Wednesday, September 12, 2012

GARIBALDI VILLA HOTEL AND FLOOD OF 1955

Larry Dunham
‎1955 Flood....Garibaldi Villa Hotel (Front Street)......1894-1958.....Mom said they had great Italian food!...Look at the top of that car! WOW!


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    • Barbara Ball Johnson Thank you, Larry for posting this picture. I'm not sure I've ever seen a great photo of the flood.
       

    • Marvin Del Chiaro We attended several wedding receptions at the Garibaldi; I was pretty young, but I recall the interior looking like a hunting lodge, with trophy heads mounted on the walls, and most fascinating to me were the rattlesnake skins, framed and displayed on the walls.
       
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    • Ivano Franco Comelli Lotsa of Italians stayed there when they first immigrated from Italy. Also at The Swiss Hotel, own by my God Father Tony Micossi. 
       

    • Larry Dunham Wow, great history!
       

    • Elizabeth Gallino I remember eating there as a little girl with my folks. Always spoke Italian there.
       
       
    • Ivano Franco Comelli The Swiss Hotel was located on Water Street and was run by my Godfather Tony Micossi and his wife Rosie Fusari Micossi. Their daughter Rena Micossi sill lives and works in Santa Cruz.
       

    • Ivano Franco Comelli BTW" Rosie Fusari Micossi is the lady on the Front Cover of my book, "La Nostra Costa" along with "Carabiniere" the Gentle Giant of La Costa.
       

    • Kandi Lippert my parents took us there also
       
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      Bill Gledhill


      I believe the Garabaldi was owned by the Costella family. Joe Costella, my wife's uncle used to tell stories about the citizenship classes they would have for the new Italian immigrants so they could pass the test to become citizens. 



 

---First posted on the "La Nostra-Costa (Our Coast), A Santa Cruz North Coast Journal, by Larry Dunham. 
 

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1 comment:

Ivano Franco Comelli said...

Comment from Gino Campioni:

Ciao Ivano,

Thanks for the photos on the blog, especially of the Garibaldi Villa. I was asked once to play someaccordion music there for a women’s club. I think I drove there by myself, which means it was in1954 or later.

I wore a powder-blue suit which I had used for the graduation photos, with a maroon tie borrowed from my father. (Guglielmo "Baffi" Campioni).

I set up my spindly music stand, which could be folded into a bundle of about a foot in length.

While I was playing, a waitress came by with a large tureen of minestrone, and stumbled on the music stand and SPLAT! Minestrone all over the suit and the accordion. After a dry cleaning, the suit was as good as new. The tie went back to my father, and it is with him to this date. It went well with his brown suit.

The accordion still has minestrone stains on the white parts of the bellows.

By the way, one of my first tasks on my first full-time job with Costella and Caiocca TV & Appliance was scraping river mud out of TV cabinets.

Oh yes, and did you hear the one about the older couple living in that hotel, and when the flood waters started rising, their furniture began to float. When the water was up to the windows, the old man had his wife sit on the floating couch, and floated her out the window. Then he accompanied her on the piano.

I hear your groan.

Saluti e stammi bene.

Gino

Ivano says: Thanks Gino. And yes a big "groan" at your "joke". SA Ivn0

8:25 AM

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