Los Angeles
County
Biographies
LEONARD ROBERT MASTRO
Since
1878 the Alhambra Drug Company at Main and Raymond streets has been a part of
Alhambra’s history, administering to Alhambrans’ needs for eighty-four
years. Now owned by the very personable
Leonard Robert Mastro, pharmacist, the drugstore was originally the property
and second store of Dr. Elwood who was also pharmacist and postmaster. Later the Yerian
brothers took over the drugstore; naming it the Home Pharmacy; its next owner
of Thomas McMillan until 1917, and it became the property of Oscar Jannard until 1950.
When Joe Halff became proprietor he changed
its name to Alhambra Drug Company, the name retained by Mr. Mastro when he
purchased the drugstore in 1952, bringing to it twenty-three years’ experience
in pharmaceutical work. One of Mr.
Mastro’s hobbies is collecting antiques of the drug business. He has several hundred bottles, all hand
blown, even some hand blown nursing bottles.
He also keeps the drugstore’s original neon sign in the basement, the
first neon sign in Alhambra, and still uses the same floor safe the Yerian brothers had, with their name on it in gold. Rapidly becoming a prescription business, the
Alhambra Drug Company is a friendly neighborhood store, employing six people
and handling cosmetics, sundries, vitamins, tobacco, dental needs, and the many
other items usually found in a modern drugstore, and giving S & H Green
Stamps. Alhambra Drug Company also
delivers. The original prescriptions
dating back to 1924 are still preserved and are occasionally referred to by Mr.
Mastro when required to administer to prescription needs of some of the older
residents of the neighborhood. The
prescription files dating from the store’s opening to 1924 were discarded by
previous owners.
A
measure of considerable, understandable pride is the fact that under Mr.
Mastro’s ownership and personal service, there were one and one-half times as
many prescriptions filled in ten years as had been filled in the store’s
previous seventy-four years.
The
son of Joseph N. and Marie Antoinette (Cignarella) Mastrodomenico, both of Avellino, Italy, near Naples,
Leonard Robert Mastro, who shortened the family name to its present form, was
born in Rockland, Massachusetts, on January 25, 1912. Mr. Mastro’s parents, still living in
Massachusetts, came to the United States at the turn of the century. His father was a shoe worker, crafting most
of the famous brands of shoes. Mr.
Mastro attended elementary and high school in Rockland, and graduated from the
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, receiving his Ph.G. degree in 1932 and his
Pharmaceutical Chemist’s degree the following year. He became the first pharmacist of Italian
extraction in his home town.
Employed
by Donovan Drug Corporation in Weymouth Landing, Massachusetts, from 1933 –
1937, Mr. Mastro then went to Dunnington Apothecary
in Brockton, Massachusetts for six years, the last three of which he was
manager of one of the firms’ five stores.
He was employed as a medical representative by Lederle
Laboratories Division of American Cyanamid Corporation from 1943 until becoming
the owner of the Alhambra Drug Company in 1952.
Mr.
Mastro is a member of the San Gabriel Valley, Massachusetts, and California
Pharmaceutical associations, and the National Association of Retail Druggists,
as well as a member of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy Alumni
Association. He is a past member of the
Board of Directors of the San Gabriel Valley Pharmaceutical Association. He also served the association in the
capacity of secretary-treasurer. He is a
member of the Elks, Lodge Number 1328, in Alhambra and a third degree Knight of
Columbus in the Alhambra Council, Number 2431.
A member of All Souls Catholic Church, Mr. Mastro belongs to its Holy
Name Society.
In
Brockton, Massachusetts, known as a shoe manufacturing town, Mr. Mastro was
married to the former Miss Angela Maurea, of
Brockton, on April 25, 1937. Mrs. Mastro
belongs to the Deers of the Elks Lodge and is active
in the Altar Society and the Mothers’ Club of All Souls Church. The Mastro’s have four children: Joseph M., born in 1940, a graduate of Bosco
Technical High School in South San Gabriel, now in the United States Marine
Corps stationed at El Toro; L. Robert, Jr., born in 1943, a graduate of La
Salle High School now attending East Los Angeles College majoring in
pre-pharmacy; Michael P., born in 1950, attending All Souls Parochial School
and a Little League baseball player; and Maryanne Regina, born in 1952, also
attending All Souls School.
Mr.
Mastro finds traveling in the United States educational and fun; he also enjoys
photography. He was made treasurer of
the West Alhambra Little Leaguers.
The
Mastro’s came to Alhambra in 1949 and have made their
home at 124 North Bushnell since their arrival.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 813-816, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES