Emanuele "Litto" Damonte, Litto’s Place (Hub Cap Ranch)
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Location:
St Helena, California, USA (Map)
Status:
Extant
Artist:
Built:
1940-1985
Materials:
bottles, hubcaps, placards and signs, statues, toys
Emanuele at site, November 1977.
Interior of site, October 1984.
Emanuele at site, October 1984.
September 1991
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Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Photograph by Seymour Rosen. ©SPACES
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Used with the permission of the photographer, Robert Foster
Images
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About the Artist/Site
Emanuel “Litto” Damonte was born in Arenzano, near Genoa, Italy. In 1907, his father, a marble worker, was hired to work on the Memorial Church at Stanford University, and he brought his young son with him to Palo Alto, California. The rest of the family later joined them and they settled in San Francisco.
During the Great Depression, Damonte married and raised ten children. He worked in San Francisco as a cement contractor and tile setter. In 1941 he bought property in Pope Valley, Napa County, for weekend and holiday retreats with his family. When he retired in the mid-1940s, they moved there permanently.
Around 1957, Damonte began collecting hubcaps, eventually decorating his property with more than 2,000 of them. He found many along the road and also welcomed donations, which he carefully arranged. He hung them from trees, decorated the garage and tool shed doors, and added them to fences and cement curbs. Over time the property became known as “Hubcap Ranch,” with a sign at the entrance to the driveway proclaiming it the home of “Litto, the Pope Valley Hubcap King.”
In May 1981 Damonte’s property received recognition as a California State Registered Landmark. Since his death in 1985, Damonte’s grandson has lived on the site, maintaining his grandfather’s art environment, and even adding new elements as inspiration dictates.
~Seymour Rosen /Jo Farb Hernández
SPACES Archives Holdings
Photographic prints, slides and negatives, field Survey (1984), correspondence, clippings
Related Documents
Letter to La Haye Bronze from Sandra J. Elder, CA State Historical Resources Commission, 3/3/1987
Plaque description for Litto’s Hubcap Ranch
Letter to SPACES/Seymour Rosen from Emanuele Damonte, 4/10/1985
Letter to Carol Lyon from SPACES/Seymour Rosen, 5/8/1987
Letter from Clinton Hulse to SPACES/Seymour Rosen, 4/30/1987
info about “A tribute to Litto” exhibit
Letter to Clinton Hulse, Napa County Museum Association from SPACES/Seymour Rosen, 4/24/1987
business card for Clinton Hulse
business card for Clinton Hulse
Letter to SPACES/Seymour Rosen form Clinton Hulse, Napa County Museum Association, 4/9/1987
Letter to Peggy Klick, Napa County Museum Association from SPACES/Seymour Rosen, 3/11/1987
Letter to La Haye Bronze from Sandra J. Elder, CA State Historical Resources Commission, 3/3/1987
Invoice from La Haye Bronze to CA Dept of Park and Recs, 3/4/1987
Letter to Emanuele N. Damonte, Jr from SPACES/Jocelyn Gibbs, 9/2/1986
Letter to SPACES/Jocelyn Gibbs from Emanuele Damonte, 8/21/1986
Letter to SPACES/Jocelyn Gibbs from Emanuele Damonte, 3/26/1986
Letter to Emanuele N. Damonte from SPACES/Jocelyn Gibbs, 2/27/1986
Letter to Emanuele N. Damonte from SPACES/Jocelyn Gibbs, 3/21/1986
Letter to Wally Cox, Pacific Union College from SPACES/Seymour Rosen, 9/22/1985
business card for Emanuele N. Damonte
various notes about Litto Damonte
various notes about Litto Damonte
various notes about Litto Damonte
letters to Mr. and Mrs. Damonte and Mike ? From SPACES/Seymour Rosen, 11/1985
Letter to John Carson from SPACES/Jocelyn Gibbs, 5/29/1985
Letter to SPACES/Seymour Rosen from Emanuele Damonte, 8/14/1985
Letter to Emanuele Damonte from SPACES/Susan Alderson Hoffman, 5/20/1981
Minutes of the State Historical Resources Commission, 2/1/1985
Letter to Emanuele Damonte from SPACES/Seymour Rosen, 11/8/1984
Letter to Marion Mitchell-Wilson, CA Dept of Parks and Rec from SPACES/Seymour Rosen, 10/30/1984
postcard for “Tribute to Litto” exhbition, 2/22/1987
Letter to SPACES/Seymour Rosen from Peggy Klick, Napa County Museum Association, 3/3/1987
Minutes of the State Historical Resources Commission, 5/10/1985
bio and bibliography for Litto Damonte and Litto’s Hubcap Ranch, 8/9/1985
Map and site information
6654 Pope Valley Rd
St Helena, California, United States
Latitude/Longitude: 38.640921 / -122.451464
is a nonprofit public benefit organization created with an international focus on the study, documentation and archive of art environments and self-taught artistic activity.
Seymour Rosen
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