Cassaretto House is Groveland’s oldest continuously owned structure

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Without a doubt, one of the architectural gems of downtown Groveland is the historic Cassaretto family home. It is next to Groveland’s first business, Casimer Raboul’s Trading Post, which was established in 1849. In 1873, Raboul sold his adobe store to Luigi (Michael) Noziglia, who had lost his Big Oak Flat business in the devastating 1863 fire. On Christmas Day 1874, Michael Noziglia married Rosa Cassaretto. Sadly, he died the following October. The store had been deeded to Rosa, but the young widow needed assistance handling the daily operations. Her 22-year-old brother, Louis, agreed to come from Italy to help. In 1878, Louis Cassaretto became the store’s owner and stocked everything from apparel and groceries to mining and ranch supplies. In May 1880, Louis Cassaretto and Adelina Bruschi were married in a lavish wedding at the Bruschi family home in Coulterville. Over the years, the couple was blessed with nine children. The family initially lived in a wooden structure at the back of the store and in the attic above the store. During the 1898 economic boom of the area’s hard rock mines, Louis Cassaretto hired Edward Cobden to design and build the pictured seven-bedroom home on property on the west side of the family’s store. The able team of Tom and Walter Coyle and Ed and Charlie Harper helped build the twostory design featuring a prominent “L” shaped front porch. A well was located just east of the house and served as a favorite community watering hole. Other recognizable Groveland Victorian homes designed and built by Edward Cobden are the Reid home (Serendipity), the Simmons home (All Seasons Groveland Inn), and the newly restored yellow Raggio home in Big Oak Flat. The restoration was a Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society project. Louis’ wife, Adelina, died in January 1902 at 39 after being in poor health for five years. The devoted wife and loving mother left nine children to mourn her. When their father died three years later in 1905, the children raised themselves, taking care of each other. Francis Louis (Frank), the oldest son, was 22 when his father died, and he took over operation of the store. He was a freighter and had the first truck in Groveland. In 1918, due to increased demands for goods during the Hetch Hetchy construction project, Frank erected another store building (now the Groveland Community Hall) on the other side of the family home. He also built cottages below the train tracks, while his brother Fred (Rico) served as constable during this rather wild period in Groveland’s history. In the mid-1920s, Frank moved with wife Lula Longfellow to Piedmont and rented the newer store building to a succession of grocery stores until 1959, when Tuolumne County acquired it for the Justice Court. This new building of Frank’s also had the first telephone in the area. His older sister, Rose (wife of Henry Michael DeFer

rari), was Groveland’s first telephone operator. In 1936, Frank’s younger brother, Joseph, married Lena Margaret Lertora, and they moved into the family home next to the store. Lena was born in Chinese Camp and raised on the family ranch. Before her marriage to Joseph, she worked in the Tuolumne County Clerk’s office and for the county District Attorney in Sonora. Joe and Lena continued the Cassaretto tradition of service to the community by donating land to Groveland Community Services District for the town’s 500,000-gallon water tank and donating to the upkeep of the water and sewer lines. Lena even opened her kitchen pantry to serve as the town’s public library during the 1940s. She was active in the Tuolumne County Farm Bureau, Figli d’ Italia, STCHS, GCSD, VFW, Groveland Homemakers and generously helped repair and maintain Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church where several family members are now interred. Joe died in 1969 and Lena in 2001 at 96. Joe and Lena’s son, Leonard Cassaretto, impeccably maintains the historic family home, making it the oldest continuously owned structure in Groveland.