, son of Augustino and Maria DeFerrari, born 1877. An unconfirmed local story relates that she and Henry tried to elope earlier but were prevented from doing so by Rosa’s father who felt they were too young. As the story goes, at that time Louis told Henry that he could married his daughter when he could provide a house for her. In 1899 Henry had the Harper Brothers build this cottage on Main Street for his new bride Rosa. He purchased the lot for the new home from his half- brother Jake Laveroni who owned much of the south side of Main Street at that time. Henry ran the Pioneer Saloon that was just west of the Groveland Hotel.

The DeFerrari house with its double front-facing gables, fishscale shingle ornamentation, porch spindle work, and stained glass it is one of Groveland’s most unique homes. The home originally stood about 30 feet west of it’s current location. John Stone had it moved in the late 1980s to serve as the anchor store of the Mountain Leisure Plaza. Now the home of Ranch Revived, the "Yellow House" faces Main Street, where its beauty can be seen, helping to maintain Groveland’s historic look.

Watch for more stories on Groveland/Big Oak Flat's historic buildings, families, and the business enterprises that made up the cornerstones of our area's heritage.

This new series of articles commemorating the 175th Anniversary of Tuolumne County is provided by the Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society (STCHS) and the Groveland Gateway Museum. The Museum is open Friday - Sunday 10a - 2p