Paterno Family History

The Paterno family built 164 buildings in the New York City borough of Manhattan, predominantly apartment houses, over the course of nearly seventy years starting in 1896, and under the company name of Paterno Brothers Construction for fifty-five of those years. Today 147 apartment houses built by the Paterno family still stand as testimony to the pre-World War II building boom of Manhattan, superb construction quality, and timeless aesthetics. The exceptional element of the successful Paterno Brothers Construction story is that it was, after all, a purely accidental enterprise.

Giovanni Maria Paternò left southern Italy filled with desperation in 1880 at 29 years of age to redeem himself. Married with four young children, he left his family in Castelmezzano for New York City to recover his pride, his professional reputation, and his financial wellbeing after an accidental collapse at a construction job nearly destroyed him. Five years later, after working relentlessly as a laborer and eventually as a foreman, Giovanni Paternò, now known in America as John Paterno, paid off his hometown debts, saved for travel expenses, and called for his family to join him. His faithful wife of thirteen years, Carolina, made the arduous 31-day voyage with 11-year-old Celestina, 8-year-old Saverio, 6-year-old Canio, and almost-4-year-old Giuseppe. The immigrant family, like so many others, were processed through Castle Garden and settled at 220 Mott Street in Little Italy in lower Manhattan.

By the time John and Carolina’s fifth child Marie arrived, the Brooklyn Bridge was in full commission and by the time their sixth child Michael arrived, the Statue of Liberty had been erected. The Paterno family was expanding in pace with the metropolis of Manhattan. Saverio and Giuseppe, now Frank and Joseph, were helping their father in the building yards after school. Along with Canio, now Charles, the sons sold newspapers on Sunday mornings and delivered groceries after school while the eldest, Celestina, took sewing jobs to contribute to the family purse. Charles, with his early academic successes, was directed by his parents to pursue higher education. From their humble beginnings in the New World, the Paterno family worked together with Mama Carolina managing the family finances and stretching every dollar in order to forge a life of dignity, comfort, and loyalty. 

In 1891, at the age of 37, Carolina gave birth to their seventh child, Anthony, and then three more daughters, Rose, Theresa, and Christina by the age of 45. Between Celestina, the eldest, and Christina, the youngest, there were 26 years of child bearing for Mama Carolina who fiercely loved and cared for her brood of five sons and five daughters. 

The children grew and found their own lives, mostly near and occasionally far. The eldest, Celestina, married the same year brother Frank decided that apprenticing with his father in building yards wasn’t his calling and moved to Philadelphia. Frank eventually joined a traveling circus, toured the world, and landed in London. Big things were happening too for Papa John Paterno, as he moved up from foreman to general construction supervisor all while Manhattan expanded. In Morningside Heights, an area northwest of Central Park that would become well known to the Paterno family, construction of St. John the Divine church began in 1892, St. Luke’s Hospital (now known as Mount Sinai Morningside) broke ground in 1896, and that same year the Columbia University campus was relocated to Morningside Heights from Lower Manhattan.

With Mama Carolina’s frugal management of the multiple household incomes, John Paterno was finally able to afford his first entrepreneurial building projects on 106th Street in partnership with James McIntosh whom he met at Catholic Mass in 1896. Destiny was looking up for this hard-working immigrant family especially when Charles graduated from the Medical College of Cornell University in 1899. Little did the family know what tragedy lurked just around the corner. 

John Paterno, while on a job site, started to complain to his son Joseph about his health which was mysteriously and rapidly declining. A building project at 112th Street was underway, baby Christina had just been born, Charles was completing his residency at Bellevue Hospital, and life suddenly turned sharply downward for the Paterno family. It was thought that John had terminal cancer, but he was not willing to settle for an American medical opinion. He wanted to be seen by Italian doctors and, if he were going to die imminently, he wanted to do so in his motherland. Carolina, the family pillar, homekeeper, and mother of a newborn, was unable to travel with her husband overseas. The 112th Street building was funded by family savings and had to be completed. Joseph, just 18 years old, was assigned to the job since he had been the one working alongside his father for two years. He needed immediate help and recruited his older brother Charles away from his medical pursuits for “just one project.” That left eldest son Frank to be called from London to escort Papa John from New York City to Castlemezzano where he died in late September of 1899 at the young age of 48 years. 

Unbeknownst to the Paterno family, who was mired in shock and grief, fate was plotting the beginnings of an exquisite, albeit purely accidental, business model that would prove to be the robust engine behind what would become an apartment house empire.

