Buon Natale from the King of Christmas

Dr. Charles Vincent Paterno, born Canio Vito Paternò in 1878 in Castelmezzano, Italy, was my great-grandfather whose only child and son, Carlo, was my mother’s father. Dr. Charles was joyfully obsessed with Christmas during the later part of his life. Perhaps this stemmed from a childhood living in a big Italian family of ten children headed by Giovanni Maria Paternò (1851-1899) and Maria Carolina Trivigno (1853-1925) who married each other on Christmas Day in 1872 in Castelmezzano, Italy. I can imagine that this winter holiday was not only very festive for little Charles, as it is for most children, but also a very personal family event to celebrate the love and union of his parents. This aspect could have added an extra layer of endearment and nostalgia to Christmastime for Dr. Charles later in life.

Charles’ father Giovanni immigrated to New York City, USA, in 1880, Americanized his name to John, and pursued work as a builder. His wife Maria Carolina and their four oldest children followed in 1885. Their additional six children were born in New York City before John died at the young age of 48 in September of 1899. He wished to die in his homeland so their eldest son Saverio Francesco (1876-1950) escorted his ill father from New York City, USA, back to Castelmezzano, Italy, to fulfill this dying wish. Once Carolina, who never remarried, died in 1925, the children reunited their mother and father in a mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, USA. The union of their parents – made official on a long-ago Christmas Day – was clearly held in high regard in life as well as in death by their ten children.

Charles and his brother Joseph (1881-1939) were tasked with taking over their father John’s building projects in the city. They were so successful that they continued on this path and both developed immensely successful careers constructing apartment buildings in the first half of the 20th Century. Charles was a Spring 1899 graduate of Cornell Medical College but he was never able to practice medicine. The building business abruptly changed his career path shortly after graduation when his father fell ill, and the good fortune – certainly more than a doctor’s salary – kept him there.

Dr. Charles married his love Minnie Minton Middaugh (1868-1943) two days before Christmas in 1906. This date was a merger of his favorite holiday and his favorite “lucky” number 23. It was the following year that they broke ground on their lavish castle estate along the Hudson River in Washington Heights. On this estate Dr. Charles kept seventeen greenhouses in which he grew a great number of plants including an extensive collection of orchids and poinsettias, the later surely out of his fondness for Christmastime.

The Paterno Castle existed from the beginning of the construction in 1907 until it was demolished in 1938 to make way for the Castle Village apartment complex. The Paterno Family – Charles, Minnie, and Carlo – moved into the castle in 1909 which makes it feasible to have enjoyed perhaps as many as twenty-eight Christmas holidays in this magnificent, magical home.

In 1919 Dr. Charles set his future-vision on the countryside away from the city and purchased 246 (some say 268) acres known as New Castle Farm in Armonk, the green district of North Castle in Westchester County. Over the years he would add to the acreage accumulating ultimately 1,260 (some accounts say up to 1,700) which he later renamed Windmill Manor and eventually his son Carlo renamed Windmill Farm. It was on this country estate where Dr. Charles’ grandest Christmas fantasies could play out in full expression.

In 1922 Dr. Charles started planting 1.5 million various pine, cedar, and fir trees intended to become perfected hybrid Christmas trees. For each sapling he paid a penny each and over a period of time until 1932 he sold little Christmas trees in red cans with the message: “I am your little Christmas tree. Take good care of me and I’ll grow big and strong just like you.” They sold for $1.50 each and approximately 30-40,000 little trees were sold each year for ten holiday seasons. Many of these trees eventually grew too big to be sold as Christmas trees and remain to this day as part of the sprawling forest of the upscale residential community still known as Windmill Farm.

At his Windmill Manor estate Dr. Charles kept about twenty-five deer. In 1937 he was planning to domesticate four of the young deer so that he could train and hitch them to a sleigh. His grand dream was to steer his deer-drawn sleigh down Fifth Avenue in New York City on a snowy Christmas Day, perhaps seated cozily with his three youngest granddaughters. Surely this would have delighted so many onlookers, old and young alike…and the child’s heart of the man holding the reins. Sadly Dr. Charles died in 1946 before his magical Christmas dream became a reality.

Michael Campagna, Jr. (1924-2020), grandson of Dr. Paterno’s older sister Celestina, wrote “I am Dr. Charles V. Paterno’s [grand] nephew. In the late 1920s, my mom used to take me to Paterno Castle and Uncle Charlie used to let me swim in the indoor pool at the Castle. It was really a big treat in those days. At Christmas time, Uncle Charlie used to dress up as Santa and make visits to all his nephews and nieces at their homes and deliver all kinds of wonderful gifts.”

I would like to think that Dr. Charles would have been overjoyed to have a great-grandchild born on Christmas Day which I was in 1969, twenty-three years after his passing. Before researching and reading about my great-grandfather Paterno, I had no idea how fond he was of Christmas. As his parents’ union surely made Christmas extra-special for Charles, it is my great grandfather’s fondness for Christmas that helps me feel more sentimental and adoring of the holiday.

RELATED LINKS

• The New Yorker • 1,500,000 Christmas Trees 18 December 1937 by Ebba Jonsson and E. J. Kahn, Jr.

• Charles Paterno, the man who invented the Christmas trees business 21 December 2017 by Renato Cantore