07/04/2025
Here's some history on the Buckhorn Building that Cori Peterson researched for the county and passed onto me. Its original owner/builder was Joseph Schiaffino, who with his wife Carmela, came to Sierra County in 1869 and were in Sierra City by the early 1870s.
Interesting thing about Joseph Schiaffino - that wasn't his real name - his actual name was Joseph Repetto, but at some point he started going by Schiaffino. His wife also changed her name from Carmela to Christine at some point. Her maiden name appears to have been Castagnetto. From my research, it looks like some of the Castagnetto family changed their name to Castagna (there's a Castagna Alley in Sierra City), but others kept the original name.
I don't know anything about these name changes - but I have found that some of Sierra County's Italian immigrants were doing some shady business dealings (Richard Castagna for example took off back to Italy after securing the funds of several Sierra City residents) so it could be likely Joseph Schiaffino and his wife were covering up their tracks from something as well.
Richard Castagna's store was a large stone building which stood next door to the current grocery store, but was torn down in 1954. Interesting to note that most of the stone buildings and rock walls in Sierra County were built by Italians - they were great stonemasons, and if you go to Liguria (the region of Italy where Joseph Schiaffino came from, you can see excellent examples of their stonework.
Joseph Schiaffino and his wife had three children - Matilda (married name Matilda Blardone), Cesaro, ano Joseph.
Considering the Schiaffino building shows up in the circa 1871 photo of Sierra City (attached), it was probably built around 1871. This is also the year Schiaffino's store first shows up in business ads and is the same year the brick Busch-Heringlake building was constructed. As discussed, the second floor of the Schiaffino building originally had vertical wood siding. In 1889, Joe Schiaffino added the large addition to the rear of the building which can be seen in some old photos - if I recall correctly, in the 1930s a fire burned up this portion and the attic of the building (hence the charred rafters in the attic).
I've also attached a photo of the building from the HABS-HAER survey of 1934. You can see "Jos. Schiaffino" in lettering above the front doors on the plaster.
Orville L. Holmes bought the building from the Schiaffino estate, and he in turn sold it to Dick and Babe Lewis in the 1940s. After the Buckhorn next door burned down in 1948 (this fire burned the top floor and badly damaged the Busch-Heringlake building), the Buckhorn was moved to the Schiaffino building.
