Angelo and Ida Fraschina, A New Family 1910-1920

On October 5, 1910, Angelo and Ida became the proud parents of Filippo, always known as Keeno, from the Italian diminutive, "marmocchino," (pronounced mar-mo-keeno), an affectionately teasing word for a baby boy.

Ida in early 1911, with baby Keeno

The 1910 U.S. Census found Angelo and Ida living at 6 Imperial Avenue, which was, despite its name, a tiny street off Greenwich, between Gough and Franklin in the Cow Hollow neighborhood that was home to a large percentage of San Francisco's Italian immigrant community.

As was so often true for immigrants, the Fraschinas lived with extended family: in this case with Elisabetta and her husband, Frances Blanchard, who had come to San Francisco from Virgina and was working as a teamster for the Spring Valley Water Company; their little daughter, Marcella, always called Fifi; and Ida and Elisabetta's mother, Caterina Galli.  In the census data, Angelo's profession is listed for the first time as "architect:"

The family, circa 1912, on Imperial Avenue.  Angelo, with his distinctive goatee is on the right with Keeno. Ida is on the left of the group of three women in the center. 

At the time, the land across the street was taken up by an enormous plant nursery and a stable and Keeno remembered hearing the frogs croaking and the horses neighing in the evenings and seeing the lamplighter lighting the gas streetlights at dusk.

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Below, Imperial Avenue, 102 years later

The building on the right is 6 Imperial Avenue, where the Fraschina and Blanchard families lived.

Above and Below: Bennett Lieberman, Angelo and Ida's great-grandson at 6 Imperial Avenue in 2015

Bennett and his daughter Lauren at the window of 6 Imperial Ave.

Lauren with the message she left on the white board at 6 Imperial Ave.!

Three generations of the Galli/Leiberman family: Lois Cohen Leiberman, Fifi's daughter; her son Bennett and Bennet's daughter Lauren.

Lois's younger son Scott's daughters, Madeline and Sydney visited their great-grandmother Fifi's childhood home in 2015:

Dave Cohen, Fifi's son, at the Imperial Ave House in 2016, where Fifi and the rest of the Fraschina-Galli-Blanchard family lived after the Earthquake.

Photo taken January 29, 1910

The Mandolin Club of Angelo's partner in house painting, Mr. Mazzuchi, who, however, played the triangle (second row from the back, third from the right).  Ida and Angelo enjoyed their performances and Ida in particular loved mandolin music.

Angelo and Keeno in 1912

In 1913, tragedy struck a devastating blow to the family.  On April 16, Elisabetta died after a doctor performing a procedure left surgical sponges in her body which led to gangrene. She died at home because at that time there were no antibiotics and there was nothing they could do to save her. She was 28 years old.

Elisabetta in 1903, wearing one of the hats she made

Elisabetta, date unknown

Francis Blanchard, Elizabetta's husband, in the only two surviving photos of him, above and below, on the far right.

Then in late July of 1913, Francis Blanchard still grieving over the loss of his wife, was severely injured while working on the rebuilding of San Francisco City Hall, when a construction elevator fell on him and fractured his skull.  He lingered for several days before dying on August 1, 1913 at the age of 37.

 The combined blows of these two losses were too much for Caterina Galli. Her unbearable grief led to her death on December 17, 1913. She was 66 years old.

The only known photograph of Caterina Galli

 In the aftermath of this triple loss, Ida though devastated at losing her sister and best friend; her beloved mother; and her kind brother-in-law, turned her attention to nurturing Fifi and, with Angelo, gladly raised her as their daughter. Since the Blanchard and Fraschina families had been living together in No. 6, Imperial Avenue for the past three years, Fifi was already a part of their family. Now, Angelo and Ida became her parents and Keeno, her little brother.

The family, circa early 1914.

Angelo with his two children, Keeno and Fifi