1409 Courtesy Rd History - Laserfiche WebLink

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Domenico Family Ownership, 1936 — Present (77 years) Alex and Annetta Domenico purchased 1409 Courtesy Rd. in 1936. Their son, Edward Domenico, was born in the house in 1938. Edward Domenico and has been interviewed for the Louisville Historical Museum's oral history program about the Little Italy neighborhood and this house. He was interviewed on September 15, 2010 along with Don Ross and Betty Ross Marino, who also grew up in the Little Italy neighborhood. He has also been interviewed in person at the Louisville Historical Museum, and the Domenico family has generously allowed the Museum to copy the Abstract of Title for 1409 Courtesy Rd. According to interviews of Ed Domenico, his parents paid a total of $600 for the house, in payments made every two weeks. Surprisingly, Mrs. Cornelius did not require the payment of any interest. Property records and the Abstract of Title show that the contract was made in 1936 and the deed was recorded in 1940. The 1940 federal census records show the Domenico family to be living in the house: Alex was age 27, and Annetta was age 25, and their son, Edward, was age 2. Alex was a coal miner. The 1940 census shows that he worked 20 weeks out of the year in 1939 and earned $700. According to Ed Domenico, the house looked much the same then as it does now, except that a porch was added in the 1940s and a bathroom was added in 1952. The house consisted of four rooms: two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a front room. Ed's father, Alex, made a kitchen out of the bedroom that had been Harold Cornelius' bedroom, and made a dining room out of the room that had been the kitchen. In 1955, Alex Domenico built a double garage with the help of neighbors in the tight -knit community of Little Italy. Alex Domenico was born in 1911 in Welby, Colorado to parents who had been born in Italy. In 1935, he married Annetta Tesone, who had been born in Louisville in 1914 to James Tesone and Jenny Martella. She grew up on Main Street in Louisville and graduated from Louisville High School in 1933. Alex Domenico worked as a miner and carpenter. He passed away in 1999. Annetta Domenico worked as the secretary to the Superintendent of Louisville Schools from 1953 to 1957. She then worked as a secretary at the University of Colorado's Norlin Library from 1957 until 1979. According to her 2006 obituary, she was active in Louisville organizations, including the St. Louis Church, the Altar and Rosary Society, and the American Legion Auxiliary. Edward Domenico described this Little Italy home as having a big garden and a yard in which his parents raised chickens. Ed's father made beer in the basement of 1409 Courtesy. In their oral history interview, Edward Domenico and Don Ross both remarked on the scarcity of traffic on Highway 42 (Courtesy Rd.) when they were growing up in this Little Italy neighborhood. Don Ross recalled sledding on Highway 42 in the 1930s without fear of traffic. Ed remarked that according to his father, Alex, if you saw ten cars on Highway 42 in a week in the