John Augustus Raffetto, Sr. (March 1, 1864 – October 11, 1954) was an Italian-American businessman who founded the First National Bank of Placerville and ran the Ivy House and Cary House hotels.[1][2]
Background
John Augustus Raffetto Sr. was born in Newtown, California, to Domenico Raffetto and Anna Pensa, both of Ognio, a mountain village northeast of Genoa, Italy. His father arrived in California "by way of the Isthmus of Panama in 1859, and the mother joined him later... They were among the most substantial of the early California pioneers." His parents were subsistence farmers in Newtown, whose only income was sale of firewood to the Arcade Bakery in downtown Placerville.[1][2]
Career
In his youth, Raffetto walked more than 60 miles one way to farm during summers in Genoa, Nevada; he would earn $60 a summer. He became a miner and earned $1.50 per day.
Ivy House Hotel
On February 4, 1895, Raffetto and a friend named Potts saved up enough money to buy the Conklin Academy in Placerville, which they turned into the Ivy House Hotel. In 1890, he bought out his partner and became sole proprietor. The Ivy House had fifty rooms and dining hall. The Ivy House was board for miners, serving them breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eventually, son John Augustus Raffetto Jr. ran the Ivy House as well as a new Ivy Motel next door. Later, the Ivy House became the Placerville Academy, one of the first boarding schools in the state. During the 1950s, the City of Placerville tore down the hotel to make parking lots.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
In 1908 (or 1911[2]), Raffetto bought the Cary House. In 1915, he demolished and rebuilt it with three stories that had fifty-four rooms (fifteen with baths), coffee shop, and dining room. His oldest son renamed it the Raffles Hotel. (It is now again the Cary House.)[1][2][6][8][9]
Raffetto became a director of the First National Bank of Placerville.[1] In 1917, in the name of the Cary House, Raffetto became one of three founding members of the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce, based in Placerville.[11]
Personal
On April 22, 1896, Raffetto married Adela Isadeen Creighton (March 30, 1875 – February 9, 1927[1][12]) of Smithflat, California. They had six children, four of whom survived early childhood, all born in the Ivy House Hotel with only a midwife:
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Hoover, Mildred Brook; William N. Abeloe; Hero Eugene Rensch; Ethel Grace Rensch (1966). Historic Spots in California. Stanford University Press. pp. 80, 82. ISBN9780804740203. Retrieved 4 January 2014.