I was very excited to be able to interview my second cousin Viola LoPrete (Fingerlow), who is the youngest daughter of Dominic LoPrete. Viola related a very interesting family story as follows:
Viola was very proud to have been able to work with her father to help establish a very successful business in the city of Niagara Falls, NY. She recollects at age twelve to almost eighteen she worked along-side him to help with his ice cream business and now was approached by me to tell about how an immigrant father and mother worked very hard to accomplish their dream in America.
Dominic LoPrete was a very well-known and prominent business man in the Niagara Falls area for many years starting in the late 1920’s. Dominic was born on May 7, 1892, in Catanzaro, Calabria, Italy and emigrated to the United States. He departed Naples, IT on the SS Pesaro arriving in New York City, NY on October 26, 1920.
He met and married her mother, Sarah (Paonessa) LoPrete, who was born on April 11, 1906, in Gimigliano, Catanzaro, Calabria, Italy. They were married on January 19, 1928, in Niagara Falls, NY.
Viola learned that one of Dominic’s earliest endeavors in Niagara Falls was a restaurant he operated in 1927, on 513 Third Street. And sometime around 1934, he operated a confectionary store located at 24th Street next to a small movie theater known as the “Colonial” (long since torn down).
At a very young age Viola remembers two confectionary stores her father opened. One was located at 22nd Street and East Falls Street. Her parents resided in the rear of the store where her mother worked very hard in the home raising her three daughters, Mary LoPrete (Castiglione); Josephine “Joan” LoPrete (Ebbole) and Viola LoPrete (Fingerlow) as well as single-handedly operating the store.
The second store was operated solely by Dominic, located next to the old State Theater on East Falls Street near Portage Road. Viola’s older sister Mary was a great help to her father while spending many hard-working hours at the store during her school years.
Viola tells me that she was told by many that her father made the best “lemon ice” in town which he sold at the two confectionary stores. Everyone just loved it. He had a special secret to it…..his own recipe!!! Even the Nuns and priests from Holy Rosary Church would come to the stores to purchase it. This lemon ice along with his ice cream sold in these stores must have stimulated his urge for his future love of the full-time ice-cream business.
Moviegoers on their way to see a movie at the State Theater would frequently stop in her father’s store for candy, lemon ice, ice cream etc. He was a very generous man and there were times if the kids didn’t have enough money he would treat them.
He never believed in putting all his eggs in one basket, so it was in 1947 that even as a little girl Viola remembers so well when he brought home that brand new 1947 Dodge truck with fancy bright yellow letters written on it…”Dominic LoPrete Wholesale Ice Cream.” The entire neighborhood turned out to see it. It was beautiful! It was very well known all over the streets of Niagara Falls.
So, it was then that the ice-cream truck business started to take on a whole new concept. Dominic started to deliver ice-cream to many stores in Niagara Falls, some of which included, DalPortos Grocery at the corner of Pine Avenue and 21st Street, LaPorto’s Grocery and Patsy Christiano’s Grocery were also on Pine Avenue. And then there were Louie Trapasso’s and Enzinna’s grocery stores on 12th Street between East Falls Street and Niagara Street, and Phil Morgante’s store at the corner of 19th Street and Ferry Avenue.
After all of her father’s hard work in these two businesses it was around 1952 that he blessed their family with a newly built home at 1322 Niagara Street. The home was the whole expanse of the upper floor. On the first floor in the rear of the building was his ice cream business and on the first floor off the street was S’Dao’s Furniture Store.
At this point in time, Dominic closed his two stores and devoted all his time, effort and passion to make a very successful ice cream wholesale business, especially during the summer months which enabled him to work fewer hours throughout the winter.
The people that he serviced in the grocery stores in Niagara Falls were not only customers but many became his friends. His operational hours were Monday through Saturday, but Saturday was the busiest day by far as he would start very early in the morning and work till late in the evening which included weekly trips to Lockport to Castle’s Dairy loading the truck with all kinds of ice cream until it was full.
Each and every order had to be placed in the truck to his liking so it was easily accessible when delivering to his customers. This is when Viola started to drive the truck for him at the age of 16.
While attending school up to the time of graduation from High School, her second older sister Joan was also a great help to her father working on the truck until she found full-time employment.
Viola, lost in all those memories from years ago could go on and on, because her father’s ice cream business touched many establishments all over the City of Niagara Falls….Hyde Park Blvd.; 19th Street; 24th Street; Pine Avenue, and East Falls Street, to name a few. Just for a few cents more for boxes of ice cream, he even supplied customers with ice cream freezers.
Sometime in her early 20’s and newly married, Viola returned to help her father as he had become ill. After being away from the business for several years, she didn’t realize how much she had learned from her father as carrying out the daily business came back very easily for her. The business continued on until he died in 1968.
Viola told me that she was so glad she did return as he was able to feel comfortable knowing somehow his business was still alive and servicing all his customers/friends. Viola said, “One thing she will always remember is that so many people she didn’t know came to his wake to pay their respects. Even though she didn’t know them, they certainly remembered her father from when they were young children. That really touched her.”
Viola says “she really knew the business well and somewhat sad ‘Oh,’ how much I wish I could have carried it on through the years, but we all know that in today’s world there are so many big competitors who have taken over the little “Mom and Pop” type businesses that “Dominic LoPrete Wholesale Ice Cream” would never have survived.”
The Italians of Niagara Falls 