Hudson View Gardens Centenniel Celebration

On Saturday, September 14, 2024, I was invited to speak about my great-grandfather, Dr. Charles V. Paterno, at Hudson View Gardens (HVG) in Washington Heights, NYC, which he completed building in 1924.

Part of my talk was the gifting of a portrait of Dr. Charles Paterno painted by my mother Mina Paterno Schultes.

The portrait now hangs in the library of the HVG lounge.

These are the words I shared with the kind residents of HVG:

Hudson View Gardens Centennial Celebration 14 September 2024

I am honored to be here with you this evening. Thank you for inviting me to your centennial party which might be better said as “thank you for letting me crash your party and talk about one of my favorite people.” 

One hundred years ago my great-grandfather Dr. Charles V. Paterno had the idea to turn the land he was using for a vegetable garden into a residential Tudor village. Across the street overlooking the river, he had been living in his castle for almost 15 years when this idea came to him. Up the street – Northern Avenue at the time, now Cabrini Boulevard – lived two of his married younger sisters in twin homes on 186th and Chittenden. Further up the street at approximately 188th lived his mother, his unmarried siblings, and a couple of married siblings with their families, all in twin Italianate homes (340 & 344). Dr. Paterno understood the value of closeness. He knew the comfort and security close proximity offered a person who wanted to check in on family, drop off a freshly baked loaf of bread, or help a friend in a pinch when the need arose. 

After World War One the Tudor aesthetic became a popular architectural style in the United States. In 1921 architect George F. Pelham designed two Tudor Revival styled apartment complexes, one for Dr. Paterno’s brother Joseph on 163rd & Broadway and one for Dr. Paterno’s brother-in-law Anthony Campagna near 158th Street on Riverside Drive. Dr. Paterno pulled from these successful projects and, with the same architect in 1923, designed a veritable residential village replete with charm, practicality, and ingenuity. 

Last fall when I visited Castelmezzano, my great-grandfather’s home village in Southern Italy, I felt a familiar feeling. Walking the narrow streets of the mountainous village with homes and shops lined and stacked on either side, it occurred to me that what he felt as a young boy walking those very streets he again felt as a grown man walking the driveway of Hudson View Gardens. In a different place, in a different style, in a different time, Dr. Paterno re-created the same feeling of comfort, security, community, and home that he felt as a young boy. 

My great-grandfather came from Castelmezzano with his mother and 3 of his siblings in 1884 when he was six years old to reunite with his father who had come to New York five years prior. The four children welcomed six more siblings once in the New World. Dr. Paterno graduated from Cornell Medical College in 1899 but never got the chance to practice medicine. That same year his father died unexpectedly leaving 2 unfinished apartment houses. Charles, 21 years old, and his 18-year old brother Joseph figured out how to finish them, continued to build as The Paterno Brothers, and eventually folded in their younger brothers and all of their sisters’ husbands into the family business. Together they built 164 buildings in Manhattan: 155 apartment houses, 4 family homes, 1 castle, 1 garage that is now a condo, 1 Times Square theater, 1 university cultural center, and 1 tiny steel house. Only 14 of these have been demolished. 

Hudson View Gardens accounts for 15 of the 164 Manhattan structures. I will not attempt to place HVG in historic architectural context in the presence of Dr. Andrew Dolkart. You all have received the ample benefit of an on-site professional expert through lectures and writings to elucidate the finer points. What unique perspective I can offer are the words of Ruth Brown, a granddaughter of Dr. Paterno, who recorded her memories for her family. 

“My mom and dad and I moved in 1925 when I was one year old to a brand new stretched out apartment in a very modern apartment complex overlooking “The Castle” and the Hudson River and the New Jersey Palisades. The apartment complex was called “Hudson View Gardens” and was built by my grandfather Dr. Charles V. Paterno. There were a dozen apartments attached with cellar ways connecting so one could walk from one to another in bad weather. An A&P grocery store, a drug store, restaurant and radio station were in the complex. Also a large rose garden and a separate children’s park with a sand box large enough for all the children to play in.

Our apartment was designed for us – two apartments connected. [After the centenniel party, residents Jonathan Tichler and Arturo Padilla researched old census records and determined that Ruth lived in unit L1 which was combined with L2.] It was stretched out with the large dining room in the center, a kitchen (with dishwasher and other appliances) and a large laundry room, the same size as the kitchen were to the side. A foyer ran along the back of the apartment where the front door was (we were a flight below street level) with a telephone in the outer foyer of the building for security. At one end of the dining room was the living room and beyond that a large bedroom and bath and just the opposite on the other side of the dining room was a family room with a Murphy bed. A large master bedroom and bath were at this end and screened porch and path, garden and stairs going down to the street below. It was a wonderful apartment with beautiful views from all the windows with large foot-deep window sills. There was a second Murphy bed under the large tapestry in the living room. We had a grand player piano in the living room where our parents entertained frequently. Our grandparents lived across the street in the Castle. It was wonderful having them so near and being invited for Sunday dinner almost every Sunday.”

Your neighborhood is where my family lived, here in HVG, across the street, on 186th and 188th Streets. In full circle fashion I would like to present to Hudson View Gardens tonight a gift from my family. 

Last year my mother Mina Paterno Schultes painted this portrait of her grandfather Dr. Charles Paterno. She was born one year prior to his passing so does not have her own memories of him but painting him in full color from a black and white photograph brought him to life for her. She could see her father in his father and imagine him in Castelmezzano and in his castle. He is said to have been a man who was larger than life itself. I hope you will invite him back into your neighborhood where he once lived, loved, and worked tirelessly leaving an architectural legacy that is still being celebrated today. 

Thank you so much for opening your doors to me and my family. —-END

Additionally, I have been working on transcribing the lengthy full page advertisement for HVG (below) which ran in the paper on August 24, 1924. In the transcription you will read about all the unqiue features of HVG, many that survive today, that has made it a wonderful place to live for 100 years and counting!