Afterward, he says, his grandfather worked as a field hand in South Jersey orchards and as a mason, eventually saving enough money to buy the land in Burlington City on which he eventually built a one-room frame house.
Today, the original 500-square-foot structure has grown to 3,000 square feet featuring hand-scraped teak and Brazilian cherry flooring, heart-pine doors, and handcrafted interior and exterior moldings.
It's been a journey of discovery for the Pennise family, all of whom have had a hand in the remarkable makeover.
To fully appreciate the transformation, some history is in order.
A few years after building the original house, Panico built a 400-square-foot addition: two bedrooms, a bathroom, plus front and back porches. That was the family residence until the mid-1940s, when, rather than continuing the expansion, Panico decided to build yet another structure adjacent to his first one.
"I remember my father would get up at the crack of dawn to work on the foundation, go to work later in the morning at his regular job as a mason, and come back to continue building the house one step at a time, all by himself," recalls Joe's mother, Anna, the youngest of five siblings.
The story goes that as each got older and eventually married, he or she moved into the smaller, original house until they got established.
When Anna married Joe Pennise Sr., the couple also rented the house from her father. But when children came along, they felt a bit squeezed. So in the mid-1970s, Joe Sr. built another 500-square-foot addition: two more bedrooms and a bathroom. And still others followed into the 1990s: a family room; a pantry and laundry room; a sunroom.
