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“It’s very bitterweet for us, but it’s time,” said Julie, Matteo’s granddaughter.
Matteo Cappelli bounced around the U.S. and northern Ohio after his arrival in New York. But he eventually moved to Springfield, where he built a business growing and selling gladiolus with his wife, Marianina and their five children. Typically, his sons worked with him in the fields while Matteo’s daughters helped manage the home with their mother.
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Years later, his grandchildren still remember helping perform various tasks as Matteo built the business into one of the nation’s largest gladiola wholesalers. The family’s long history in Springfield was featured in a 50th anniversary issue of Newsweek in 1983. The story related the history of five families in Springfield over several decades, including the Cappellis.
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Doris Weaver said she remembers selling flowers all over the South end of Springfield, while her grandfather would occasionally check in to make sure she had enough flowers in her bucket to continue selling. The farm fields that will be auctioned off next week were once carpeted with flowers, but the business eventually waned and I-70 split the property when it was built. Now, much of the farmland is rented.
As the business changed, Matteo increasingly invested in real estate and turned his greenhouse business into a garden center. His grandchildren said at the time, it was a way he could provide for his family’s future. Paul Weaver, Doris’ husband, said the property extended beyond what is now Springfield Twp. Matteo also owned land in Gallipolis, Ohio and Southern Michigan. In Springfield, he owned much of the land along Leffel Lane between Burnett and Springfield-Xenia Roads.
“My grandfather never liked the stockmarket,” said Debbie Goings, Matteo’s granddaughter. “So he bought land instead.”
As family members moved on with various careers and marriages, and some have moved out of state, the Cappelli family no longer relies on the property like it once did. And the the six tracts available sit along a section of Springfield Twp. that will likely be attractive for potential residential or commercial development in the future, said Jeff Harvey, a Springfield auctioneer who is managing the transaction.
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The decision to sell the property was difficult and took several months, Julie Cappelli said. The property in Springfield was a catapult that allowed Matteo’s business to thrive and expand into real estate investments elsewhere.
As the family moves on, they decided it was time to allow the property to give someone else the same kinds of chances they had, Goings said.
“This family has expanded and we wanted to give the opportunity to someone else,” Goings said. “We had the American dream, now it’s someone else’s turn.”
The Springfield News-Sun will continue to provide unmatched coverage of business and the economy in Clark and Champaign Counties. For this story, the paper spoke to a Springfield family with a long history in Clark County, and how their property was intertwined with their family history.
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