A slice of history

Steve Mauro didn’t carry on his family’s tradition of running the neighborhood grocery store. But he did keep the memory alive in his garage.

His grandfather, Charles Mauro, opened the Mauro’s Grocery store in 1920, after coming to the United States from Italy and working on the Spokane railroads. The family lived in the Minnehaha neighborhood store for 50 years and operated it for nearly eight decades.

Charles Mauro’s sons, Ralph and Silvio, ran the family business until the late 1990s, when health problems prompted the sale of the store.

When the new owners decided to undertake a renovation – Steve Mauro saw a chance to maintain his family’s legacy.

“That store was such a huge part of our family,” said Steve Mauro, 45. “And it’s still part of our family. We grew up there. And that stuff never should go away.”

Over the past few years, he has collected memorabilia from the grocery store – everything from his grandfather’s receipt book and original counter to the bricks from the store’s façade – and set up a miniature replica in his garage.

He used 4,000 bricks from the store to have a mailbox holder created, the front of his home decorated and an outdoor barbecue constructed in his backyard.

Mauro, who is a beer salesman, built the garage 10 years ago, anticipating that he would someday collect the relics from the family’s past.

“Having part of the store here, (gives) the kids a slice of history,” said Susie Mauro, Steve’s wife.

The pole barn-type garage stands in the Mauro’s backyard, less than a mile from the original grocery store on the corner of Thor Street and Euclid Avenue.

“That’s why I wanted to stay in the neighborhood,” Steve Mauro said.

Outside the garage, Steve Mauro displays the stop sign and street markers for the intersection where the grocery store was located. A weathered Coca-Cola sign – with “Mauro’s” emblazoned on it – hangs on the garage siding.

The small garage is a step back in time: An old steel safe rests against the back wall. A scale sits on a red-and-white-checked tile counter, made from tiles taken from the store’s decorative front entrance.

A faded list of families in the neighborhood – to whom Charles Mauro often delivered groceries – hangs framed on the wall. The first cash register in the store sits on an original counter. Nearby stands a petite grocery cart.

After work Steve Mauro goes to the garage to relax, watch TV in an easy chair and reflect.

His family members, friends and neighbors also frequently stop by.

“People from the neighborhood who remember the store; they just remember everything,” Mauro said. “They say, ‘I remember the counter. I remember this.’ And the stories start flying.”

Etter Milla, who grew up with Steve’s father, said some of his first memories are of hanging out at the Mauro’s Grocery store, swapping stories and eating treats.

The store was the mainstay of the community, he said. Charles Mauro often wrote letters home for fellow Italian immigrants. If kids were short on change for their purchases, he slipped them a quarter. Men gathered to let off steam after a long day’s work.

Charles Mauro sold his well-known sausage, stocked in-demand olives and ordered grapes for local families to make wine.

“I think they took excellent care of the neighborhood,” said Milla, 83. “It was a good family store.”