Watch “The Paterno Family: Chronicling a New York Real Estate Legacy” video on YouTube
Read ‘The Paterno Brothers & Their Manhattan Apartment Houses‘ Look Book
1916 Hotel Marguery 270 Park Avenue
– Charles V. Paterno (Kelley Paterno page 285)
NB 247-1916
Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, East 47th Street, East 48th Street
13-sty fireproof stores, offices and apartments, 200×400
Cost:
$2,500,000
Owner:
New York & Harlem R. R. Co. and N. Y. Central R. R. Co, Grand Central Terminal
Architect:
Warren & Wetmore, 16 East 47th st
Address in Real Estate Record:
47TH TO 48TH STS, Madison av to Park av
All of the ground was rented from the New York Central Railroad. Dad had a 99-year lease on which he paid $600,000 a year. When fully occupied “270” grossed $1,500,000 as operating costs approximated $600,000 annually. The bottom line profit showing was $300,000 a year in the heyday.” Carlo Paterno in My Family pages 41 and 42
270 Park Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets back to Madison Avenue (entire block)
– between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue
1917 built
1957 demolished
Real estate titan Dr. Charles V. Paterno (he earned his medical degree in 1899 at Columbia University; but did not practice) formed the Vanderbilt Av. Realty Corp. and commissioned the architectural firm of Warren & Wetmore to design design a massive U-shaped neo-Renaissance building stretching from Madison to Park Avenue, and from 47th to 48th Streets. (source)
“Developer Dr. Charles V. Paterno built what was called the largest apartment building in the world with two distinct sections. The mansion-like apartments that took the address 270 Park Avenue, and the apartment hotel that used the name Hotel Marguery on Madison Avenue. The residents would share a 70 by 275 foot garden with a private drive.
The 6-building complex which formed the 12-story, stone-clad Renaissance Revival Hotel Marguery was built in 1917 by Dr. Paterno. The buildings were centered around a 250-foot-long Italian Garden which occupied the center of the block. When the building was first constructed, Vanderbilt Avenue passed through the center of the buildings where the garden was eventually built. After the street was closed, the hotel built a 60 feet tall carriage arch which allowed private access to the courtyard. The buildings contained 29 stores, 180 long-term apartments, and 110 luxury suites which ranged from 6 to 16 rooms apiece. By the 1940s, the high-end apartments rented for over $20,000 per month on average.” (source)
This was the first true skyscraper for apartments, with a large courtyard in the middle and a deluxe restaurant on the first floor, and it was destined to become one of the most important complexes in Midtown until the Sixties. (Renato Cantore)
“Dad had the vision to emplace the ultra-modern Park Avenue’s first apartment high-rise “skyscraper” building. It was the Hotel Marguery and 270 Park Avenue, nearby to Grand Central and a little south of the Waldorf-Astoria which was to come years afterward. His structure spread a block square between 47th and 48th and over to Madison Avenue.
Ultra-modernity, for that time, featured a center drive-in, a decorative inner courtyard and a famous restaurant on the main floor.
But vibratory shaking and noise from rumbling trains running sub-surface was a vexatious problem affecting the whole structure. The building had engineered super-structural steel columns using different layers of elements having differing coefficients of expansion and vibration. Actually, the building was detached from the sidewalk. As a boy I used to stand inside the building entrance and then stand outside on the sidewalk to feel a difference so discernible.
The Hotel Marguery and 270 Park Avenue were built right after World War I. Wartime had steel being extremely scarce for building so Dad would hire a man to ride on the actual steel laden freight cars as they were often put on a siding to permit higher priority freight trans to go through. It was only by this ingenuity that Dad was able to keep track of where his steel cars were, and to get them back on the route. No one in the construction game could figure out how Dad could get his construction steel so promptly for what at that time turned out to be the largest apartment building in the world.
The four lowest floors of 270 Park Avenue were to have outside limestone facing while all those above were to have exterior walls of brick. Carlo Paterno in My Family page 42
“In that World War I period, the Hotel Marguery was the largest high-rise apartment building in the world. Its renting agency was Douglas L. Elliman & Co., still one of New York’s prominent real estate firms. As the first of its kind in quality and size the renting entailed patience and time. A financial arrangement was made with three socialite personages to be its first residents. This brought a sales breakthrough as others followed until the great new structure was fully occupied.” Carlo Paterno in My Family page 44
“The great worldwide depression of the 1930’s brought woe everywhere. Hard times in 1930 hit this high-styled residential Marguery property too. Erstwhile rich tenants could no longer afford expensive, luxurious living. In the economic despair of 1932 the rental income had fallen to $800,000 a year. This meant that land lease payments to the New York Central could not be satisfied. Rather than undergo foreclosure, “270” and the Hotel Marguery were sold to the railroad. The money Dad realized was about what attorneys would have cost in foreclosure proceedings.” Carlo Paterno in My Family pages 46 & 47
During The Great Depression, for half a million dollars, Charles got rid of the large Park Avenue complex, for which earlier, in 1928, he had refused the sum of nine million. (Renato Cantore)
External Links:
270 Park Avenue on Wikipedia
The Lost Hotel Marguery — No. 270 Park Avenue by Daytonian in Manhattan
The Hotel Marguery by A Week in New York April 1946
Park Avenue, the ’Tween Years By Christopher Gray Aug. 16, 2012
“Uncle Charles supplied us with a chauffeured Rolls Royce to transport us ot the church and the reception, paid for the band, and gave us free use of a bridal suite including food service, at the luxurious Margarite Hotel on 47th Street and Park avenue. We used this accommodation for three nights, before sailing on our honeymoon.” Michael J. Paterno book page 30
“Lost and Forgotten Hotels– The Marguery Hotel and Apartments at 270 Park Avenue in Manhattan (between 47th and 48th Streets was approached through a 60 foot high Italian arch that served as a carriage entrance. The 250-room hotel was built in 1917 and was considered the city’s largest and most expensively decorated apartment house. By the 1940s, Time, Inc. had an option on the property to replace with a new headquarters building. Years later, at an oral history session at Columbia University, Andrew Hieskell, the company’s former chairman, said, “Instead of this being the fancy hotel we thought it was, it was heavily populated by ladies of the night and gambling outfits.” The company sold its options. In 1955, Union Carbide bought the old Marguery and built its own headquarter skyscraper on the site. The last of the hotel was demolished in 1957.” Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 47
New – York Tribune (1911-1922); Jun 6, 1916; pg. 12
RESTAURANT RAIDED IN HOTEL MARGUERY; Dry Agents Seize Two Bottles and Arrest Three Employes on Park Avenue. 30 DINERS NOT MOLESTED Leader of Foray Sponsored by 5th Av. Photographer — Place Not Operated by Hotel. RESTAURANT RAIDED IN HOTEL MARGUERY • New York Times July 22, 1932
