by Bea Peterson
Tom Vassello was in the process of selling his late parent’s home. “The house had been empty about a month,” he said. “We had a buyer and they were preparing to move in.” Unfortunately a suspected electrical fire created a change of plans. “Thank God no one was in there and no one was hurt,” said Vassello on Wednesday as he looked over the ruins. He believes the whole building will have to come down. “Everything was old,” he said. His family, on his mother’s side, has owned the property since the 1870s. The main house was completed in 1879. He is unsure when the one story portion of the house was added on. He hopes to keep the property in the family.
His parents, Vi and Phil Vassello moved into the house in 1974. His mother died in 2003 and his father passed away in 2006. One of his sons recently moved from the house.
The comfortable old home was surrounded by incredibly beautiful gardens lovingly cared for by Vi. Practically everyone in the Town of Hoosick and all of her Garden Club friends have plants in their own gardens that came from Vi’s yard.