Charles and Joseph, two young men relatively new to construction, finished the project at 507 West 112th Street and the family, minus Papa John, Frank, and Celestina who had married, swiftly moved in. Frank returned to London to fetch his betrothed, Minnie Rose Breden, and together they relocated to Castlemezzano with their first son. Charles and Joseph fell easily into the prospects of the lot next door which they improved, prompting Charles to realize that he would possibly never earn at this rate practicing medicine. He maintained his medical license and title to the end of his life while never formally practicing medicine. Nonetheless, his medical training became an unconventional and valuable asset on building sites for his construction crews and their families.

Buildings were erected, rented, and sold almost annually under a formula that Charles and Joseph, now operating as Paterno Brothers Construction, eventually mastered. Younger brothers were trained in the industry and brothers-in-law were brought into the fold as they married into the family. Celestina’s husband, Victor Cerabone was already actively working on projects with Charles and Joseph by the time, in 1904, Charles made his first visit back to Castlemezzano to pay tribute to his father’s resting place and visit his brother Frank who had reverted to his native name Saverio and had assumed and improved the family home. While there Charles met with his cousin Anthony Campagna, a young lawyer, and encouraged him to come to America to work with Paterno Brothers Construction. Anthony was not convinced until three years later when Joseph paid a visit and convinced Anthony to first visit the Paterno home in New York City as he made his way to Chicago to work for an Italian newspaper. Saverio and Minnie taught Anthony basic American English (with a proper accent courtesy of Minnie’s British nationality) in preparation for his cross-Atlantic destination. By the time Anthony reached the Paterno home in late 1908, the family was living at 582 West 183rd Street and it is here where he met Paterno sister Marie. It wasn’t long before they fell in love, married, and Paterno Brothers Construction converted Anthony Campagna, the lawyer, into very much an equal developer of fine Manhattan apartment houses. Now Paterno Brothers Construction had a doctor and a lawyer on the team!

With Saverio in Castelmezzano becoming a checkpoint for Italian natives eager to reach work in America, teaching them basic American English, organizing essential paperwork, providing departure, travel, and arrival instructions, and orchestrating work with Paterno Brothers Construction, and with Charles, Joseph, Victor, Anthony and the family ready to receive the laborers across the Atlantic Ocean, the Paterno Manhattan apartment house building machine roared with ferocity and expedient success. Long before President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1938 labor laws, large construction crews on Paterno projects typically worked in excess of 60 hours per week which is how their 10- to 18-story buildings were, on average, erected within a year’s time. The Paterno brothers, brothers-in-law, and eventually sons formed a multigenerational management crew of sizable proportion to govern the steady flow of immigrant Italian workers all while Mama Carolina continued to steadfastly oversee the family financials in her traditionally prudent way. The family grew in extreme wealth due to a brilliant, though accidental, cross-Atlantic business model that proved to be a tale of immigrant success for the architectural and financial history books.

The eldest child, daughter Celestina Paterno (1873-1939) and her husband Victor Cerabone (1868-1954) had three daughters Carolina, Rose, and Louisa. Carolina eventually married Michael Campagna, younger brother of former-lawyer Anthony Campagna, both of whom contributed to the legacy of Paterno Brothers Construction. Victor Cerabone was an early team member of Paterno Brothers Construction and eventually built a number of his own buildings. Mama Carolina died at her home at 344 Northern Avenue (now Cabrini Boulevard) in 1925 and Celestina, who lived at 340 Northern Avenue, was never far. These 1909 family-built, three-story twin houses served as the residential nucleus for several generations of Paternos over 20 years. After Carolina died, Celestina and Victor relocated to the New York City borough of The Bronx near several other family estates.

[Family Tree diagram located at end of this article – scroll down to access]

The eldest son Saverio Francesco Paterno (1876-1950) traveled the world with a circus in his early years and was fluent in Italian, English, French, Spanish, and German. His entertainment skills included being a mandolin player, tightrope walker, and magician.  After serving as a Top Sergeant in the Italian Army during World War I as an interpreter, Saverio eventually became mayor of Castlemezzano where he improved infrastructure and amenities with funds provided by his American family in exchange for the indelible export of laborers that made the building empire of Paterno Brothers Construction possible. Saverio and his wife Minnie Rose Breden (1880-1969) had 10 children of whom four made their way to America. The Castlemezzano Paterno home remained in the family until approximately 1999.

