Peirano Market facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Peirano Market |
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Peirano Market in 2014
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| Location | 204 East Main Street, Ventura, California |
| Built | 1877 |
The Peirano Market is a very old and important building in Ventura, California. It's also known as Peirano's Grocery or Peirano Store. This red brick building was built in 1877. It has cool designs made from bricks and a special roof with Spanish-style tiles. It stands right across the street from the Mission San Buenaventura.
For over 100 years, from the 1880s to the 1980s, the Peirano family ran a general store and then a grocery store here. Because of its history, the building became a Ventura City Historic Landmark in 1978. Even older discoveries were made beneath it in 1991. Archaeologists found parts of the San Buenaventura Mission's old laundry area, called the Lavanderia. This discovery also became a historic landmark. The building is part of the Mission San Buenaventura Historic District too.
The city bought the Peirano Market building in 1987. It was empty for more than 10 years. From 1998 to 2016, it was home to different restaurants. The building has been empty since 2016, but it is planned to open again soon as Peirano's Market & Delicatessen.
Contents
Building the Market and Its First Years
How the Building Was Built
In 1877, a well-known builder named J. J. Mahoney constructed this building. He built it for two people named Blackburn and Brooks. Mahoney was famous for building many structures in Ventura during the 1870s.
The first person to rent the building was Alex Gandolfo. He was an immigrant from Italy. Gandolfo opened a store that sold many different things, like groceries and other general goods. News reports from December 1877 said that Gandolfo had moved into his new store. Many Italian families, like the Lagomarsino and Ferro families, also came to Ventura around the same time as Gandolfo.
Nick Peirano Sr. Takes Over
In the early 1880s, Alex Gandolfo's nephew, Nicola "Nick Sr." Peirano (1862-1937), came to Ventura from Genoa, Italy. Nick Sr. worked in Gandolfo's store. He even slept in a small room upstairs. Around 1888, Gandolfo left Ventura, and Nick Sr. took over the business. In those early days, the store sold almost everything! You could buy groceries, farm tools, wine, cigars, and even things like shotgun shells and black powder.
Nick Sr. married Clara Raffetto, who was also an Italian immigrant, in 1897. They had six children. The family lived in a beautiful Queen Anne style house. This house was built for them in 1897, just one block from the store.
The Peirano Brothers Run the Store
In 1931, Nick Sr.'s sons, Nick Jr. (1907-1994) and Victor (1903-1965), took over the family business. They changed the store. Instead of selling general goods and hardware, they focused on groceries. They even started a home delivery service! Over time, the Peirano brothers became famous for their Italian groceries. They sold many kinds of pasta, salami, old cheeses, and imported canned goods. People would drive from far away just to buy Italian foods at their store.
Nick Sr. passed away in 1937. Victor continued to live in the family home with his mother. The Peirano family owned this house until 1978. Nick Jr. married Ruby Bounds and moved to a different home.
In 1965, Victor Peirano died. Nick Jr. then ran the business by himself.
A Step Back in Time: The Old-Fashioned Grocery Store
As new supermarkets opened and more people moved to other parts of the city, the Peirano Market faced challenges. But Nick Jr. decided to keep things the same. He once said, "That was what was so unique about our store. We didn't change." The store was loved for its old-fashioned feel. It had wallpaper from the early 1900s and original wooden floors. You could find big sacks of beans and a glass case filled with different pastas.
The store was decorated with many old items. There were antique cans and bottles, an old mail bag, and a grandfather clock. Nick Sr. got the clock in 1904 for buying a lot of tobacco. A large kerosene lamp hung from the ceiling. There was also a Model T car lantern from the store's first delivery truck and an old fire hose nozzle. In 1973, a newspaper story about the market said it offered "Nostalgia and Italian delicacies."
In 1978, the City of Ventura named the store and the Peirano family home as historic landmarks. Nick Jr. hadn't asked for this. He felt it added "more red tape" if he wanted to sell the store. A local newspaper called Nick Jr. himself "a kind of walking, talking historical landmark."
In July 1986, Nick Jr. retired and closed the store for good.
City Buys the Building and Finds Old Treasures
Murals and City Ownership
In 1986, the City of Ventura asked an art teacher named Linda Lorr to paint large murals on the outside wall of the building. These murals looked like old advertisements from the late 1800s. Nick Jr. remembered that his father used to have new ads painted on the wall every year. This created many layers of paint, which Linda Lorr found when she prepared the wall. Today, you can still see her murals advertising Ghirardelli chocolate and Borax on the building's west wall.
In 1987, the city's Redevelopment Agency bought the building. They used money from their own funds and a grant from the state. The city tried to find new owners or renters, but it was hard. The building needed expensive repairs to make it safe from earthquakes.
Digging Up History: Archaeological Discoveries
In 1991, the Redevelopment Agency hired an archaeologist named Roberta Greenwood. She and her team dug trenches under the Peirano's store. They found amazing things! They discovered the remains of the San Buenaventura Mission Lavanderia. This Lavanderia, now a Ventura Historic Landmark, was where the Mission's Chumash people washed clothes. It also helped direct water to the nearby gardens.
The Lavanderia had a big tank for water, strong supports, and a system of drains and channels. These moved water to and from the laundry area. The archaeologists also found many other items. They found old dishes, bottles, ammunition, and even Chinese artifacts like opium pipes. Roberta Greenwood said there was a huge amount of different items. They only found two small pieces of Native American stone bowls.
Finding the Lavanderia and all these artifacts made things more complicated for the city. They had to decide if the Lavanderia or the Peirano Market was more historically important. This also made it harder for the city to redevelop the area.
What Happened Next: Restaurants and Re-opening Plans
A Long Time Empty
In 1993, a company wanted to tear down the building. They said it would be too expensive to fix it for earthquakes. But a local artist, Richard Peterson, started a "Save Peirano's" campaign. He suggested turning the building into a museum, art gallery, gift shop, and coffee house. Neither idea happened. The debate continued about whether the city should spend a lot of money to fix the building or let it be torn down.
The building stayed empty for over ten years. People worried because homeless people sometimes snuck into the building at night. In August 1996, a fire broke out upstairs. Firefighters called it "suspicious."
Restaurants from 1998 to 2016
In 1997, a company called KL Associates bought the building. They spent a lot of money to fix it up, including making it safe from earthquakes. The outside of the building was kept and restored to look like it used to. However, most of the inside was changed, except for the original wooden floors. The Lavanderia (the old laundry area) was not part of the new restaurant. Instead, it was made stronger with steel beams and covered with sand to protect it.
In August 1998, after being empty for more than 10 years, a Mediterranean restaurant called Jonathan's at Peirano's opened. Later, in 2011, the ownership changed. The building became Peirano's Restaurant and the Red Room. The restaurant closed in January 2016.
Getting Ready to Re-open
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In 2017 and early 2018, the inside of the building was renovated again. It's getting ready to open as a new Peirano's Market & Delicatessen. This new market will have a coffee and juice bar, fresh pastries, a deli, a meat and fish counter, and a salad bar. There will also be outdoor seating in the nearby Figueroa Plaza. Jim Rice and Linda Jordan are the new owners.
