345 Riverside Drive

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The Paterno apartment house that never was.

1937 Riverside Drive and 107th Street

Blog Post on this website: 345 Riverside Drive • A New Addition to the Paterno Architecture Catalog – Now at 164 Buildings!

West 107th and Riverside and it’s connection to a castle up north.

William Van Alen, Fred T. Ley and the Chrysler Building By George C. Kingston, pages 188 & 189 (below)

NB 281-1936
West 107th Street, 328
1-sty bk dwg, 20×24
Cost:
$4,000
Owner:
Karlopat Realty Corp., Chas V. Paterno, pres, 405 Lexington av
Architect:
Wm. Van Alen, 141 E 52
Address in Real Estate Record:
107TH ST, 328 W

Alsop’s Castle • People occasionally get to wondering about that small, square, white-pointed, single-story modernistic house at the corner of Riverside Drive and 107th Street. Perched twenty feet above street level in the shadow of a couple….

…of big, burly apartment houses and accessible only by a flight of steep wooden steps, it looks somewhat out of place, but there’s a perfectly good reason for its being there. The Karlopat Realty Company (whose president is Carlo Paterno, of the Paterno Family which owns the castle up near the George Washington Bridge) decided last year to build apartment houses on the lot at Riverside Drive and 107th, but found their deed to the land complicated by a clause providing that the first building erected on it should be a one-family residence. The shortest way out was to buy a pre-fabricated structure from National Houses, Inc., the makers, incidentally, of the All-Steel House, formerly at Park and Thirty-sixth. (The All-Steel House, to get even further off the subject, is now on a plantation near Gloucester, Virginia.)

The 107th Street house, an example of a medium-sized, low-cost workman’s house built according to FHA specification, was designed by William Van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building, and cost $3,000. National Houses and Consolidated Edison (who did the heating and air-conditioning) were so proud after the house had been put up that they obtained permission for a thirty-day exhibition period, you may possibly remember that everybody in New York received, closed with last May’s gas bill, an invitation to drop in and look around. The sponsors of the open house meant the invitation to be good only for a month. Consolidated Edison naturally has all kinds of patrons, however, and some of them are slow on the uptake. The result has been that people still come around for a tour of inspection. This was especially embarrassing for the first tenant, one of Thomas Dewey’s undercover men in the (illegible) prosecution. He took the place as a hide-away for meetings with detectives, underworld informers, and the like, only to find this (illegible) of the time a knock at the door just meant sightseers. He moved out last summer and was succeeded by a Mr. Carleton Alsop, a radio executive not unduly troubled with confidential business. Mr. Alsop, who is a large, amicable young man, says that he likes the place because there’s a little back yard for Orel of Warrendane, his Great Dane puppy.

The inside of the house is almost what you’d expect – very modernistic. The only exception is Mr. Alsop’s bed, which is a special job measuring five by seven feet. He and the pup have at their disposal four tiny rooms – two chambers, a living room, and a dinette. There are four windows, one at each corner. It’s an ideal residence, Mr. Alsop finds, except that people come to walk their dogs in his yard, peek in his windows, and, as we said, look over the interior. The other day a strange lady from the Bronx charged into Mr. Alsop’s bedroom while he was dressing for dinner and exclaimed, “What are you doing here?”

To Mr. Alsop, his home, viewed from the outside, has an endearing, comical aspect. “Every time I look at it I have to laugh,” he says. He thinks it’s a the best bargain in New York for the money – $100 a month.

