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1925 1115 Fifth Avenue at 93rd
– Anthony Campagna; Michael & Armino Campagna
Featured in Andrew Alpern’s book The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter page 88
Located in Expanded Carnegie Hill Historic District designated 21 December 1993
Architect James E.R. Carpenter; Builder 93rd Street & Fifth Avenue Corporation Anthony Campagna President; Michael Campagna Vice President; Armino Campagna Secretary – southeast corner 93rd Street (Alpern Acanthus page 88)
1925
596
$1,000,000.00
5TH [Fifth] AV, 1116 14-sty bk apt, tile roof, 100˙142
OWNER / OWNER ADDRESS
(o) 93d St & 5th Ave. Corp., Anthony Campagna, Pres / (o) 1116 5th [Fifth] av COMMENTS
ARCHITECT / ARCHITECT ADDRESS
(a) J. E. R. Carpenter / (a) 598 Madison av (source)
Family note: it is in this building where Henry V. B. Darlington, Jr. had a family apartment (11A) for many years. He later married Carla Cotillo Paterno, granddaughter of Dr. Charles V. Paterno.
The Lost Jacob Ruppert Mansion – No. 1116 Fifth Avenue
1115 Fifth Avenue a/k/a 1113-1118 Fifth Avenue, 2 East 93rd Street
Borough of Manhattan
Tax Map Block/Lot: 1504/69
Date: 1925-26 [NB 596-1925]
Type: Apartment Building
Architect: J.E.R. Carpenter
Style/Ornament: Neo-Renaissance
Owner/Developer: 93rd St. & 5th Avenue Corp. (Anthony Campagna, Pres.)
Number of Stories: 14 (now with penthouse)
This fourteen-story apartment building, located on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and East 93rd Street, has approximate frontages of 101 feet on Fifth Avenue and 153 feet on East 93rd Street. Designed by J.E.R. Carpenter, who is responsible for several buildings in this historic district, it was constructed in 1925-26 for the 93rd St. & 5th Avenue Corp. of builder Anthony Campagna. The same architect and developer were responsible for the slightly earlier building at 1120 Fifth Avenue, located to the north. A native of Naples, Italy, Campagna (1884/85-1969) earned a law degree and contributed funds for the restoration of Virgil’s Tomb at Naples and for the excavation of Herculaneum. In New: York he became a successful builder of tall apartment buildings on the Upper East Side; among his
philanthropic legacies is the Casa Italiana at Columbia University. Carpenter’s new building at No. 1115 replaced [DEMO 264-1925] a four-story stone-trimmed brick mansion.
The facades of the building comprise a three-story limestone base, a ten-story brick sheathed midsection (including a transitional story of alternating bands of brick and stone), and a one-story crown, all of which are framed by stone quoining. Its considerable massing is enlivened by the subtle rhythm of single and paired openings. At the base, window openings are square-headed, though at the second story they are framed by pilaster-supported arches, carved lunettes, and bowed wrought-iron window guards. First story entrances to doctors’ offices contain glazed wrought-iron doors and transoms; first-story windows have iron grilles. The residential entrance enframement on East 93rd Street has pilasters supporting an entablature with a broken pediment, surrounding a double-leaf wood door with glazed iron grilles and a glazed transom. At the northeast corner of the site, a one-story brick extension contains historic iron gates. At the midsection of the building, a dentiled cornice and decorated brick frieze separate the fourthand fifth-story openings, which have stone enframements, the latter surmounted by segmental-arched pediments; and the twelfth-story openings, which rest on a stone stringcourse, have carved lunettes and bowed iron guards. Above the terminal bracketed cornice (of which sections have been removed for air conditioner sleeves), there is a later glass-enclosed penthouse. Windows are one-over-one double-hung sash and single-pane, all replacements. The exposed east and south elevations are brick walls with stone quoining and window openings.
Significant References
Anthony Campagna obituary, New York Times, May 9, 1969, p. 47.
New York Public Library, New York City in Photographic Views, 1870s-1970s (Ann Arbor, 1981), fiche 0369B/B4. source
“J[ames] E[dwin] R[uthven] Carpenter (1867-1932)
J. E. R. Carpenter was born in Columbia, Tennessee. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1878, he studied at the Ecôle des Beaux Arts in Paris before establishing his own practice in Norfolk, Virginia in the 1890s. During the early years of his career, Carpenter designed a number of commercial buildings in Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee. Carpenter was established in New York City by 1903 and from 1904-1908 was in the partnership of Carpenter & Blair (for one year Carpenter, Blair & Gould). Carpenter’s earliest known work in New York City was a nine-story apartment house, 116 East 58th Street (1909, demolished). He established a considerable reputation not only as an expert on apartment design, but also as a successful real estate investor. In 1919 the Architectural Forum noted his important role in the development of the apartment house:
Mr. Carpenter stands as an unquestioned authority on the special phase of building development, it being the general custom of realty and financial men in the metropolis to first submit for his review any such projectioned [sic] improvement of property.
One of Carpenter’s contributions to apartment design involved his defeat of the 75-foot height restriction imposed along Fifth Avenue, thereby initiating a change in the character of that thoroughfare. Carpenter is also credited with the introduction of the foyer-centered apartment plan (as opposed to the “long hall” type).” Park Avenue Historic District Designation Report • April 29, 2014
The Lost Jacob Ruppert Mansion – No. 1116 Fifth Avenue
