To master mason Giovanni Sassone, the past and future are carved in stone

Master stonemason Giovanni Sassone wanted to be a doctor or a police officer, and he has a kidding personality that would work in standup comedy. But his masonry career is in his blood.

“I am honoring my great-grandfather,” stonemason Salvatore Giovanni Cantera, who when arriving from Abruzzo in 1898 brought with him 20 stonemasons, some blood relatives and some cousins in the paesano sense. And he’s honoring his grandmother, Esther Martha Cantera, a businesswoman successful in multiple sectors, including construction.

Giovanni Sassone with some of his great-grandfather’s tools. | PHOTO BY KEN MAMMARELLA

Sassone, a 63-year-old also known as Jonny, has taught the business to his son, Bryan, and he hopes that his four grandchildren continue in it. “They’re going to be involved,” he said, acknowledging that “It’s very, very, very, very, very hard, physical labor. It will destroy your body.” He’s a tough guy, a one-time southpaw middleweight boxer who has survived being beaten, stabbed and shot. His stocky build, with large hands and big arms, masks the aches and pains he feels.

He praised stonemasons for their ability to build a home from top to bottom – with stone, bricks and blocks, plus plaster and paint – and their appreciation for the beauty and texture of stone that define classic architecture and upscale homes.

Sassone Masonry operates in five states: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Recent construction and repairs on public structures include three stone piers in the elephant habitat at the Philadelphia Zoo, a wall on Philadelphia’s boathouse row, dormitories at Villanova University and Wilmington’s iconic Rockford Tower.

Sassone grew up in North Wilmington and dreams of buying back his grandmother’s home, a memorable Victorian on Shipley Road with an exterior fit for “The Addams Family” and a basement reminiscent of a speakeasy, according to the $1 million listing in the summer of 2024. He remembers it as a large landholding, with horses, ponies and chickens, and he’s halfway through writing a family memoir titled “Whispers Down Shipley Road and My Broken Dreams.”

He also dreams of moving to South Philadelphia, to be nearer to Bryan and his daughter Lauren. He inherited a house in Abruzzo but doesn’t use it. “I’m afraid to leave,” he said. “My heart is here.”

Sassone was brought up Catholic but is converting to Judaism, partly inspired by Lauren and partly inspired by something his father once said: “Italians are the best in the world, son, but stick with the Jewish people, because they help each other proceed in life.”

“My father liked to make people laugh, and he got it from his mother, and that’s where I get it from,” he said, breaking out into a medley from “Fiddler on the Roof,” the classic Jewish musical.

After joking that he’s related to every Italian in the construction business, he name-dropped a few unrelated people who have helped him proceed in life. Like Leonard Francis Iacono, of Daisy Construction. “He inspires me, and he’s like the father I never had.” Dario Testardi, of Testardi and Son Stonemasons. They share a site in Wilmington to store equipment. “He’s my best friend, a family man and an angel.” Kevin Cassidy of Cassidy Plastering. “He’s my No. 1 plaster man, and he’s my adopted Irish brother.” Robert Kreston, of Kreston Wine & Spirits, another adopted brother.

Sassone also pays it forward, driving multiple people to the hospital in the middle of the night, “adopting some through my heart” and helping others with his “giving personality.” “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for anybody, from the bottom of my heart. I’m very humble and giving.”

Sassone’s pinballing personality – one night, in a Rittenhouse Square restaurant, he was told to “bring it down from a 12 to a 1” – contrasts with his sensitivity. He’s widowed and wants a wife and a family. “I love taking care of people,” he said.

For example, he loves to cook for others and is known for his pizza and his spaghetti and meatballs. The sauce takes three days, starting with cooking and peeling the tomatoes; the meatballs are based on ground filet mignon, with a long list of supporting ingredients that might include pork, veal, chicken, ricotta and parmesan; and the meatballs and baked, sauteed and then simmered.

“It’s a big process,” he said. “But it’s the love and what you put into it.”