Note: Thomas E. Dewey was the 47th Governor of New York from 1943 – 1954

Timeline:
1923 – corner lot (328) acquired by Dr. Charles V. Paterno (CVP)
1929-1939 – The Great Depression
1930 May 20 – another lot (326) acquired – documented
1930 June 18 – acquired 324, 322, and 320 lots – documented – 100.11 x 125.2 total (5 lots)
1936 – Charles & Carlo Paterno lease office space on the 64th floor of the Chrysler Building (opened in 1930) at 405 Lexington Avenue ( In 1936 Charles and Carlo moved their office into the Chrysler Building on the 64th floor (77 total) in the corner. Carlo said that before leaving for lunch they had to call down to the lobby receptionist to see if it was raining outside. Being so high up in the clouds, it wasn’t possible to know the current weather status at street level. Per CMP tapes) – presumably how CVP met Van Alen (?)
1936 – construction permit filed
1937- small house built (deed restriction required single-family home; perhaps required 5 years existence)
1937 – mortgage from Vanderbilt Ave Realty (CVP) to Karlopat Realty (Carlo)
1937 – Charles purchased Round Hill property in CT
1938 – Paterno Castle demolish & Castle Village started (CVP’s last project)
1939 – construction at Round Hill, CT started
1939 – Charles’ wife Minnie fell ill at Windmill Farm where she remained until death
1939 – 1945 – WWII
1940 – tax photo of small house (Sanborn pink map photo)
1941 – small house demolished (Demolition Permit 214-41)
1943 – Charles’ wife Minnie died
1943 – CVP remarried
1944 – CVP petitions to convert 200 acres of Windmill Farm into a cemetery
1946 – Dr. Charles V. Paterno died
1950 – apartment house new building permit filed by Harry Gildin
1951 – 5 lots sold by Carlo Paterno of Paterno Estates for $140,000

107th St, 324 W, 25×101; Vanderbilt Ave Realty Corp to Karlopat Realty Corp, 405 Lexington Ave: mtg $25,000 held by grantee. (source) July 21, 1937

345 Riverside Drive (aka 320-328 West 107th Street)
Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 1892, Lot 32
Date: 1950 (NB 208-1950)
Architect/Builder: Charles E. Greenberg & Marvin Ames
Original Owner: Gildin Construction Company (Harry Gildin, president)
Type: Apartment building
Style: Moderne
Stories: 6
Material(s): Brick; cast stone
Decorative Metal Work: Historic fire escapes
Significant Architectural Features: Orange brick facade with red brick details and basement;
West 107th Street and Riverside Drive facades both divided into two wings by light
court; primary entrance with cast-stone enframement recessed in light court; window
openings feature stone sills, corner windows with patterned brick enframements; some
historic wood three-over-three double-hung sash, window panes arranged as narrow
horizontal bands
Alterations: Access ramp with metal handrail installed at primary entrance; parapet rebuilt; most
windows replaced (historically three-over-three double-hung sash, with individual panes
arranged as narrow horizontal bands)
North Facade: Designed (historic)
Door(s): Possibly historic primary door
Windows: Mixed (upper stories); mixed (basement)
Security Grilles: Not historic (upper stories); not historic (basement)
Sidewalk Material(s): Concrete
Curb Material(s): Granite (West 107th Street); concrete (Riverside)
Areaway Paving Material: Concrete paving with concrete ramp and planting beds
West Facade: Designed (historic)
Facade Notes: Wings both feature a recessed center bay with historic fire escape; concrete-paved
light court enclosed with simple metal fence; secondary entrance with non-historic door
East Facade: Not designed (historic) (partially visible)
Facade Notes: Red brick side wall; regular arrangement of window openings; concrete vehicle
ramp leads to basement garage entrance with non-historic roll-down door

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Communication:

9/18/2021 From txxxxxx@icloud.com
Carla –

I came across your great archive while researching the history of my building, 345 Riverside Drive, which turns 70 years old this year. I’m curious about the Paterno connection to the building, or rather its site, and to Harry Gildin, its developer.

345 occupies a site comprising five lots on the south side of West 107th Street. City Register records indicate that Paterno assembled the site between 1923 and 1943, presumably with the intent of constructing an apartment building on the site. Paterno picked up the corner lot on RSD in 1923, an adjacent lot in 1929, a third in 1930, and two more in 1943.