Charles Vincent Paterno (1878-1946) married Minnie M. Middaugh (1868-1943) in 1906. Charles and Saverio were the only two Paterno children who never lived at either 340 or 344 Northern Avenue. Before those twin-homes were built, Charles and Minnie together had one son, Carlo, in 1907, and moved into their Northern Avenue castle, five blocks south of the family, in 1909. Despite her well-established colonial Wolcott lineage from Connecticut, Minnie was 10 years older than Charles, college-educated, Protestant, and divorced with an older son. While mutual love prevailed, these details proved too difficult for the staunchly Catholic Paterno family. In 1910, after building 30 apartment houses together, Joseph and Charles parted professional ways. Joseph retained the company name of Paterno Brothers Construction and Dr. Charles V. Paterno established Paterno Construction Company. Charles went on to build many buildings including the largest apartment house of the time at 270 Park Avenue, Hudson View Gardens, and Castle Village. He amassed and developed a country estate in Westchester County, New York, named Windmill Farm, and built a grand chateau, known as Round Hill, in Greenwich, Connecticut. 

Joseph Paterno (1881-1939) and Jule Helen Vera Wittkower (1885-1961) married in 1909 and raised two sons, Joseph Jr., and Jack. Joseph and Jule lived at 340 Northern Avenue with the family until Joseph and Charles built The Colosseum at 435 Riverside Drive in 1910. Here Joseph and Jule resided until they bought their Riverdale-on-Hudson estate in The Bronx known as Villa Paterno. The couple also enjoyed their shoreline properties in Deal, New Jersey, in and Palm Beach, Florida. Joseph is well-remembered for his numerous Paterno Brothers Construction buildings on the West side and his finest buildings at 1220 Park Avenue, 30 Sutton Place, and 825 Fifth Avenue. Joseph’s later apartment buildings extended into the Riverdale section of The Bronx. Additionally he made substantial financial and construction contributions to the Casa Italiana at Columbia University with brother Michael and brother-in-law Anthony Campagna. Charles filled the building’s library with over 20,000 books.

After Marie Stella Paterno (1886-1967) and Anthony Campagna (1884-1969) married in 1909 they stayed close to Mama Carolina in both the 340 and 344 Northern Avenue homes until they built an elaborate Italian villa Riverdale estate in The Bronx. In addition to Manhattan and The Bronx, Anthony and Marie enjoyed spending time at their properties in Springlake, New Jersey, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, in Chappaqua, New York, and at Shippan Point, Connecticut. Anthony worked closely with Paterno Brothers Construction and led the way on his first building in 1912, The Lucania. During his career he built fine luxury apartment houses on the West and East sides including along Fifth (834, 955, 960, 980, 1115, 1120) and Park (35, 530, 1021) Avenues and East 70th at Fifth. Additionally he built the art deco Rialto Theater in Times Square during the Depression. Anthony, a graduate of the Law School of the University of Naples, served many years on the New York Board of Education, was a co-founder and building partner of the Casa Italiana, and in 1930 was conferred the rank of Count by King Emanuel III for his charitable projects in Italy. Marie and Anthony’s two sons, Joseph and John, followed in their father’s footsteps by continuing successfully in the building trade. Anthony and his sons together completed successful building projects in St. Louis, Missouri.

The fourth son and sixth child, Michael Edwin Paterno (1888-1946) stayed single into his 30’s, living with Mama Carolina at 340 and 344 Northern Avenue. After serving in the ​​Engineers Corps in the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, Michael benefited greatly from the experienced knowledge of his older brothers and the success of Paterno Brothers Construction. His signature projects were not great in number however they were all impeccably elegant demonstrating his keen understanding and appreciation of style. Some of his more distinguished buildings are 775, 1105, 1172 Park Avenue, 1020 Fifth Avenue, and East 67th at Fifth. Michael married Anna Marie Herdlicka (1894-1986) in the 1920’s, and soon after they built and moved into their 11,000 square foot Mediterranean style estate in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. Choosing to forgo children, they split their time between their estate and their luxury 50th-floor apartment in the 1930 Lincoln Building on 42nd Street. While Michael became known as a preeminent Manhattan apartment house builder, Anna Marie became well-known as a judge and breeder of Saluki dogs, and both were avid collectors of fine art. During World War II, Michael and younger brother Anthony built Federal Housing Administration units in Norfolk, Virginia.

