Pastro, Antonio "Anthony" or "Tony"

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Pastro, Antonio "Anthony" or "Tony"

1884-1961 | Hotel and Café Owner

Antonio “Anthony” or “Tony” Pastro was born in Riese, Treviso, Italy on January 26, 1884. He first arrived in Alaska in 1915, where he was a contract laborer for the Alaskan Engineering Commission (AEC), the federal agency in charge of building the Alaska Railroad.[1]

On August 4, 1925, Pastro married Mary Rauth, the widow of Sam Figurelli, in Anchorage. He was employed as a miner at the Premium Coal Mine in the Matanuska Valley. Mary was born in Zurich, Switzerland, on February 25, 1900, to Italian immigrants Silvio and Maria Rauth. The Rauth family arrived in the United States in 1916 and first settled in Arizona but left the following year to move to Juneau, Alaska. Her parents, Silvio and Maria, operated the Savoy Restaurant in Juneau doing the cooking and managing, while Mary worked as a waitress. In 1918, Mary met Figurelli and they were married the following year. Their first child, Anthony “Tony” was born in Juneau in 1920. After hearing about the new town of Anchorage and the construction of the Alaska Railroad, Mary and her first husband, Sam, moved there in 1921. Soon after their arrival in Anchorage, Mary and Sam had a set of twins, one of whom died at birth. One month after the birth of their son, Richard Victor, on August 24, 1924,[2] Sam Figurelli was killed in a cave-in while working for the City of Anchorage while installing water lines. He is buried in the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.[3]

In 1930, Pastro and his father-in-law, Silvio Rauth, purchased the Nevada Hotel and Café located near the corner of 4th Avenue and B Street. In 1933, Silvio Rauth sold his interest in the hotel to Antonio Pastro’s brother, George Pastro, and Silvio retired to Elsinore, California. In 1937, Pastro and his wife, Mary, built the Lido Hotel and Café on the corner lot next to the Nevada Hotel, which was torn down and replaced with a bowling alley.

The Lido Café and Hotel was a two-story building, with the café on the main floor and twenty rooms upstairs. In the basement were a cocktail lounge and the Aleutian Gardens nightclub. During World War II, Keith Capper, a newly arrived entrepreneur, leased the bowling alleys and the Aleutian Gardens cocktail lounge. During the war years the entire building was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt.[4]

In 1953 the Pastros retired and sold the Lido complex to an investor. It was again destroyed by the Good Friday, March 27, 1964 Alaska earthquake. At the time of the earthquake, Bagoy's Flowers had opened their new shop in the space previously occupied by the Lido Café, and it was also destroyed.[5]

Pastro was a member of the Anchorage Elks Lodge. In 1940, he became a naturalized American citizen after his petition for naturalization was approved by the U.S. District Court at Anchorage.[6] Mary Pastro was active in the Alaska Crippled Children’s Association, Holy Family Altar Society, and the Pioneers of Alaska.[7]

Mary Rauth and Sam Figurelli had four children who took the last name of their stepfather, Anthony “Tony” Pastro: Richard; Eugene; Vincent Jerome; and Margaret Mary. Son, Richard, later worked as a mechanic, flight engineer, co-pilot, and pilot, and was one of the chief pilots for the Federal Aviation Administration in Alaska at the time of his retirement in 1979.[8] Son, Vincent Jerome, became a Catholic priest in Washington. Their daughter, Margaret Mary, became a Catholic nun in Oregon.

Antonio "Anthony" or "Tony" Pastro died on June 28, 1961 at his home in Elsinore, California. Mary Rauth Figurelli Pastro died on December 12, 1994 at an assisted living facility in Tacoma, Washington. Both are buried at the Holyrood Catholic Cemetery in Seattle, Washington. She was survived by her sons, Eugene and Rudy of Seattle, Washington, and Richard, of Palmer, Alaska.[9]

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Antonio "Anthony" or "Tony" Pastro (1885-1961) and Mary Rauth Figurelli Pastro (1900-1994).

Silvio Rauth, Mary Rauth Figurelli Pastro's father, in 1916.

Buildings at 4th Avenue and B Street, Anchorage, shown in 1950. This was the original site of the Lido Hotel, which burned down during World War II and was rebuilt.

In the foreground, Maria Rauth, Silvio Rauth, and Sam Figurelli.

Mary Rauth Figurelli Pastro in front of the new Lido Cafe, 1946.

Mary Rauth, center, at age nineteen, in Juneau.

The Pastro home on 4th Avenue between A and B Streets, Anchorage, 1934.

Mary Rauth Figurelli Pastro at age 80, in 1980.