The project appears to have been stalled by a restrictive covenant on the vacant corner lot that permitted nothing other than a single-family dwelling to be built upon it. (You may be familiar with this story.) Paterno satisfied the covenant by moving a modular house designed by William Van Alen of Chrysler Building to the lot, but never proceeded with further development on the site.

In 1951, Paterno Estates sold all five lots for $140,000 to a holding company created by Gildin Construction Company. Paterno Estates itself financed the transaction with a $94,000 mortgage. Gildin proceeded to erect the six-story brick apartment building that currently stands on the site, designed by Greenberg & Ames, .

I’m curious to know more about why Paterno did not move forward with the project. I’d assume it has to do with the economic conditions during the 1930s and World War II, which stalled most private development in the city. I just wonder if there might also have been a site-specific reason. A 1940 tax photo shows the Van Alen house sitting atop a large rock, which might have been costly to blast away for the excavation.

I’m also curious to know more about the relationship between Paterno and Gildin. Harry Gildin was very active in developing the Hudson Heights and Inwood neighborhoods where Paterno had acquired a large tract of land of from the Rockefellers. Was the 345 RSD deal a one-off or part of an ongoing relationship between Paterno and Gildin?

I’d appreciate knowing about anything in your files that may shed some light on my questions.

Best regards,
Tom Fedorek

9/19/2021 Reply:
Hi Tom, 

You pretty much found everything that I had found. My best guess as to why a Paterno building was never erected on the site is because my great grandfather Dr. Charles V. Paterno died in 1946. Seems the small lots were acquired by him before his death and then sold by Karlopat Realty/Paterno Estates which was headed up by his son/my grandfather Carlo M. Paterno. My grandfather was more interested in his farms outside of the city rather than building new apartment houses on his own in the city. Had my great grandfather not died unexpectedly, an apartment house at 345 Riverside Drive may have been constructed by Charles and Carlo Paterno. I’m not sure what happened between 1943, when it seems that all the necessary lots had been acquired and deed restriction was satisfied, and 1946.

I attached a screen shot of the 1937 RSD/107th corner property transfer from Dr. Paterno (Vanderbilt Ave Realty Corp) to Carlo (Karlopat Realty Corp). Interesting is that Carlo’s business address is 405 Lexington Avenue which is the Chrysler Building of which the architect William Van Alen is a link to the small house.

All in all it seems like Dr. Paterno was perhaps helping his son to get an apartment house project going but between death and lack of interest, this project never came to fruition by my grandfather. I have not seen Harry Gildin’s name associated with any other Paterno project.

Hope this helps to add a little more detail to your investigation. Thank you for reaching out!

Tom’s presentation shared 11/13/2021:

“As President of the Riverside Drive Property Association, Bayne was involved in keeping the area around his home as elegant as possible. Bayne’s Atlas Improvement Company invested in real estate around New York City and bought many parcels of land on the west side including vacant lots on 107th Street and 108th Street near his Riverside Drive home.” Old New York In Photos #37 – Riverside Drive 108th Street

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“According to Christopher Gray’s Streetscape column in the Times of May 23, 2010, Charles Paterno had acquired the site for an apartment building but a deed restriction required that the initial structure on the site be a single-family house.  Your great-grandfather therefore arranged for a 5-room pre-fabricated house, made of steel panels bolted together, to be erected in 1937.  The house was designed by William Van Alen, famed architect of the Chrysler Building, under a New Deal program to develop affordable houses for people with limited incomes.  

The deed restriction having been satisfied, the little house was torn down in 1940.  The present 6-story apartment house at 345 Riverside Drive was built 1951.” From Gil Tauber

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“As President of the Riverside Drive Property Association, Bayne was involved in keeping the area around his home as elegant as possible. Bayne’s Atlas Improvement Company invested in real estate around New York City and bought many parcels of land on the west side including vacant lots on 107th Street and 108th Street near his Riverside Drive home.”

