In Loving Memory of
Mario & Alzira Rodrigues

Mario and Alzira Rodrigues were Portuguese immigrants who met in the village of Valley Falls in Cumberland, Rhode Island in 1934. By the late 1940's, they had one daughter, Natalia, and had a small home on Mowry Street in Woonsocket. On July 4, 1949, the Sunnycroft Farm, which was located on the outskirts of Slatersville, burned in a massive fire. Soon after, its owner Edward Schnorr Sr. put the lot up for sale.  Mario, who had no intention of leaving Woonsocket, learned about this news and purchased the lot from Mr. Schnorr for only $900 with the sole purpose of building a house that he would sell. It took him two years to build this house, and he would act as his own realtor. He gave tour after tour after tour, but by 1952, Mario had become increasingly frustrated because he could not get the asking price he wanted for the house he had built. Then one day, after the rudeness of one couple upset them both, Mario and Alzira decided to leave their Mowry Street home and move into the very house he was so set on selling. The photo above was taken outside of St. John the Evangelist Church in Slatersville in the mid 1950's at their daughter Natalia's First Communion. They would both call Slatersville home for the rest of their lives, until Mario's death in 1987 and Alzira's death in 2007.  Of course, neither of them knew their grandson would make a film about the place over a half century later... But if it wasn't for this story happening first, there might be no Slatersville series today.

The Sunnycroft Farm is referenced in Episode 6: The Will All Be My Friends and Episode 7: The War Years by Edward Schnorr's son Bill.

Between 1995 and 2000, Christian de Rezendes made one of his first documentaries about his grandmother called Alzira's Story.  Enjoy the film below.