Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1857
Bob Rugo writes:
Seeing Judy Tuttle’s photo of the marker in her walk reminded me that I had never gone to find and photograph this marker on Melville Avenue about which I had been told many years ago. I found it in the driveway of 92 Melville Avenue. It was probably installed in 1922 as Joseph Rugo, my great grandfather, signed a building permit for the construction of a garage at the property that Spring. At that time he lived at 173 Magnolia Street, near Quincy Street, and had an office in town at 80 Boylston Street, the Little Building, corner of Tremont Street, overlooking the Common, now part of Emerson.
The adjacent home at 98 Melville Avenue was owned by the Piotti family and they also built a garage in 1922. I believe that there may have been a similar marker in that driveway. Twenty years earlier my great grandparents had been tenants of the Piotti family, living on Piotti Place, off Franklin Court, across from 321 Norfolk Avenue, by the Norfolk Tap where they blew up a car this past weekend as part of a film shoot. Most of that area is gone, now part of the Boston Edison / NSTAR facility fronting on Mass. Ave. I suspect that the connection to the Piotti family at 98 Melville was how Joseph Rugo got the job for the garage and driveway at 92 Melville Avenue.
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