Friday, January 20, 2012

It Took Years, But Work On Raccuglia's Façade Almost Completed

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Before
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After
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Since 2007, Raccuglia's Funeral Home on the corner of Sackett and Court Street, has been hidden behind scaffolding, but in all the years since, no work ever seemed to take place on the building.  Local residents often wondered what was going on and why the scaffolding seemed to have become a permanent fixture.
Then, finally, in October 2011, workers started chipping off the 1960's style stone face, exposing the original brick.  Unfortunately, much of the façade was in pretty bad shape and entire sections of brick had to be replaced.
Over the last few days, the scaffolding has finally come down, revealing the (almost) finished result .  Only a little bit of that stone face is still visible behind the old sign above the entrance on Sackett. 
So, what do you think of the transformation?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks much better, but those white windows should have been replaced with black. White windows on brick facades look cheap. They're a pet peeve of mine.

jill said...

windows should be black/dark brown--absolutely hate the white!

Anonymous said...

Looks good, I'm sure everyone in the nabe has been dying for it to come down!

Anonymous said...

Looks good, I'm sure that everyone in the nabe has been dying for it to come down!

SimpleTwig said...

Brick work looks great and will be an asset to the neighborhood for years to come. They may of left the stone work because it was solid and would be covered with perhaps a stucco finish... the base looks incomplete.

Hard to tell in the photos but it looks like they have the stone street signs still in place, hope you can still read them.

Anonymous said...

Was that the location used in the funeral home scene in the '70's movie The Seven Ups?

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to see that Raccuglia's is being finished. He's a good man that took good care of so many people in this neighborhood, and did alot of favors for people who have seemed to forget. He buried many who's family didn't have finances or even a grave and he took care of it all and never asked for anything in return - NEVER. Who else can you say that about? It would have been nice if people he took care of remember and maybe lent a hand to actually do some work there - oh well. A few yrs back he did the funeral for the boy who was killed by a truck on Hamilton Ave when he was crossing the street with his sister, all for free. He remembers he's a neighborhood man, who does what he can. I don't think anyone should complain about the scaffolding, of the color of his windows... if you don't like them, you can pay to have them redone.

C.G. Family since 1863 said...

To Anon: 10:28 P/M

You are right! For everything Vincent Raccuglia (and family) has done for this neighborhood we should be looking to HELP him instead of compalining about the color of his window frames.

Do you think any of the other Funeral Homes would 'present' your loved one on credit? I think not!

And Anon - Yes, I remember that he buried that child for free and I know of many others who "went under" 'on the cuff'