927 Main St History - Laserfiche WebLink

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The 1926 Louisville directory shows that Joe and Marietta Biella started a grocery store at 927 Main and lived there with their daughter, Inez. Marietta Biella then died in 1926. The property passed to her estate and their daughters, who conveyed it to their father, Joe Biella. Joe continued to operate a grocery store in the building and also resided there with his daughter, Inez, who helped in the store. The next image shows the advertisement for Joe Biella's store that appears on the canvas stage curtain for the Rex Theatre. It is one of twenty-two advertisements for downtown Louisville businesses that appear on the curtain, which dates from 1927-28. Joe's grandson, Vernon Zurick, who was born in 1925 and now lives in Erie, recalls his grandfather operating the store at 927 Main in the early 1930s and remembers sitting on the front step of the store as a young boy. The following undated photo is believed to date from roughly around this period (or earlier, judging by the automobiles) and is believed to show 927 Main on the right: Joe Biella married Michelina ("Lena") Tomeo, a widow, before 1936. They lived at 927 Main, and may or may not have operated a grocery store together. (The lack of references to the store in directories from the mid-1930s on suggests that the Depression may have led to the scaling back or closure of the store.) In 1938, Joe Biella transferred ownership of the property back to his daughters, and continued to reside 5