Prepping the Sunday Sauce

Artist: Denise Micciche
Title: Prepping the Sunday Sauce
Medium: Mixed Media (Acrylic & Wood Burning)

Felix and Michelina Tomeo built the Jacoe Store and this small house in 1904. They started their family here and eventually built a larger house for their growing family. Grace Rossi and her six children moved into the Tomeo house in 1924, after the passing of her husband, Mike Rossi. Here, she washed and mended clothes to earn money while her children attended school and worked odd jobs before and after school. Although we don’t know too much about Grace, we know how hard she worked to support her family. Grace was known for her signature spaghetti sauce that she would make with lard, an affordable, nutrient dense addition.  

The kitchen was the main living space for both the Tomeos and the Rossi family. Tomatoes would have been a staple in their gardens and perhaps the Rossi boys were given tomatoes as payment for delivering groceries from the Jacoe Store next door.

Grace was a young woman when she left Italy to come to Louisville. By the end of her life, Grace lived with her son, Guy, in Denver with her other children nearby. She passed away at 79 years old. In 1986, her house on Main St. became the first home for the Louisville Historical Museum. Today, the Museum uses the Tomeo House to share the story of Louisville’s working-classes and their invaluable and important role in the development of the town.

Does your family have an immigrant story or a favorite recipe?