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Tomeo House <br />Felix (Felice) Tomeo, by all accounts, built the building that we today call the Tomeo House with <br />the help of his older brothers, Nick (Nicola) and Mike (Michele). The house long had the address <br />of 520 Second St. under Louisville's old address system that changed in about 1939. It was then <br />known as 1013 (or sometimes 1011 or 1009) Main Street. <br />Felix had been born in Italy in 1872. According to research by the Tomeo family, the parents of <br />Felix, Nick, and Mike were Clemente Tomeo and Catarina Staffieri Tomeo of Montaquila, <br />Isernia, Molise, Italy. Felix came to the U.S. in the late 1800s. In 1902, he married Michelina <br />Bartimoccio of Louisville. She had been born in Italy in 1886 and came to the U.S. as a young <br />child in about 1890. She lived on S. Jefferson Ave. in Louisville. The following photo from the <br />Museum shows Felix: <br />The three Tomeo brothers, at least initially, all worked as coal miners. Records indicate that <br />Mike Tomeo and Nick Tomeo and their families left Louisville not long after 1910. <br />Felix Tomeo appears to have acquired Lots 1-4 over a period of a few years. He first obtained <br />Lots 3 through 6 in 1903 and sold off Lots 5 and 6 soon after. Meanwhile, his sister-in-law, Lucy <br />Tomeo (who was married to Felix's brother, Mike), had purchased Lots 1 and 2 by a deed <br />recorded in 1902. She had purchased them from John B. Clark of Louisville. (Clark had acquired <br />the lots from the developer — Lot 1 by a deed recorded in 1898 and Lot 2 by a deed recorded in <br />1899.) Lucy Tomeo granted Felix Tomeo a deed of trust, recorded in 1902, to secure the <br />2 <br />