Laserfiche WebLink
Joe and Rose D'Amato Ownership, 1948-2003 <br />Beginning in about 1948, the house at 924 Main Street became a home for Joe and Rose <br />D'Amato and their children, John and Joan. <br />Joe D'Amato and his brother-in-law, Pete Madonna, started Joe's Fruit Store which they <br />built in about 1948 on the south end of the yard that went with the house. It had the <br />address of 920 Main and is remembered as having been an old-style Italian grocery <br />store that catered to the families of Italian descent in Louisville, and others, for about 55 <br />years. More information about the store at 920 Main appears below. <br />The D'Amato house and store were thus located on the same parcel and are still today <br />located on the same parcel sharing one property legal description. <br />Joe D'Amato (1902-1980) was born in one of the connected towns of Porticello and <br />Santa Flavia in Sicily in 1902 and came to the U.S. in 1921, working first in Wisconsin and <br />then making his way to Louisville, where he is believed to have had relatives. He left for <br />a time to work in other states and returned to Louisville in the early 1930s. In 1936, he <br />married Rose Madonna (1920-2003). She had grown up in Louisville as a member of the <br />Italian John & Marguerite Madonna family. <br />The following is a 1948 photo of 924 Main from the County Assessor card completed in <br />1948. This is what the house would have looked like during ownership by the <br />Hutchinson/Clarkson/Hancock family, before Joe and Rose D'Amato remodeled it. <br />Despite the fact that it was remodeled to have a greater setback, different layout and <br />roofline, and was surfaced differently, the County did not create a different Assessor <br />card for the building as was the more typical situation in cases where a building was <br />greatly altered. <br />4 <br />