In 1899 prince of pasta Louis Bicocchi bought lots 9 and 10 of the Smith, Jones & Daggett addition on Jennings Avenue at the corner of Daggett Street on the near South Side.
The deed was filed on September 6. Clip is from the September 7 Dallas Morning News.
Bicocchi built a wooden building on the property to house his Fort Worth Macaroni Company factory but in 1905 relocated the factory to a larger building at Daggett and Louisiana streets. In 1907 the wooden building on Jennings was destroyed by fire. Alfred Bicocchi was Louis’s brother.
On July 26, 1907 the Telegram reported that Bicocchi planned to build a two-story brick commercial building to replace the wooden building destroyed by fire.
The deed card shows the date of September 5, 1899 and shows that Bicocchi also built a residence on West Daggett Street behind the 100-by-60-foot commercial building.
A 1910 Sanborn map shows Fort Worth High School, the Bicocchi Building, and the Bicocchi residence at 422 West Daggett Street.
The Bicocchi Building was completed about 1909. The ground floor housed retail businesses, and the second floor contained apartments for students of the high school across the street (although the school burned soon after the Bicocchi Building opened). This photo shows horse-drawn delivery vans of Bicocchi Building businesses. (Photo courtesy of Pointwise, Inc.)
For example, in 1912 the ground floor housed an art glass company, a grocer, a dyer, a dressmaker, and a druggist. Grocer John Deem’s delivery van is the second from the left in the photo above.
Some views of the Bicocchi Building:
This face with the scallop-shell corona is said to be a likeness of Bicocchi’s daughter Clotilda. She was about twenty-six in 1909.
Clotilda attended St. Ignatius Academy and Our Lady of Victory. Clip is from the June 12, 1898 Dallas Morning News.
