Historical Marker · No. 939
Litto's Hubcap Ranch
Pope Valley, Napa County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Recreation and SPACES (Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments), 1987
SPACES drafted this bronze's text in 1986 and sent two versions to Litto Damonte's son to check, noting that the state would have the last word. Both gave room to the two hundred birdhouses he built here; the state cut them. What was cast has his birth year right, 1892, where the state register still says 1896. Born near Genoa, he came over in 1907 with his father, a marble worker hired for Stanford's chapel, and laid cement in San Francisco for years. He bought this ground in 1941 and, SPACES found, took up hubcaps around 1957.
What the plaque says
Litto's Hubcap Ranch This is one of California's exceptional twentieth century folk art environments. Over a period of 30 years, Emanuele "Litto" Damonte (1892-1985), with the help of his neighbors, collected more than 2,000 hubcaps. All around Hubcap Ranch are constructions and arrangements of hubcaps, bottles and pulltops which proclaim that "Litto, the Pope Valley Hubcap King," was here. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 939 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with SPACES (Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments), a non-profit education corporation April 4, 1987.
Where it stands
38.63679, -122.45320 · Directions
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