Tony Russo’s Grocery Shop

This building at 1620 Edwards St. demanded my immediate attention during a late-night bike ride through Houston’s 6th Ward. The faded and painted-over signage indicated that this Pentecostal church had a different identity many years ago.

The “1928” at the top provided the date of construction, but the covered words directly underneath were more of a challenge. After checking newspaper archives and directory records, I learned the Templo de Avivamiento Pentecostal church used to be Tony Russo’s Grocery shop.

While Tony Russo did have an earlier grocery store (different building) at the same address, the current building was constructed in 1928. The current owners purchased the building in 1992.

Mr. Russo was born in 1896 and immigrated to the United States from Italy. He and his wife, Mary (b. 1899), resided at 1306 Rosedale before moving to 1309 Sabine Street, where they remained with their two sons, Joe (b. 1922) and Jack (b. 1920).

The 1309 Sabine Street home was built around 1938-1939 with wood from the Montalbano Lumber Company, who used the home in a 1939 Houston Chronicle advertisement:

The home pictured above is still standing today and you can check it out below: