Laura's choice of husband also suggests the Tirocchi sisters' distancing of themselves from the large southern Italian working-class population of Providence and a rise to middle-class status. Louis J. Cella [fig. 71] was one of the younger children in a large family. His parents emigrated from northern Italy in the nineteenth century: his mother entered the U.S. in 1879 and gained her citizenship in 1886. Louis had graduated from Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and University of Vermont Medical School before obtaining his Rhode Island license to practice medicine in 1915. At that time, he had two unmarried sisters and a brother living with his mother in Providence. Nina, the older sister, was a dressmaker for a department store, ironically, an institution that would eventually doom the dressmaking trade. Nina and sister Ida soon moved to California, where they purchased property and wrote optimistically to Louis about the prospects for real estate investment in the Los Angeles area. Dr. Cella was active in Providence Republican politics, served in China as a medical missionary, received an honor from the Italian government, but tellingly was not active in local Italian American social organizations. There is no evidence, for example, that he was physician to any mutual-benefit societies, as was common practice for Italian American doctors. He was awarded a brief entry in Ubaldo Pesaturo's 1936 compendium of prominent individuals in Rhode Island Italian communities, but no Cellas or Tirocchis were listed in the 1940 edition.(22)

As her dressmaking business prospered, Anna accumulated a number of real-estate holdings. Realtors solicited her, which suggests that she was known as a prospective investor in commercial properties. The purchase of the Broadway mansion was followed by the acquisition of an existing duplex on nearby Bainbridge Avenue and a lot fronting on Tobey Street, where Anna had a duplex and garage built in 1917. Soon thereafter, she and Dr. Cella together bought a set of leaseholds at 97- 99 and 101- 09 North Main Street, at the foot of the East Side's College Hill just a short distance from Market Square [figs. 72- 73]. These were substantial properties that included an auto-repair garage, a diner/restaurant, and a multistory commercial block. Scattered records seem to indicate that Anna managed the financial side of this joint holding for herself and Dr. Cella. She paid the taxes and rent due to the City of Providence on the lots, arranged for insurance, and kept accounts of tenant rents and capital costs.(23)

In subsequent years, Anna acquired a vacation home at Narragansett Pier, which also produced rental income for her, and a property in Cranston on which stood an auto service station. In the 1930s, as the dress business declined, rents from these holdings produced a larger proportion of her income. She also lent money to others. In 1922, the Columbus Exchange Trust Company collected payments on a mortgage held by Anna and credited them to her collateral loan with the bank. Over a decade later, she called in a mortgage from Giuseppe Scungio of Simmonsville, Rhode Island, in order to meet her own mortgage commitments. Anna had investments in Italy as well. She purchased Italian bonds and lent money to businessmen Agnello De Meis and Giovanni Castagnacci of Guarcino. The Castagnacci family manufactured felt as well as hats of straw and wool there. These Italian investments proved problematic. She had difficulty obtaining repayment of the loans, and the bonds became worthless after World War II.(24)