The Mediterranean Revival Style home at the corner of B and Spring Streets was built in 1929 by A.M. Seeberg for Catterina Carpella Berri.
Catterina was born in 1868 in Ticino, Switzerland, to Giuseppe and Grace Bedolla Carpella. As a young girl, she immigrated to California to join her older sister Severina, who had married a Swiss-Italian dairy rancher in Olema named Stephano Toroni. A second sister, Modesta, also immigrated to California, marrying Joseph Silacci of Salinas. Catterina’s brother, Joseph Carpella, remained behind in Switzerland.
Catterina lived in Olema with the Toroni family until her marriage in 1898 to Bartolomeo Berri. A 46-year old, Swiss-Italian immigrant, Berri was partners with his brother Vittore in the Berri Bros. Dairy Ranch at Salmon Creek near Marshall in Marin County.
Catterina and Bartolomeo resided on the Berri Ranch until Bartolomeo retired in 1907, at which time they moved to Petaluma, purchasing a house at 816 B Street. Bartolomeo died in 1918, leaving Catterina a small fortune of $75,000 ($1.6 million in today’s currency).
The couple did not have any children. After Bartolomeo’s death, Catterina’s niece and nephew, Sara and Stephen Toroni, came to live with her following the death of their mother, Catterina’s sister Severina.
In 1929, Catterina purchased an empty lot on the corner of B and Spring streets from Charles Lynch, whose family had owned the property since 1875. She then hired A. Mariam Seeberg, a popular Norwegian architect and contractor in Petaluma, to build a new home for her and her niece and nephew.
Seeberg, who had designed and built a number of residential and commercial buildings in town, designed Catterina’s new house in the Mediterranean Revival Style popular among his Swiss-Italian clients.
Acclaimed at the time as one most elegant homes in town, it became a signature building for Seeberg, along with his design of Charles Garzoli’s house on Old Redwood Highway in Penngrove.
A avid gardener, Catterina took great pride in her prize-winning flower beds, which she planted with seeds imported from Europe. She died at her home on B Street in 1937, attended by her niece and nephew, Sara and Stephen Toroni, who continued to reside at the house for the next couple decades.
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SOURCES:
“Married in San Francisco,” Petaluma Courier, June 8, 1898.
“Marriage Licenses,” San Francisco Examiner, June 5, 1898.
“Mrs. Toroni Died in Olema,” Petaluma Courier, May 25, 1912.
“B. Berri is Summoned,” Petaluma Courier, June 12, 1918.
“Left Big Estate to His Widow,” Geyserville Gazette, July 5, 1918.
“Purple and Pink, Blue and Gold, Flower Show Story in Short is Told,” Petaluma Courier, May 1, 1927.
“A.M. Seeberg Will Build New Building for Hunt & Behrens,” Petaluma Argus, July 27, 1927.
“Mrs. B. Berri Will Build Costly Home,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, July 5, 1929.
“Gorgeous Flower from Berri Gardens,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, June 1, 1933
“Funeral Notices,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, July 6, 1937.
“A. Mariam Seeberg, Long Prominent Here, Succumbs,” Petlauma Argus-Courier, August 9, 1946.