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1916 905 West End Avenue
NB 450-1916
West End Avenue; West 104th Street, 303; northwest corner
13-sty fireproof apartment, 115×100
Cost:
$550,000
Owner:
The 905 West End Av. Corp, 601 West 115th st
Architect:
Gaetan Ajello
Address in Real Estate Record:
104TH ST, 303 West, n w cor West End av
Located in Riverside – West End Historic District Extension II designated 23 June 2015
885, 895 and 905 West End Avenue, at the corners of 103rd and 104th Streets
– designed by Gaetan Ajello 1912 to 1917
WEST END AVENUE DOCUMENTATION Survey 2008
Address: 905 West End Avenue, northwest corner West 104th Street
Block / Lot: 1891/17
NB Number: 450-16 Date: 1916
Original Use: Apartment House No. of units: 65
Stories: 13 Height: 142’
Estimated Cost: $550,000
Façade Materials: main material brick
base granite lower floors brick
trim terra cotta cornice terra cotta
Structure: steel
Original Owner: The 905 West End Avenue Corporation, 601 West 115th Street, Joseph Paterno, president
Architect: Gaetan Ajello, 1 West 34th Street
Landmark Status: None
Comments: As at other apartments of the period designed by Gaetan Ajello, this is a white brick and limestone, Italian Renaissance inspired building, with white terra-cotta ornament. Balustrades and the cornice have been removed. Joseph Paterno’s initials are visible in a cartouche above the center of the two-story entrance. (source)
Date: 1916
NB Number: NB 450-1916
Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Information: Block 1891, Lot 7502
Type: Apartment Building
Architect: Ajello, Gaetan
Developer/Owner/Builder: The 905 West End Avenue Corporation
NYC Landmarks Designation: Historic District
Landmark Designation Report: Riverside Drive– West End Historic District Extension II
National Register Designation: N/A
Primary Style: Renaissance Revival
Primary Facade: Brick, Limestone, and Terra Cotta
Stories: 13
Historic District: Riverside-West End Historic District Extension II
Significant Architectural Features: Tripartite composition with three-story base, eight-story middle section, and two-story capital; brick-clad facade with limestone and terra-cotta trim; granite and limestone watertable; base features double-height limestone entrance enframement with molded piers supporting entablature with cartouche and festoon ornament; lower story window openings with full terra-cotta enframements, some with bracketed entablatures, some with bracketed sills; denticulated beltcourse above second story with rosettes and fleurs-de-lis; molded beltcourses separate base from upper stories; upper stories feature window openings with soldier-brick lintels and bracketed sills; every other story with recessed spandrels; fifth and 12th stories feature some windows with terra-cotta balconettes and full enframements with segmental-arched pediments supported by brackets; seventh and ninth stories feature some windows with full terracotta enframements with molded entablatures; molded beltcourse below 12th story
Alterations: Cornice removed; balconette balustraded railings removed; windows replaced (historically one-over-one double-hung sash)
East Facade: Designed (historic)
Door(s): Replaced primary door
Windows: Replaced (upper stories); replaced (basement)
Security Grilles: Historic (basement)
Cornice: Removed
Sidewalk Material(s): Concrete
Curb Material(s): Granite
South Facade: Designed (historic)
Facade Notes: Similar to West End Avenue facade; secondary entrance with non-historic door; basement windows with historic iron grilles
North Facade: Designed (historic) (partially visible)
Facade Notes: Buff brick side wall; regular arrangement of window openings; fire escape; sunken concrete yard accessed through historic iron fence and gate
West Facade: Not designed (historic) (partially visible)
Facade Notes: Red brick side wall; one bay of window openings
A 1916 issue of the publication reported that the 905 West End Avenue Corporation, whose president was Anthony Paterno, had acquired the row houses at 901 through 909 West End Avenue plus 303 West 104th Street. The building now known as 905 West End Avenue received its building permit in 1916 and was completed in the fall of 1917. West End Palazzos, 905 and 895 Brought “High” Rises to the Block by Gilbert Tauber
Both 895 and 905 West End Avenue were designed by Gaetan Ajello, as well as nearby 885 West End Avenue. Born in Sicily in 1883 and trained as an architect and engineer, he then emigrated to the U.S in 1902. Working for the Paternos and others, Ajello had a distinctive style, derived from the Renaissance palazzi of his native Italy, that is particularly evident in 885, 895 and 905 West End Avenue. All three are of creamy white glazed brick. The entrance is within a two-story high stone frame. He makes bold use of terracotta ornament around the window openings, which are often double width. The facades are further decorated with stone or metal balconettes. (In the recent renovation of 905, the deteriorated stone balconies have been replaced by fiberglass.).
