He's punching up champ's childhood home

Marciano fan is refurbishing Brockton house

Mark Casieri shows off a pair of Rocky Marciano license plates. (Boston Globe Photo / Tom Herde)

The house at 168 Dover St. in Brockton is more special than it looks: It is the childhood home of Rocky Marciano. And, if the man who now lives there has his way, the house will soon be restored as a tribute to the famous boxer.

For the past seven years, Mark Casieri has dedicated his life to restoring the two-family residence to the way it looked when Marciano lived there in the 1940s. He hopes to open the house as a museum, perhaps as early as this spring, and then nominate it for the Registry of Historic Places, a program under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Casieri will have to prove the house is of significant historic value to a panel of property owners, local officials, and the State Historic Preservation Office. If the property makes it through the review process it will be protected and eligible for federal assistance.

"It's really an honor to get your property on the list," said Casieri.

Family and friends say Casieri's purchase of the house, and his retro mission, fits with who he is.

"I wasn't surprised," said George Millett, a longtime friend to the Casieri family. "He had been trying to get it for awhile. It was his dream."

It is especially fitting since Casieri himself seems of a different age. His smile is easy, his life simple and grounded in his faith. Even his habit of ripping the filter off his cigarettes seems from an earlier era.

"I love old cars," said Casieri while watching a home movie shot by the Marciano family. "I love that time period. I would love to live during that time."

Casieri was born in Brockton in 1961 to first-generation Italian-Americans. From an early age, Casieri heard tales of the great Marciano, the boxer who went from being the underdog from Brockton to the only heavyweight champion to go undefeated. Forty-three of his 49 wins were by knockout.

Casieri remembers how the champ was never too proud to mix with his neighbors. He recalls how Marciano would stop by to say hi to his kindergarten class.

"Rocky would just be walking by and stop in," he recalls. "I was a kid then so I didn't put a lot of it together till later."

When Marciano died in a plane crash in 1969, Casieri was 8. But memories of Marciano remained vivid. When Casieri was 16, his mother bought him a book on Marciano and had Rocky's younger brother sign it, in hopes of getting her son interested in boxing.

"My mother wanted me going to the gym instead of hanging around, you know, doing whatever it is 16-year-olds do," said Casieri.

His mother's plan worked. Soon Casieri spent his otherwise idle hours training, and the book sparked his interest in Marciano.

Although Casieri's boxing career eventually fell by the wayside, his renewed interest in Marciano did not.

Casieri, who has been a Post Office employee for the past 12 years, says he has no regrets about giving up boxing.

"Just doing what I am doing now to keep Rocky's name alive . . . I am happy with that," he said.

The legendary Marciano has always been revered in Brockton. The city fought efforts by the World Boxing Council to place a statue of Marciano in Boston, and the statue, which is being designed, is expected in Brockton early next year. So that the museum will be accurate, Casieri studies old photos and home movies that he received from Marciano's younger sister, Betty Columbo. Casieri also uses clues he finds in the house, such as a scrap of the original 1950s wallpaper, and furniture abandoned in the basement that had been in the house during Marciano's childhood. A clipping from a 1951 Life magazine, which did a story about the family, also aided Casieri in the restoration process.

"The bedrooms are the hardest," said Casieri. "Not many pictures are taken in bedrooms."

Casieri bought the house in 2001 for $80,000. He estimates that the restoration will cost $240,000. In 2006, Casieri refinanced and used the money to pay for much of the restoration.

Casieri saves money by living in the house while he works on it. When the restoration is finished, he plans to move into the updated second floor of the two-family house. That floor will not be part of the museum since Marciano never lived there.

Casieri began the restoration by removing the shake shingle that covered the house's exterior and restored the original clapboard underneath. Casieri also removed the 1970s wood paneling in the house's interior. In search of historical accuracy, Casieri moved electric outlets and left the original but obsolete steam heaters in place. He also restored the original dining room windows that had been replaced in 1977 by a picture window.

Casieri hopes that his attention to detail will help capture the warm family atmosphere Marciano grew up in.

The only things in Casieri's life that take priority over the restoration are his dogs.

"Mark loves animals," said Angelina Casieri, his mother. "Those dogs are his children."

This past year Casieri was devastated when two of his pit bulls were diagnosed with cancer. He spent more than $1,700 on treatment for the dogs, he said, but both dogs died.

"Most people would not spend the money and just put the dogs to sleep rather then go through that, but I just can't, you know," said Casieri, who has never married.

Casieri's dogs are part of his family, and family is irreplaceable to Casieri. It is a value he sees in Marciano.

"That's the thing about Rocky; he valued his family," said Casieri. "That's what I want this house to show. That's why I only have pictures of him with his family and growing up, none of him fighting. He understood what is important."