Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

RED BANK: MURAL LINKS HOMESTEAD TO PAST

red-bank-mural-072021-2-500x332-1057248Doug Booton, center, and Anthony Jude Setaro with artist Maria Chamra and her mural of Sassano, Italy. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Before they began resettling in Red Bank in 1895, Anthony Jude Setaro and Doug Booton’s ancestors lived for at least 400 years in Sassano, a village in Italy’s Campania region.

Now, a bay window at the family’s Oakland Street homestead frames an idyllic vision of a faraway place that to the new owners still qualifies as home.

red-bank-mural-072021-3jpg-500x375-4852019A view of the mural from the home’s family room. (Photo by Anthony Jude Setaro. Click to enlarge.)

Since 1934, three generation of Setaros have lived in the house at 137 Oakland Street, including its last occupant, and last-surviving sibling among 11: Dorothy “Dot” Setaro, who spent her entire 84 years there.

After her death, in February 2020, Setaro and Booton – cousins by virtue of sibling grandfathers – acquired the property from her estate and undertook a top-to-bottom remodeling.

The house came with a trunkful of memorabilia, including photos of people who were obviously relatives that neither of the cousins could identify, said Setaro. Going through it all, he and Booton realized how much they didn’t know about their own heritage.

“So we went super-introspective during COVID,” he said.

Setaro, 41, and Booton, 39, soon found themselves down the rabbit holes of Ancestry.com, the Red Bank Register online archive and a hive-mind genealogical research project called the Sassano Project. There, said Setaro, are church and other records of his ancestors dating to the 1400s.

By the first half of the 20th century, as families named Mazza, DeLisa, Stavola and more came over from Sassano, “this was little Italy,” Setaro said.

Staring out the family room window that faces the stucco-covered back wall of a neighbor’s garage, he got the idea for a mural, “to pay tribute to everyone who came before us,” Setaro said. The owner of the garage gave his blessing, he said.

The mural, created from Google Street Views and painted by Aberdeen artist Maria Chamra, captures an inviting view of Sassano. It depicts narrow, winding streets against a verdant green hillside; halfway up the hill is a church, Chiesa della Madonna del Carmine, that Setaro believes is the model for St. Anthony of Padua Church, just a block away on Bridge Avenue.

“The mailman and FedEx guys kept stopping by to check on the project,” said Chamra, who documented the 10-day painting process on Instagram. Though some of the colors are enhanced, “I tried to keep it as true to life as I could,” she said.

In the process, Chamra, who’s also of Italian heritage, came to feel as though she was in Sassano. “How could you not? I was studying it so much,” she said.

Now, with the restored house, mural and genealogical project, “we’ve become stewards of the family history,” said Booton, “and we’re happy to do that.”

For Red Bank-area ‘Sassanesi,’ or people whose ancestry connects them to Sassano, he and Setaro have created a private Facebook page to share information and memories.

Visitors who wish to see the mural are asked refrain from entering the property, but it is visible from the sidewalk out front.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
WINTERIZING WALK
With rowing season now over, Navesink River Rowing member Trish Russoniello and her husband, John Ward, carried her 25-foot rowing shell to ...
COUNT GETS MURAL TREATMENT
A new mural honoring Count Basie facing the Borough Hall parking lot on Monmouth Street. (photo by Partyline contributor Boris Kofman)   ...
TRUMP FAN VICTORY STROLL
A Donald Trump supporter went for a stroll down Broad Street Wednesday morning in a celebration of his win over Vice President Kamala Harris ...
ON ELECTION DAY, REAL FOG TOO
Commuters wait for their train to emerge from the fog in Red Bank on Election Day 2024.
SUNDAY AT LUCIDA
Artist talk at Galerie Lucida with owner and curator Michael Mazzeo and the photographer and co-curator Gerald Slota. Sunday afternoon, Nove ...
REMODEL HALLOWEEN
  Despite undertaking an amazing renovation, the Red Bank family that lives at this home at South Street and Pinkney would not miss out ...
Spooky Celebrations on South Street
Happy Halloween – South Street Style. –Original before GPT– Happy Halloween-South Street Style.
MARIGOLDS FOR DAY OF THE DEAD
Marigolds were the most popular item at Floreria La Orquidea at 192 Shrewsbury Avenue over the past few days as folks bought up the flowers ...
TRICK OR TREAT DJ
A DJ rocks Deforrest Avenue from the front porch of Edgar and Carly Deronde as trick or treaters flock to the street on Halloween night. (ph ...
HALLOWEEN HAIRCUT
Rigo's barber shop on Shrewsbury Avenue always goes all out. Luis Lego gets a Halloween haircut.
T-REX ON RIVER STREET
Looks like a T-Rex is amuck on River Street (photo by Partyline contributor Chris Havens)  
Mysterious Creatures Parade Around Red Bank Charter School
Lots of strange creatures, like this green dragon, emerged from the Red Bank Charter School this morning and paraded around town! (photo by ...
HALLOWEEN SUNRISE
Halloween sunrise over the Navesink River.
SALON CELEBRATES TEN YEARS
Red Bank's L Studio salon throws a bash for its tenth anniversary.
ICE BOAT JACK O’ LANTERN
The ice boat emblazoned Red Bank borough seal in jack o’lantern form, at the jack o’ lantern drop at Riverside Gardens Park Thur ...
NEW MURAL TAKES SHAPE
The leaves aren’t the only thing getting a splash of color this Fall. On Shrewsbury Avenue, a vibrant mural is in process, adorning bo ...
Spectacular Autumn Sunset at Warwick Gardens
Autumn Sunset in Red Bank – Warwick Gardens on Pinckney Avenue. (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)
EYES ON YOU
Huge eyeballs in a front yard in Red Bank. (photo by Partyline contributor Jeff Frieri)
VIDEO: RED BANK HALLOWEEN PARADE
 
MURALIST BRIGHTENS TACO SHOP
  Jim Fitzmaurice paints a new mural on the side of International Mexican Grocery  (which is not a grocery but an eatery very popular ...