The history of the Vettraino family in America links inextricably to Cranbrook Educational Community. Michael Vettraino was born November 24, 1884 in the Italian village of Sant’Elia Fiumerapido. In 1905, Michael Vettraino immigrated to the United States and began working for Booth family on their farmland in Bloomfield Hills. Other Italian families including the DiPonios, the Morantes, and the Angelosantos lived and worked at Cranbrook, shaping Cranbrook’s landscape under the direction of Cranbrook’s founder, George Gough Booth.

Michael Vettraino married Michela, a young woman from part of Italy in 1913. They raised six children on the grounds of Cranbrook: Dominick, Annette, John, Samuel, Concetta, and Rose. Michael’s sons, Dominick and John, both worked at Cranbrook for over 50 years, raising their own families on the grounds. Dominick was well known in the Bloomfield Hills community and served the city as city commissioner and mayor. In 1955, Michael Vettraino received the Founders Medal; he was the first Cranbrook employee to receive it. Cranbrook honored 50 years of Vettraino family service with the naming of Piazza Vettraino. As Ben and Margot Snyder wrote, “There is no yardstick capable of measuring what the Vettraino generations have given to the place we all cherish…They were among the pillars upon which George and Ellen Booth built their legacy.” John Vettraino’s daughter, Cecilia Vettraino Strine, continues the Vettraino legacy working at Brookside School Cranbrook.

On May 1, 2005, Festa Vettraino commemorated 100 years of Vettraino family service to Cranbrook. This event included food, entertainment, music, planting a magnolia tree, and stories of the Vettraino family.