Grado Building

The original house contained within this building was moved from the former estate of August Monnier, located around today’s Café Vermilionville on West Pinhook Road. In 1880, one of Monnier’s six children, Emilie Monnier Falk, wife of Israel Falk, exchanged her inherited tract of land for this downtown lot, where the Grado Building now exists. Records suggest that Emilie moved a single-story Victorian cottage from the Monnier estate to downtown sometime around 1890. At the same time, that part of Jefferson Street began to change in character from a mixture of residential and commercial buildings into Lafayette’s Central Business District. By 1915, when Leonardo Grado and his son, Pellegrino, became owners of the property, it was the only dwelling remaining on the block. In 1922, Pellegrino Grado added a brick wing to the right side of the front porch of the original dwelling and converted the cottage into a mixed-use building, combining both residential and commercial uses under one roof.