“When Bayne agreed to sell the Riverside Drive lots near his villa in 1899 to Adolphe Openhym and the builders, Smith & Stewart, Bayne had restrictions put into the sales agreement stipulating how the the lots would be developed. Bayne specified that “high class residences” with no more than two detached homes were to be built on the lots and that there be at least 30 feet between the houses in the middle of the block and those on either corner.” (source)

NYC Department of Buildings for 345 Riverside Drive
1941, 10/10 Demolition Permit (DP 214-41)
1950, 10/10 New Building Permit (NC 208-50)
1951, 10/10 Demolition Permit (DP 87-51)
1952, 7/17 Certificate of Occupancy (CO 40085)

“Riverside – West 105th Street Historic District, Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States The Riverside – West 105th Street Historic District lies within the English patent granted by Governor Nicolls in 1667-68 to City Alderman Isaac Bedlow. Until its urbanization at the end of the 19th century, the Upper West Side of Manhattan was referred to as “Bloomingdale.” The name derives from the Dutch settlers who called the area Bloemendael in fond recollection of a flower-growing area in Holland. By the 18th century, Bloomingdale Road, following the course of an old Indian trail, provided the main link between the City in lower Manhattan with the farmland of the Upper West Side, gradually encouraging the growth of small clusters of villages along its course and the establishment of country seats in the adjoining areas by wealthy New York families. Two such country seats were located near the Historic District. One of them, built before 1752, was known successively by three different names: the Humphrey Jones Homestead, the Ann Rogers House and the Abbey Hotel. It was a large stone house located between the present 101st and 102nd Streets , west of the present West End Avenue. The house remained a private residence until 1844 when it was converted into a hotel. It was struck by lightning in 1857 and demolished. The second estate, known as “Woodlawn,” belonged to Humphrey Jones’ son, Nicholas, who had acquired it in 176U from Charles Ward Apthorp. Situated between 106th and 107th Streets near Riverside Drive, it was the site of a skirmish during the Revolutionary War Battle of Harlem Heights. A detachment of Americans drove a British force southward from 125th Street into the neighborhood of 105th Street, where the battle continued near the Woodlawn mansion. Fighting ended with the appearance of more British and Hessian troops. In 1816, Woodlawn was conveyed by William Rogers and his wife Ann to Sarah, her daughter by her previous marriage to Nicholas Cruger, a friend of George Washington. Sarah married William Heyward, a member of a prominent Charleston, South Carolina, family. In her generally caustic book, Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832), Mrs. Trollope described Woodlawn as the loveliest mansion in the beautiful village of Bloomingdale. After William Heyward’s death, Sarah sold the estate in 1847 to the famous pill manufacturer, William B. Moffat, who leased Woodlawn in the late 1850s for use as a hotel. Moffat died in 1862 and under the terms of his will the estate was divided into lots in 1864 and sold. Myra Moffat, one of his daughters, lived at No. 321 West 105th Street until at least 1910. The Woodlawn House served briefly as the home of the New York Infant Asylum and survived until 1897.” From the 1973 Riverside-West 105th Street Historic District Designation Report

“The estate was not sold, however, and it remained in the family until October 31, 1816 when Nicholas Jones’s heirs, William and Ann Roberts, who lived in the former Humphrey Jones mansion to the south, transferred title to their daughter, Sarah, and her husband William Heywood.  The Heywoods named the estate Woodlawn.

The widowed Sarah Heywood sold Woodlawn on April 10, 1847 to William B. Moffat for $20,000 (around $640,000 today).  Moffatt was the editor of Moffat’s United States Almanac, and his father, Dr. John Moffat was well-known for his Phoenix Bitters and Moffat’s Vegetable Life Pills.

He converted the mansion to the Woodlawn Hotel, which was operated by proprietor William L. Wiley until Moffat’s death in 1862.  Hopper Striker Mott wrote in 1908, “After being vacant for some time Courtlandt P. Dixon purchased it for use as a country residence” and later “it was the first home of the New York Infant Asylum.”” The Lost Nicholas Jones House – West End Avenue and 106th Street