DR. LOUIS J. CELLA

Louis J. Cella was born of parents who had immigrated to Providence from northern Italy. He had many brothers and sisters and he was one of the youngest children. Because his father passed away when he was relatively young, his older siblings contributed to his education. He lost several of his siblings at any early age to tuberculosis, endemic at the time, and to service in World War I. The family dispersed, and two sisters moved to California.

Louis Cella first completed the Rhode Island School of Pharmacy, then went to medical school at the University of Vermont, graduating in 1914. Following his graduation from medical school, Dr. Cella returned home for some post-graduate training. Within a year, he met Laura Tirocchi through her sister-in-law who operated a pharmacy. The two were married in 1915 and moved into 514 Broadway. Some years later a wing was added on the ground floor for Dr. Cella’s medical practice. It was there that Dr. Cella examined patients and conducted his other business, keeping up with his stocks and bonds - especially during the stock market boom in the '20s.

Dr. Cella specialized in skin and venereal disorders, but also had a general practice. An invoice for medical equipment (a cysto-urethroscope) among his remaining papers and a piece of promotional literature from a pharmaceutical company touting a preparation that promised "substantial relief to hay fever patients" supports this view of the doctor’s practice. His son, also a physician, remarked that in looking through his father’s office in later years he discovered a lot of urological equipment, which would have been consistent with a practice that treated venereal diseases. A note pad imprinted with his name and address announced office hours from 8-9 a.m., 2-4 p.m., 7-8 p.m., and by appointment.

Dr. Cella had many other interests. He worked with the Public Health Department, and advocated the establishment of a reservoir in Scituate that would provide fresh water for the town. He was also involved in local politics, serving for a time as an Alderman representing the 4th Ward around 1920. Other letters remaining in the house indicate that although long active in Republican politics, he used both major political parties to serve his interests.

Dr. Cella traveled widely, too, both in Europe and in Asia. In the 1930s, Dr. Cella was a medical missionary in China, working with an organization that ran several clinics in southern China. His long voyage each time began with a trip across the country to Vancouver, Canada, from which he departed by ship for the Far East. His niece Primrose remembers that he preferred to be driven rather than to use trains or planes, engaging a chauffeur to drive him to the West Coast. From Vancouver, Canada, he embarked by boat for China. His son who was born in 1924, visited him there at least once, so he must have carried out that work over a long period of time.

Throughout his life, Dr. Cella was able to combine and balance his medical training and his civic and charitable interests. Perhaps more significantly to this story, without sacrificing devotion to his family he made an independent life for himself in a household that was a decidedly female environment.

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The STORIES
  Immigration
  The Family
      Frank | Anna | Laura
      Eugenia | Louis
      Anna's Invesments
      the Business Home
  Providence
  Dressmaking
  Fashion
  The Business
  The Clients
  The Workers

The EVIDENCE

TIMELINE
IMAGE ARCHIVE
NOTES

The influenza epidemic of 1918 may have encouraged Dr. Cella's interest in public health. The first case of so-called Spanish Flu occurred in Rhode Island in September, 1918, and 2,000 people died of the disease within six months.