Built prior to 1892 by the Paschote brothers, this is perhaps the
oldest commercial building on
Main Street.
Its interior walls are clearly shown on the 1893 Sanborn Perris
Company
fire insurance
map. The large structure once had a dance hall on the second floor
named Maple Hall.
Below were a saloon, general store, a veterinary hospital and a
barbershop.
[From a post card c. 1900.
Maple Hall on the right. Frank Terra's General Store is on
the left.]
It was in a building like this that Milpitans held the meeting in
the
1870s which
sent delegates to a State political convention bearing signs
proclaiming, “As Milpitas
Goes, So Goes the State”. This audacious slogan struck many
present as
amusingly
pretentious of the tiny, unincorporated collection of stores,
homes,
and smithies.
For many decades after, Milpitas was the name people across the
USA
used to describe
a small and backward location. When a new scheme was introduced
the
planners would
ask, “Will it play with the man from Milpitas?” By this they meant
would an ordinary
person of little education/sophication approve of the idea. On the
Vaudeville stage
there were standing jokes about the town: the contest winner would
receive a round
trip ticket to Milpitas but the loser only received a one way
ticket.
An episode
of PBS-TV's Sesame Street has a segment in which that gag still
appears.
In the
1920s, a young pharmacist, Sal Cracolice, came to Milpitas to take
over management of the local pharmacy owned by a San Jose
pharmacist located under
the dance hall. Later, he purchased the business and later the
building and for a time the
local U.S. Post
Office was located in its north end. In the 1960s and 1970s Sal's
son
operated a
men's clothing store in the south end of the building. Sal
Cracolice
promoted more
growth of the town and came to be known as "Mr. Milpitas." The
Cracolice
family lived north of the pharmacy on Main Street. The site of
their
home is now
covered by the Calaveras Blvd. overpass. Mr. Cracolice died in
1999
after seeing
his dream of a bustling, metropolis-like Milpitas come true.
In the early 1960s the building was extensively modernized. The
unused
dance hall
was divided into small apartments and another addition was built
on the
north side.
The roof line was changed by adding parapets and the front facade
was
raised and
squared off. However, under certain lighting conditions, one may
still
discern an
outline in bas relief of the building’s gracefully gabled curves
or the
placque that
used to read "Maple Hall". Unchanged, is the doorway and
decorative
tile
work located on the extreme southeast corner of the building's
ground
floor. There, it is
just as it looked in photographs taken before the First World War.
Still owned by the descendents of Sal Cracolice. The view to
the
left is no longer seen due to the construction of dental offices
on the
vacant lot.