Family support was central to the flourishing of other Tirocchi undertakings as well. Anthony Tirocchi observed that the family "came together and went apart" as they established businesses and made their way in Providence. They competed in the gravel, construction, and cement business, as well as in trucking. Mario Tirocchi entered the tire retreading business after seeing his sister Maria Tirocchi Furia's family open the Hartford Tire Company on the Hartford Avenue family property. His brother, Giuseppe, negotiated the political arrangements necessitated by wartime economic controls. Between the two firms, they serviced all the major tire retailers in the Providence area. Most of the male second-generation Tirocchis worked for their uncles' businesses, as well as for their fathers. Mario was a bachelor and something of a character. He managed to get the women of the family to wash and sterilize the bottles for his milk business. They complained that they worked at a nasty job while he was out driving around in the milk truck. His nephews recall that he managed to get them to do all the heavy work, while he traveled from job to job, supervising the work of others. When Salvatore's sons sold the Rhode Island Laundry, it went to their cousins, the grandchildren of Tito. As Tito's family acquired more heavy-duty construction equipment, including the first crane in Rhode Island, they shared it with the various Tirocchi businesses [fig. 76].

In the end, Anna Tirocchi, for all her independence and business initiative, was constrained by the traditions that shaped her early life. At a time when the women's clothing industry was undergoing revolutionary change, she persisted in an earlier artisan mode, relying on her fashion skills, artistic taste, and strong personality to resist the tide for some time. When she looked beyond dressmaking for investment opportunities, she chose the well trodden path of real estate. Like her sister dressmakers and milliners, she remained apart from the new industrial and commercial order.

INSERT Map of Tirocchis' Providence

INSERT geneology chart here

The interviews referred to and quoted in this essay are to be found in the A. &L. Tirocchi Archive, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (hereafter referred to as Tirocchi Archive). Such references have not been footnoted. All letters sent or received by Anna or Laura Tirocchi are understood to be found in the Tirocchi Archive. See "Note on the A. &L. Tirocchi Archive, Collection, and Catalogue," p. 23.

Additional interviews were conducted by the author and are not included in the Tirocchi Archive. References to and quotations from the author's interviews are not footnoted. The following paragraph includes all such material and stands in place of footnoting.

Members of the Tirocchi family provided information and guidance that contributed substantially to this author's research and to this essay. The author is especially indebted to Anthony Tirocchi and his daugher Lisa, Vincenzo (Jimmy) Tirocchi, Louisa Furia D'Amore, and Joseph Tirocchi, who spent two evenings talking with me about their family history (April 10 and 12, 2000). Anthony and Lisa generously shared their extensive genealogical research, which was invaluable in my reconstruction of the Tirocchi family in Providence. Primrose Tirocchi graciously provided information and family photographs in an interview with the author (May 18, 1999) and subsequent telephone conversations.