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1926 825 Fifth Avenue
– Paterno Brothers; Joseph Paterno President; John A. Paterno Assistant Treasurer (Kelley Paterno page 286)
NB 385-1926
Fifth Avenue, 824-826
23-sty f p apt hotel, 70×101
Cost:
$1,000,000
Owner:
Paterno Bros, 601 W 115th
Architect:
J. E. P. Carpenter, 598 Madison av
Address in Real Estate Record:
5TH AV, 824-6
Located in Upper East Side Historic District designated 19 May 1981
Architect James E.R. Carpenter; Builder Paterno Brothers 601 West 115th Street; Joseph Paterno President; John A. Paterno Assistant Treasurer (Alpern Acanthus page 38)
– between 63rd and 64th Streets
Featured in Andrew Alpern’s book The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter page 38
STREETSCAPES A Tall Redhead With an Elegant Body By Christopher Gray March 20, 2005
825 Fifth Avenue 1926-1927: cooperative high-rise apartment built by Joseph Paterno
– Michael Jeremiah Paterno worked as a messenger, timekeeper, and labor foreman under the supervision of his brother John Anthony Paterno; later worked for his uncle Dr. Charles Paterno including as an assistant construction superintendent at Windmill Farms
– Joseph Paterno, the developer of 825 Fifth Avenue, between 63rd and 64th Streets, designed by James E.R. Carpenter in 1926. Instead of 15 stories, Paterno’s co-op rose 23 floors high. (source)
825 Fifth Avenue is a luxury apartment building located on Fifth Avenue between East 63rd and East 64th Streets in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was built by the Paterno Brothers. The 23-floor building was erected in 1926-1927 as a cooperative with 77 apartments, but today it has only 64 units. Developer Joseph Paterno initially opted to list the building as an apartment-hotel so as to legally build 23 stories as opposed to only 15 stories restricted for apartment houses. The building has a notable red-tiled steep-pitched roof, making it visible from a long distance. When it was built, The Real Estate Record & Guide praised the $1 million building’s “unusually striking upper-floor effect.” 825 Fifth Avenue on Wikipedia
Two blocks south, at 65th Street, the 1927 co-op at 825 Fifth has a cozy red-tiled roof, with a steep pitch that makes it visible from a distance. When it was built — designed by James E.R. Carpenter, usually considered Candela’s main rival — The Real Estate Record & Guide praised the $1 million building’s “unusually striking upper-floor effect.” STREETSCAPES | A VIEW FROM CENTRAL PARK On the Avenue, Fifth Avenue, the Architects Attract Us By Christopher Gray Sept. 25, 2005
Considered to be among the most attractive residential buildings on Fifth Avenue, this J.E.R. Carpenter-designed 23-story tower was erected in 1926 and its instantly-recognizable rooftop decorated with red tile and chimneys has since been a key element of the famous Central Park skyline. In an ideal location in Lenox Hill near Midtown, the prewar co-op building features an elegant entryway, a courtyard, terraces and great views. (source)
825 Fifth Avenue Between 63rd & 64th Streets By Carter B. Horsley
One of the handsomest residential buildings on Fifth Avenue, this 23-story tower was erected in 1927 and its tall, red-tiled, hipped roof has since been a key element on the Central Park skyline. It was developed by Joseph Paterno as an apartment hotel, which permitted a taller building than just an apartment building.
It was designed by J. E. R. Carpenter, the foremost apartment building architect of his day whose other buildings on the avenue include numbers 810, 845, 907, 920, 950, 988, 1030, 1060, 1115, 1120, 1143, 1148, 1150, 1165 and 1170. The base of the building is very ornate and handsome and the tall roof is particularly striking because the red tiles are only on the east and west facades and are framed by chimneys.
The beige-brick building, which has a four-story limestone base with arched windows on the fourth floor, was erected as a cooperative with 68 two- and three-room apartments. With five apartments per floor, the building has smaller units than many other luxury apartment buildings of its era on the avenue. It has inconsistent fenestration and nice sidewalk landscaping.
The building’s location is ideal and very close to midtown. About the only drawback to the building is the number of parades that pass by, but that goes with the Fifth Avenue territory. It is also very close to the avenue’s entrance to the Central Park Zoo. Needless to say, the building has great views.
In his fine book, “The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter” (Acanthus Press, 2001), Andrew Alpern notes that this building was built as an apartment hotel “with restaurant still operating.” His book reproduces an earlier design by Carpenter for the site that called for a medieval castellated form. “In 1947-50,” Mr. Alpern wrote, “service pantries legalized as cooking spaces, effectively converting the apartment hotel to an apartment house.”
Christopher Gray devoted his March 20, 2005 “Streetscapes” column in The New York Times to the building, which had recently suffered a bolt of lightning: “Even for the 1920s, an era of skyscraper distinction, the top of 825 Fifth Avenue is striking – a high-pitched double gable of terra-cotta tile, a blaze of Mediterranean red on a cold city of gray, tan and black.”
It had a dining room supervised by “the Vienna-born Alfons Baumgarten, who had already established the Crillon and Voisin restaurants,” Mr. Gray noted, adding that “the building has windows on all four sides, another unusual feature – Paterno felt secure that neither the 12-story apartment building to the south nor the mansion to the north would soon be replaced by higher structures.”
“The new 825 Fifth Avenue attracted tenants like the publisher Nelson Doubleday; Samuel L. Parrish, a lawyer, pioneer golfer and art patrons who founded the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, on Long Island; and Paul Moore, a director of the Bankers Trust Company.” (source)
FIFTH AVENUE between 63rd Street and 64th Street No. 825 (1378/70)
Date Architect Owner: Erected 1926 by J. E. R. Carpenter for Paterno
ARCHITECTURE: Style neo-Classical
Elements: Twenty-three story apartment building; limestone facing at first four floors and brick facing at upper stories; quoins above fourth floor; rusticated first floor; windows at second through fourth floors set in round-arched enframements with swag and garland panels between the second and third floors; swag panels at the fifth floor; balconies at the sixth floor; steep hipped roof; set backs begin above the twelfth floor.
Alterations: Window sash has been changed on a number of floors.
HISTORY: Replaced three town houses designed by Henry Kilburn and built between 1893 and 1895
References: Alexandra Cushing Howard, Fifth Avenue and Central Park, Building-Structure Inventory (Albany: Division for Historic Preservation, 1975).
New York City, Department of Buildings, Manhattan, Plans, Permits and Dockets. (source)
“In 1927 and 1928, working with Uncle Joseph, he [John Anthony Paterno] took sole charge in acquiring the site, planning, and building a cooperative high-rise at 825 Fifth Avenue.” Michael J. Paterno book page 49
The Spur (1913-1940); New York Vol. 38, Iss. 10, (Nov 15, 1926): 9.
New York Herald Tribune (1926-1962); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 25 Mar 1928: L2.
“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
