John Gandolfo was a Yuma businessman who operated steamships on the Colorado River, hauled freight from Yuma to Needles, and accumulated extensive real estate holdings, including hotels and business properties.
Gandolfo, born in Genoa, Italy, in November 1846, immigrated to California with his parents in 1866. He came to Yuma in 1876 “to seek his fortune,” according to a 1974 history written by a friend of the family, Ben Levy.
To reach Arizona, he traveled aboard a ship from Santa Barbara to San Diego and then took passage on a stagecoach that charged $40 in gold. It took the stagecoach 48 hours to reach Yuma, traveling day and night, stopping only to change horses and drivers every 20 miles. A few miles west of Yuma, the stage crossed the Colorado River on Louie Jaeger’s ferry.
In his first business effort, Gandolfo set up a “small, crude-looking” fruit and grocery store at what is now the corner of 2nd and Main streets.
“Business proved to be lively, and Don Juan, as he was begun to be known and called, gradually increased the size of his store and stock that he carried,” Levy wrote.
In 1979, Gandolfo courted and married Beatrice Imperial, from Santa Ana, Mexico, who bore him 10 children.
Gandolfo later expanded his activities by selling mine supplies, bakery goods and general merchandise.
Apparently Gandolfo did well. An 1888 article in the Arizona Sentinel noted that Yuma stores were doing well, “much larger than its population would indicate … . The store of Mr. Gandolfo alone, it is said, does an average business of from $15,000 to $20,000 per month.”
When the rising waters from the Colorado and Gila rivers flooded Yuma in 1891, Gandolfo put his employees to work. Historian Frank Love noted Gandolfo’s workers strengthened the levee that protected Yuma, but the effort failed when water first broke over the Colorado levee and then the Gila levee. Gandolfo was listed among the heaviest losers in the flood.
Gandolfo is credited with persuading young Eugene F. Sanguinetti to leave California in 1887, where he was born near Sacramento in 1867, and come to the “little village on the Colorado,” as reported by the magazine Arizona Days and Ways, Aug. 11, 1957.
Young Eugene secured a job as a clerk in the general merchandise store of Ginochio Co., which he held for four years.
When Ginochio decided to retire, Sanguinetti and Gandolfo purchased the Ginochio store, with Gandolfo getting a two-thirds interest and Sanguinetti a one-third interest.
They retained the store on a partnership basis until 1989. In that year, Sanguinetti went into business for himself.
According to Yuma Fire Department spokesman Mike Erfert, at 3 a.m. on Aug. 30, 1899, the Gandolfo building on the corner of Second and Main streets, occupied by the Sanguinetti and Gandolfo General Merchandise Store, caught on fire.
“Hose carts were brought to play upon the flames but were ineffective in reaching the seat of the fire on the second floor. As the fire spread on the second floor, citizens helped with the removal of merchandise from the lower floor,” Erfert said.
“Disaster struck when the top floor collapsed, trapping five men in the burning building. The victims were identified as Jerry Tapia, Refugio Riveras, father of six, and City Councilman Harry Neahr and Julian Preciado (who was to be married later that same day). Richard Wilson was rescued from the burning building but later succumbed to his injuries.
“Yuma’s Sentinel Newspaper caught the mood of the town when the editor wrote, ‘a pall is cast over the city. Flags fly at half mast and all business has been suspended,’ ” Erfert said.
Not much later, Sanguinetti bought out Gandolfo and began to build his own business empire.
In 1883, Gandolfo built the Gandolfo Building, which housed the Gandolfo Hotel and Gandolfo Café, on Main Street. It was the largest building in Yuma and had more than 50 hotel rooms.
“It was a very elegant hotel,” said Carol Brooks, curator of the Arizona Historical Society Sanguinetti House Museum.
In the mid-1890s, Gandolfo sold his store and focused on development projects.
According to Levy, Gandolfo improved vacant lots, built houses for rental and purchased 60 acres for growing alfalfa.
Between 1904 and 1909, Gandolfo owned an interest in the steamboat “Cochan,” a 237-ton steamer built in 1899 at a cost of $26,000.
In 1905, he built the Gandolfo Annex at 46 W. 2nd St. and originally used it as an office and hotel annex with 35 additional rooms. Its architectural style was reminiscent of the Latin Quarter in New Orleans.
“Previously, he had built a family residence in the rear of the big lot, where the Annex was,” Levy wrote.
In later years, the building was used as Jackson’s grocery store and a Salvation Army thrift store. It also housed Wells Fargo offices, Yuma Herald offices, Stag Café, a hobby and craft shop, art studios and an optometry shop.
In 2009, the city demolished the historic Gandolfo Annex after it sustained extensive damage in an earthquake in early 2008. The building was on the National Register of Historic Places, but it was already in disrepair and had been abandoned for years. It was declared to be surplus city property in 2006.
Local developer and engineer John Sternitzke and the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area had been working with the city in hopes of salvaging at least a portion of the building.
In 1917, Gandolfo built a theater at 202 S. 1st Ave. and opened it “with much fanfare on the 26th of October.” It had a seating capacity of 635 and served as a movie house, regularly presenting vaudeville, stage plays, musical comedies, and occasionally plays and a variety of acts from Mexico.
The Gandolfo Theatre originally had a basement, a partial second story and a third story ballroom. After a fire in 1925, most of the third floor was removed and a less elaborate parapet was erected.
During World War II, the theater served as a USO canteen. After the war, the building was vacant except for a brief period when it served as a furniture store. In May 1960, the Veterans of Foreign Wars purchased it for use as a lodge.
More recently, Sternitzke restored the Gandolfo Theatre and it is now an office building and the home of the Yuma Visitors Bureau administration offices.
According to an inscription outside the building, the brick landmark was a center of community activity from 1917 to 1950.
In 1914, the Gandolfo family moved to Los Angeles, but “Don Juan” still kept his business interests in Yuma and frequently returned to the city.
It was at his Los Angeles home, “that after a long and good life, Don Juan passed away in 1927,” Levy noted.
Several Yumans traveled to California to attend his funeral. Gandolfo is buried in the Calvary Cemetery, now known as Calvary Pioneer Memorial Park, in San Diego.
Mara Knaub can be reached at mknaub@yumasun.com or (928) 539-6856. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/YSMaraKnaub or on Twitter at @YSMaraKnaub.