Continuing the compounding of talent, fifth son Anthony Albert Paterno (1891-1959) grew up surrounded by the benefit of an already successful building empire. By the time he led his first building project at age 24, Paterno Brothers Construction had already built nearly 60 apartment houses primarily in the Upper West Side, Bloomingdale, and Morningside Heights areas. Anthony was met with near instant success, married Dorothy Viola Schaefer (1897-1957) in 1918, and together they established a 116-acre farm in Croton Falls, New York, which served as a gathering place for large extended family gatherings. With no children of their own, “Tony and Dot” became a favorite uncle and aunt to many relatives and friends. Keeping an apartment on 181st Street in the city, Anthony continued to build on the West side with notable east-side exceptions at 25 Sutton Place and 1 Gracie Square as well as on Long Island and in White Plains, New York, and in New Jersey. Anthony was the last Paterno brother to die and it was he who kept the company name of Paterno Brothers Construction active which eventually expired along with Anthony in 1959.

Carolina and John’s third daughter Rose Irene Paterno (1893-1971) lived with her mother in the family home at 340 Northern Avenue and continued to do so with her husband Joseph Faiella (1889-1939) after their marriage in 1913. In 1921 Joseph built a home at 15 Chittenden Avenue, situated between the Northern Avenue family homes and the Paterno Castle, all within walking distance, for his wife and their two sons, Joseph Jr., and John. Joseph was active in a supportive role in Paterno Brothers Construction projects as well as his own building projects in the Bronx. His one Manhattan apartment house is located at 240 West End Avenue. After Joseph died Rose moved into a Paterno apartment house at 425 Riverside Drive and eventually followed her son John to Bermuda where she lived the remainder of her life. 

The ninth Paterno child was Theresa Marguerite Paterno (1894-1954) who lived with Mama Carolina at 340 Northern Avenue. After marrying Ralph Ciluzzi (1884-1939) in 1914 they moved a short distance away to 306 Northern Avenue. In 1921 Ralph built for his wife and their three children Helen, Ralph, Jr., and John a home next to the Faiella’s at 9 Chittenden Avenue, mirroring the twin house family arrangement on Northern Avenue. Before their divorce in 1934, Ralph, with Paterno Brothers Construction training, built 7 apartment houses on the West side and then returned to his homeland of Italy. Theresa soon remarried to Joseph Miele of East Orange, NJ, and together they lived on their 7-acre estate.

Lastly, Christina Alvina Paterno (1899-1959) was born the year her father died and just 14 months before her eldest sister’s first child, Carolina, was born. In the shared house of 344 Northern Avenue where Christina lived with her mother and siblings, including married sister Marie, she met Armino Campagna, younger brother of Marie’s husband Anthony who had come to stay along with third brother Michael Campagna in 1911. Armino Campagna (1898-1985) and Christina largely came into adulthood together at the same address and married in 1921. Subsequently eldest child Celestina’s eldest daughter Carolina married Michael Campagna, continuing the cycle of keeping these two families inextricably connected personally and professionally. Christina and Armino had two children, Marguerite and Joseph, who they raised at their Fieldston estate in The Bronx. Once married into the family Armino became very active with Paterno Brothers Construction and quickly learned the building trade. He then built several impressive apartment buildings on the West side in addition to projects in The Bronx and in New Jersey.

The Paterno family and Paterno Brothers Construction left their mark on Manhattan, both in building enduring parts of the borough, often leaving monogrammed cartouches – P, PB, JP, AP, AC – above apartment house entrance archways, and in living their lives, raising their families, and expressing their interests into the culture of early 20th Century Manhattan. It has been my honor, as a great-granddaughter of Dr. Charles V. Paterno, to research and discover my family’s story, to realize that the Paterno buildings are just as much a part of our family tree as the people, and to share with you one immigrant family’s serendipitous achievement of the American Dream. Had the accidental building collapse in Castelmezzano never sent Giovanni to America and had his unexpected and premature death not accidentally forced his sons Joseph and Charles into the building trade, chances are slim that the Paterno family, through 164 buildings, would have ever touched the lives – knowingly or unknowingly – of so many Manhattanites. It is my hope that this website, a compilation of “built to last” Paterno buildings, will help you meet and better know the hard-working immigrant family behind the buildings in which you have lived, worked, played, and loved for over 100 years. If nothing else, perhaps this website will simply resolve for you the mystery behind the monogrammed buildings scattered across the city. May they steadfastly endure.

Carla Paterno-Cappiello Golden
Great Granddaughter of Dr. Charles V. Paterno
PaternoArchitecture.com

Family Tree: 10 children + spouses of Carolina and Giovanni (John) Paterno: