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from mining, had provided the means to purchase a new home. ReportedK' a hotel
acquired from a fellow Biascan named Monighetti (possibly the same who had eariier
purchased Leonardo Pozzi's billiard saloon), the sale highlighted the strength of village
networks.*"
Originally a hotel (the Licensing Register 1861 - 1872 records that, on 24
March 1865, a licence was removed from Carlo Vanina's property at Old Racecourse),
the rectangular weatherboard stmcture in the main street of Hepbum** (ref figure 11)
featured two front doors, possibly used as entrances to a bar and dining-room. Five
front windows looked on to the main street and were shaded by a verandah. A picket
fence extended out either side of the building to enclose a back yard. Rearranging
some of the home's interior to suit their personal needs, the main entrance led into a
living area to the left of which were three bedrooms. Opposite the living area, and
comprising walls 50 centimetres thick, six metres high and four metres wide, was a
kitchen. These walls, together wdth the economically built less than two metre high
doors, suggest Monighetti, or another person with traditional stone constmction skills,
may have been the original builder (see Home and Family). So too does the large two
metre open fireplace: typical of most peasant homes, its opening was sufficiently deep
to take one to two metre lengths of wood and for a person to enter to do the stoking.
At its north end was a stone seat where a person could sit and be warmed. The
Vaninas named their new home Biasca, flagging their Swiss heritage within the
community of Hepbum.
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