Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

The Todiscos had a great uncle in New York who was an architect. He came to Boston on a visit and also in Wellesley. If your on the main road [ed: Rte. 16] coming up into Wellesley and from the police station and library on your left you will come to an intersection and a little to the left you will see a church. It is colored in white paint and sits on a mound. It was designed by my great-great uncle. He gave them the plans for nothing to the worshipers of that religion.

His son, Palmarino began an architect. In my file cabinet there is a story about this which Uncle Fred gave this story to the press.

[ed: The photocopied article was torn out of the Wellesley Townsman (I think). The page and date were cut off. Uncle Alfred died in 1972.]

Alfred Todesco Began Shoe Repairing Half Century Ago

by Margaret S. Urann

A familiar figure in Wellesley Square for over 50 years, Alfred A. Todesco, of 39 Atwood Street continues to this day the shoe repair business he bought from his prospective father-in-law, John Ardolino before he reached the age of 18.

Born in Avellino, Italy, one of seven children, Mr. Todesco learned the trade from his father, Anthony, prior to his departure for America in 1908 when he was 16.

On arrival, he lived in Framingham with a brother, Joseph who had established himself there as a barber. While there Alfred worked at the R. H. Long shoe factory, now used as headquarters of the R. H. Long Motor Sales Company. (This firm is now operated by Richard H. Long's son, Charles F. Long. A granddaughter, Dorothy Long Palmer, is the wife of Blake K. Palmer who operated the company's dealership in Wellesley)

After a few months at the factory, Mr. Todesco came to Wellesley to work in the shoe repair shop of John Ardolino, who lived on Middlesex Street. The shop was located in the Shaw Block (consisting of two two stores and an upstairs apartment) on the north side of Wellesley Square next to the Shattuck Block. (The westerly store used first as a meat market, was occupied by several fruit dealers prior to the establishment of the Wellesley Fruit Company in 1912. This business continued for at least 15 years. The other store's first occupant was a barber, F. O. Cripps who was followed by the Wellesley Shoe Store operated by Lucius A. Kinnear of Brook Street. Mr. Kinnear sold out to John Ardolino.

Buy A Business

Within a year's time, Alfred Todesco had acquired Mr. Ardolino's business in his own right and five years later he married Esther Ardolino, a daughter of his former boss. During World War I Mr. Todesco served with the armed forces in Europe. Receiving his United States citizenship in 1927, he celebrated by running for Selectman against Patrick J. Fitzpatrick.

He moved to his present quarters at 542 Washington Street, on the opposite side of Wellesley Square around 1931 when the building and erect the present more spacious block. [ed now the Wellesley Bakery] Through the years he had a succession of helpers generally two at a time until the era of World War II proved that few young men were interested in his trade. Some of his former assistants, who learned the business from him, now have shops of their own. Among them is Bob Inipallaria of Bow Street in the Lower Falls area of Wellesley.

Meanwhile, around the corner in the Grove Street part of the Shattuck Block, Jimmy Cassano had started his shoe repair shop in 1904. Before many years had elapsed, Mr. Cassano and Mr. Todesco became brothers-in-law each having married a daughter of Mr. Ardolino. Jimmy Cassano sold his busines in 1922 to Charles Alexander, who continues in the same building to the present, and the former then devoted all his time to his second shop in Framingham where he is still active after 57 years in the trade. Mrs. Adeline Cassano and Mr.s Esther Todesco are now both deceased.

It is a famil tradition that an uncle of Esther Todesco namely Charles Ardolino of Middlesex Street was the first customer of the Wellesley National Bank when it was opened in the Taylor Block in 1904; his deposit of $1,000, on the first day was a sizeable "nest egg" for those times. Another uncle, Edward Ardolino,, dedicated designs for the reconstruction of the Wellesley Congregational Church after the wooden structure had been destroyed by fire in 1916, and he gave $1,000 toward the present brick edifice built according to his plans. Well known for his expert stone carvings, some of which adorns buildings on the Wellesley College campus, Edward Ardolino did some of the stone designs on St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York when it was remodeled. Today, his son, Edward Ardolino, Jr. carries on the New York business.

As the Todesco family was very "closely knit", Mr. Todesco's children were most concerned for his welfare after the death of their mother in 1940. However, it turned out his friends were legion, as the saying goes, and he has never failed for companionship. Besides he has been active in many community affairs over a long period.

Community Interests

Mr. Todesco is past commander of the Framingham post, Italian-American World War Veterans of the United States, which he now serves as senior vice commander and veteran counselor. He is a charter member of the Italo-American Educational Club of Wellesley. He has been a Town Meeting Member ever since the beginning of that form of town government in 1936 and a registered Notary Public since 1932. He was a steamship agent for over a decade  and he is now a dealer for quite a line of footwear.

Always a friend of the needy, Mr. Todesco has taken many a man home with him for supper and a night's lodging and then found him a job. During the depression years of the 1930s, he worked with the late Rev. Edward Dunne and the late Rev. Ambrose Dore of St. Paul's in an effor to supply shoes for the impoverished persons throughout the community as well as in his parish.

His supreme hobby is the art of Italian cookery, which he proudly taught to his four daughters-in-law. He has always had a vegetable garden at his home on Atwood Street, where he has resided for nearly 45 years. Although living alone, he keeps in close touch with all members of his family. These include his brother, Joe, now retired in Framingham, and a sister, Mrs. Angelina DeCristoforo, in Revere. Another brother, Archie [ed: Achille, Dad's father] lived in East Boston. His second sister and two other brothers remained in Italy, where only one brother survives. He is related to Judge Vincent Mottola of Boston, who is a frequent visitor at his home.

His only daughter, continues to live in Wellesley [ed: she now lives in New Hampshire] as do two of his four sons Charles, a Lieutenant in the Wellesley Fire Department, and Arthur, a self-employed public accountant. Anthony is a sales representative of American Thread Company in Newington, Conn. while Fred is a supply salesman who resides in Medfield. Mr. Todesco's pride in his children is excelled only by his delight in having 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Their friends are his friends over and above his contemporaries.

Throughout the half century of his career in Wellesley, Mr. Todesco has served countless students as well as townspeople and even the famous persons who found their way to his shop are now too numerous to recall. Some of these have been the actors and actresses appearing at Wellesley Summer Theater on the Green, which has often looked to him for the supply of props. He occasionally loans boots, shoes,  and supplies to students at Wellesley College and Dana Hall for use as models in their art courses. Right now he is missing a shoe belonging to one of his sons. He is certain that it will turn up some day - although he has no idea who borrowed it!