One Block's History

When the Buratti building (later named Buratti-Moreno) was erected in 1905, this E. Sixth Street block embodied the very concept of "mixed-use" through its intermingling of housing and businesses. By the end of the first decade, the Castillo Restaurant operated in the eastern half of the Buratti building, and David Buratti Sr. lived two doors down from his store. Paz Mancha had a barbershop across the street, as did African-American furniture repairers Moore and Mason, and the Costante Michilini Saloon shared space with Theresa Mesa's Restaurant. By 1912 the Buratti Grocery was using both parts of the building. Julius Seaholm opened a tombstone-carving shop at the other end of the block.

Around 1920 the elder Buratti brothers retired from the grocery business and let others run the store for a while, but by 1927 David Buratti Jr. wanted to take over the business, and the sign once again stated "Buratti Grocery." (Later, in 1942, David Jr. would move a house onto the lot at 1015, a few doors down from the grocery, where he and his wife Ellena would live for the rest of their lives.) Also in 1927, Brooks Auto and Livestock Exchange opened at 1000-1002, where it would remain for decades, and Guillermo and Margarita Lopez established a "curio" shop in part of their house at 1008. The Lopez family presence on E. Sixth would stretch on into the 1960s with the shop eventually becoming Lopez Drug Store. At the end of the 1920s, A.C. Ledesma began his long association with the block by opening a barber shop.

In 1932, Nash Moreno started a service station and auto repair shop in the metal building that still stands at 1005. Some time between 1936 and 1940, Roy Velasquez Sr. operated his taxi service at the same address.

For a multitude of reasons, by the mid-Fifties there were few people living on the block besides David Buratti Jr. and Mrs. Lopez. In 1958, the Star Lounge opened, and signaled the beginning of the end for the commercial and residential viability of the block. The lounge morphed into a string of other watering holes, and is now Los Dos Plebes.

In 1963, Buratti Grocery Store closed its doors. By then, many of the block's commercial sites and former homes were already vacant. --C.N.