The North Bay Municipal Heritage Committee honored Leo Mascioli by naming a library in the Empire Living Centre after him.
Leo Mascioli was an Italian Canadian from Timmins, who built the downtown hotel in 1928.
Members of Mascioli’s family were on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony today. One of them, Sandy O’Grady, is one of Mascioli’s granddaughters. O’Grady says she would’ve loved for her grandfather to be able to see the library.
O’Grady says he always wanted things to be better, whatever it was. He’d say let’s improve it and that library in his name is just the same, he’d be thrilled.
O’Grady remembers her grandfather as an energetic man, and told the stories of when he was one of many Italian Canadians put into camps during the Second World War.
The Heritage Committee also unveiled a Heritage Site Plaque located on McIntyre Street, after the ribbon cutting.