Ajello’s buildings are usually easy to identify. He made a point of signing the cornerstone with “G. Ajello, Architect.” He also provided clues identifying his clients. On most of his buildings, centered directly above the entrance, is a stone cartouche with one or more initials, for example, a P for Paterno; a C for Charles Paterno; a J, M, or A for one of the other brothers.
Building heights today are controlled by zoning, but decades before New York City adopted its first zoning law in 1916, there were regulations that limited the height of residential buildings. These were embodied in the Tenement House Act which, despite its name, applied to all multifamily dwellings. In 1902 the act was amended to allow buildings of fireproof construction to rise to one and a half times the height of the street. The height limit for West End Avenue, which is 100 feet wide, was thus 150 feet. With the ceiling heights customary at that time, a builder could erect a building of 12 or 13 stories within a rise of 150 feet. Te earliest such buildings usually had 12 floors, perhaps to avoid an “unlucky” 13th floor. Note that 895 West End Avenue, completed in 1916 but designed in 1912, has 12 floors. 905 West End Avenue, designed four years later, has 13 floors. In the 1920s reduced ceiling heights, combined with construction techniques that allowed
thinner floor slabs, enabled developers to ft 15 or even 16 floors within the 150-foot limit.
West End Palazzos, 905 and 895 Brought “High” Rises to the Block by Gilbert Tauber
But these near triplets have aged quite differently. The northernmost, 905, has a desolate, blighted look, especially over the entrance, where leaks from high up have come out through the brick, leaving behind great whitish salt stains called efflorescence. The cornice has been ripped off, the brick patching at the edges is a sad mismatch, and a crude line of electrical conduit runs from the original grand lamp bases to smaller fixtures set about six feet too low. STREETSCAPES | WEST END AVENUE A Preservation Handbook in a Few Short Blocks By Christopher Gray
Q. My apartment house at 161 West 75th Street, like a number of others on the Upper West Side, has two intertwined initials over the door, an “A” and something else. Whose initials? And was it the architect or developer? . . . Ivan Berger, Manhattan. A. Your building was built in 1924 to 1926 by Anthony Paterno — they are his initials — and was designed by Rosario Candela. Paterno was one of four brothers, all developers, who generally worked separately. Other brothers also used their initials on buildings they put up. Joseph Paterno’s architect on 905 West End Avenue, at 104th Street, designed an elaborate cartouche with “JP” over the door and annotated the 1917 drawing, “Architect is to approve the plaster model of this ornament before execution.” Other developers, like the Halls, the Campagnas and the Crystals, also left such traces of their ownership. I have never seen written accounts of this practice by developers, but after the turn of the century the architectural press often urged architects to “sign” their creations. However, only a few architects, usually designers of speculative apartment houses, regularly did this. The Paternos started building modest walk-ups around 1900 but by the 1920’s had become one of New York’s reigning builder-families. Joseph Paterno built buildings like 1220 Park Avenue, at 95th Street, and 30 Sutton Place, at 58th Street; Charles put up luxury apartments as well as Hudson View Gardens and Castle Village, north of the George Washington Bridge; Michael built 775 Park Avenue, at 72d Street, and 2 East 67th Street, and Anthony built 1040 Fifth Avenue, at 85th Street. Generally the Paternos’ legible presence on their buildings decreased as their product ascended the economic ladder. On Michael Paterno’s 1105 Park Avenue, built in 1922 at the corner of 89th Street, there is only the letter “P” and even such modest inscriptions largely vanished on their top-grade buildings on Fifth and Park Avenues. This is consistent with the development in the 1910’s of a general upper-class preference for apartment houses known by their street addresses rather than by a name. Streetscapes: Readers’ Questions The Beekman Theater, a French School, Old Initials September 5, 1993
