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Featured photos - AND a masters thesis about a Freeland
business!
Ralph Pecora and his tailor business, sent by Emily Pecora
All of our featured photos have been wonderful, and this month we've got something extra special. Emily Pecora has recently completed a Masters Thesis about the tailoring business of Ralph Pecora, Sr., which stood on Freeland's Centre Street from the early 1900s until Ralph's death in 1959. While the thesis will be of particular interest to those who knew Ralph or other members of the Pecora family, it should have a larger appeal to all Freelanders and ex-Freelanders. It can be downloaded in full here (see below).
Emily is the great granddaughter of Ralph Pecora, Sr. and the
granddaughter
of Amelia Pecora. She welcomes comments or corrections and is
particularly
interested in any additional reminisces or information about Ralph and
his
family. She can be contacted at emily.pecora@gmail.com.
The
Tailor of
Freeland: Everyday Life,
Labor, and Community in a Pennsylvania Town, by Emily Pecora
Clicking these links will open Adobe PDF files of Emily's thesis. If you don't have Adobe Reader on your computer you can download it for free at www.adobe.com.
Preface,
illustrations, table of contents - (PDF file size = 1
MB)
Chapter 1 - (PDF
file size = 3.1 MB)
Chapter 2 - (PDF
file size = 5.1 MB)
Chapter 3 - (PDF
file size = 4.7 MB)
The descriptions of these photos come from Emily herself.
This is
Ralph and his staff in front of the tailor shop, probably at some time
in the 1910's. From let to right, those pictured are Ralph
Pecora, his sister Louise Pecora, Luther Peters, Gerard Mazziotta, and
Ralph's brother Michael Pecora. At this time, the tailor shop
occupied the full first floor of the building. Later, Ralph would
rent out half of the space to an ice cream shop and then to an optician.
Two pages from a
book
used to track hours worked by one of Ralph's
employees from May 1, 1927 to January 30, 1930. Ralph drew the red X's
and
dated the bottom of the pages after settling the accounts.
Ralph's daughter
Amelia Pecora in Freeland, twenty-four years old. Although the
photograph is undated, the following diary entry almost certainly
records its taking: "Feb. 4, 1945 - Daddy took pictures of me by some
huge snow banks on Ridge Street."
Ralph standing in
the doorway of his shop in 1939. The establishment on the right side of
the building is the Hazle Dip Ice Cream parlor, where several of
Ralph's children worked after school. Ex-Freelander Lorraine Rehn
Gricevics used to hang out at this ice cream parlor as a teenager and
was impressed that, though the patrons sometimes got loud, Ralph never
complained about the noise.
New
updates to
the site: Please see the News &
announcements page for the
latest site updates.
Click here to see past featured photos.
Note: Photo at top
left comes from J. Zubach; identification
from Gretchen
Collins says that the business on the right
in that photo was Merkt Confectionery, run by
Charles and Lena Merkt. It was located in the Birkbeck Block on Centre
and Main streets, and reputedly sold fabulous ice cream.