A year after they bought the house, the Walshes had a surprise visitor. Azalea Della Maggiore dropped in to see the two-story, 1,800 square-foot house she grew up in in the 1930s. Her father, Dario Della Maggiore, had built the house for her mother, Lucia, in 1929. The house also doubled as a neighborhood grocery store called the Della Maggiore French Tract Market.

"Azalea talked about how she used to clerk in the store for her parents," Linda Walsh says. "The whole neighborhood was French-speaking."

The Maggiores' grocery business started in a small building behind the house where the family made and sold wine, along with canned foods and household supplies. When the business grew, the family turned the front portion of the house into a store, living in the back and on the second floor. The basement was used to make sausages and proscuitto.

Della Maggiore, who was then living on Delmas Avenue in another house her family owned, also recounted tales of how her mother used to cook in the kitchen downstairs in the day and upstairs on the wood stove at night.

For Walsh, Della Maggiore's visit helped put a face and story to items she found in the house. The city had condemned the little shop in the back of the house two days before Walsh and her husband moved in. Instead of tearing it down, the couple decided to repair the building, turning it into a garage. The couple kept the storefront façade as close to the original as possible.

"In the process of fixing the garage, they tore the stucco off the front of the store façade and on the wood was written, 'Della Maggiore French Tract Market'," Walsh says. But that wasn't the couple's only interesting find. In the basement was a sign that said Vernali's market. Records in San Jose city directories indicate that several grocers owned the property over the years. The Maggiores owned the property from 1929 to 1945. In 1952, Paul Mascarella opened Mascarella's Market, which lasted two years. Records indicate that from 1954 to 1964 the store was known as Vernali Market.

A few months ago, the Walshes had another surprise visit, this time, from Mario Vernali, the son of the couple who owned Vernali Market. "He had grown up here when his dad bought the market," Walsh says. "He talked about how he would ride his bike around the basement on rainy days until his father sold the store when he was 11."

Vernali, who now lives in Santa Cruz, told Walsh how hard it was for the family to make a living. There was a year that the family made only $100. What kept the family afloat was the income they got from renting out the living quarters upstairs, Walsh says.

Vernali also remembered a huge avocado tree in the backyard.

"He talked about his father taking on the tree as his life mission," Walsh says. "He could never get it to bear fruit. He got advice from people in the agriculture industry and did everything he could but it still wouldn't bear. The year after his father sold the place, the tree bore."

Long-time Delmas resident Richard Martinez, who moved into Willow Glen when he was 4, recalls playing with Vernali and getting free candy at the store.

"They sold lunch meats, canned goods, bread and candy," says Martinez, now 51. "We used to hang out in front of the store with our bikes and skateboards and get 10, 20-cent colas."

Vernali's mother would also round up the children on the block for long talks in the afternoons, urging them to be good, to listen to their parents and not steal, he adds.

After the Vernalis moved out in 1964, the house turned into Jean's Grocery for a year before the Wong family moved in and started Harry's Grocery in 1966. In 1972, the business changed hands again and became The Little One Grocery for three years. It was the last grocery store to occupy the lot.

In the mid-1970s, sculptor Frank Mestemacher bought the property. Since then the house has been occupied by artists such as the Walshes, professors of fine art at San José State University.

At first glance

Walsh first saw the house in 1982 and fell in love with its high ceilings and huge space, a rare find in a residential neighborhood.

"It just didn't look like any house I've ever seen," she says. But her then-husband didn't want to live in the neighborhood. There was a topless bar where Tlaquepaque, a popular Mexican restaurant, is located. There were bullet holes on the windows in the area.

"It was just a dicey neighborhood," Walsh says.

When she met her present husband, Tom, in 1988 and was looking to buy a home, Walsh gravitated towards the house.

"I drove him past this building and said, 'If I could have anything at all, this is what I want. How do you feel about it?'" Walsh says.

It was a dream come true when the couple purchased the house in July of that year. But the house was in need of repairs. There were makeshift apartments on the ground floor, a condemned garage and a bridge that went over the basement stairs.

"Wandering through the house, you just felt like you've fallen down Alice's rabbit hole," Walsh says.

Their plans hit a snag when they were unable to get loans to repair the house because the property was zoned commercial and residential. It was not until 1994, when the city gave them a legal variance to use the building as a duplex, that they found money to make the place livable.

The Walshes kept the store-front façade intact and transformed the ground floor into a sculpting studio for themselves and aspiring artists. They tore down the makeshift apartments in the back of the house and put in a family room. They also converted the basement into a wine cellar and storage place for larger pieces of art. Their attractive front yard, which showcases their artwork, has drawn curious onlookers and praise from neighbors.

Walsh says she has seen many positive changes to the neighborhood since the family moved into the house, The neighborhood has become safer and more closeknit, she says. The sense of community has also made an impact on her art. Walsh is currently working on a public art project, "Circle of Dreams," which will be located on the Willis Avenue cul-de-sac across the street from the Gardner Community Center.

The Walshes aren't the only ones enjoying their house and the neighborhood. Their 14-year-old son, Michael, who grew up in house, wants to live there for the rest of his life.

"It's just really comfortable and cozy," Michael said. "I don't want my parents to sell it ever."