Before reading the “Il Carroccio” October 1925 magazine article about Ralph Ciluzzi, background context is necessary. First appears below an August 1924 New York Times article explaining remarks made by Harvard Professor East and then the September 1925 “Il Carroccio” article which is referred to in the October 1925 article about Ralph Ciluzzi.

Ralph Ciluzzi (1884-1939) was born in Staletti, Italy, and emigrated to New York City at the age of 14. He married Theresa Paterno around 1914 and they were divorced approximately 20 years. After separating, Ralph returned to Italy, remarried, and lived the remainder of his life there. Together with the Paterno Brothers, Ralph helped build 164 buildings in Manhattan.

Cotillo Says East is Biased.

[Side note: Judge Salvatore Albert Cotillo (1886-1939) was born in Naples, Italy, and was the first Italian-American to be elected to the Supreme Court of the State of New York in 1923. In 1926 he married Ida Sophia Berthold, mother of Helen Laura Ritzmann whom Judge Cotillo adopted as his own daughter in 1929. Helen Cotillo married Carlo Paterno in 1934. Carlo Paterno was the son of Dr. Charles V. Paterno, brother-in-law of Ralph Ciluzzi.]

Supreme Court Justice Salvatore A. Cotillo issued a statement yesterday defending American immigrants from south Italy. The jurist’s statement was in reply to Professor East.

“If the statements about southern Italians attributed to Dr. East of Harvard University in the morning papers are quote correctly,” said Justice Cotillo. “I cannot help but express my amazement and indignation. Ordinarily, when a man of Dr. East’s profession and reputation makes an assertion one pre-supposes that it is based upon a study of the subject discussed, even though the conclusions derived therefrom may be erroneous.

“In the present case, however, I am afraid that Dr. East has allowed his bias and prejudices to get the best of him. Such remarks as that Italy would be “well rid of” southern Italian as of a ‘cancerous tumor’ and that southern Italians are ‘incompetent and lacking in intelligence’ and that Italian names do not appear in Who’s Who in America indicate no calm and studious reflection but rash and antagonistic thought.”

Justice Cotillo pointed out that Italian labor made possible the subway and the skyscraper. He said that in Italy itself the natives of the south had done much to make modern Italy great. As for the criticism that Italian names were few in Who’s Who in America, the jurist pointed out the tide of Italian immigration to this country began comparatively recently and that the immigrants had had no time “to achieve such distinction” yet. He doubted, however, whether inclusion in Who’s Who was a test of a race’s desirability.

Points to Italians’ War Record.

After calling attention to the fact that Italian-Americans were everywhere forging ahead in commerce, Justice Cotillo added:

“In reference to Dr. East’s remark as to the Italian soldier from southern Italy in our American army, I desire to call to his attention that there were 30,000 Italian-speaking soldiers of this city in the American army. This represented nearly 10 per cent of the total American military forces. While the Italians constitute only 4 per cent of our population, they were found to be in the American army to the extent of 10 per cent. Their casualties amounted to 12 per cent. General Pershing said of the Italian soldier, and most of them were from the southern part of Italy, that there was no braver soldier in the American army.

“I further desire to call to the attention of Dr. East that there are many institutions in the southern part of Italy where there are tubercular sanitariums which I personally visualized during the war, and the inmates of which come from our factories and sweatshops, and after giving all that they had to make this a greater America, they return to their motherland with a dreadful disease and ultimately die.”

Il Corroccio • September 1925

This letter by Ralph Ciluzzi is from the September 1925 issue of ‘Il Carrocci’ which was a monthly magazine of Italian propaganda and defense culture in America, directed by Agostino De Biasi.

ANOTHER LETTER

My Dear Professor East –

Your answer to Senator Cippico in the New York Times of August 2nd is an insult to the intelligence, integrity, principles, and the very soul of America. Your expressions are like those of your half-naked, barbarian, ancestors.

Fifteen millions of loyal Americans of Italian birth and extraction are asking: “Who is this Professor East that dares to throw insults at us?”

The greatest city in the world (New York) where one of every four people is of Italian origin and mostly from the South of Italy, wants to know if Professor East is engaged by England to spread propaganda, or what is his motive for such insults.

Railroads, coal mines, subways, entire cities, have been and are being constructed, and all American industries are largely carried on by these Italians, classified by you as “Grade D and E,” and of whom you say “they are not wanted here.”

For your information, Professor, they are mentally, physically, and otherwise of a better stock than your Nordic decaying relatives.

The average Italian becomes a loyal American within a comparatively short time, and is quick to love and appreciate the “great privilege.” It took your English friends centuries to become americanized, and some of you are still in the service of King George.

These hard-working, honest, Italians, of whom you say “they are not wanted here,” are the kind of immigrants that America actually needs. They are the very foundation of our industries and not your Nordic decaying English loafers who reach our shores with a high hat and walking stick as their only credentials, and who possess no ability or strength to produce anything, but who expect to live on the good-nature of the American people.

You say, “Look over Who is Who In America for Italian names and you will find them very conspicuous by their absence.” You also mention the War intelligence test records. Why, Professor, you are absolutely blind, you cannot hear, and surely you are not sane.

Italian names are among the most important in America and among the bravest in the World War. Hundreds of thousands of these very names are Americanized and slightly changed in the spelling, perhaps, and require a little more intelligence than you possess, in order to recognize them.

Have you ever heard of the Bank of Italy, of San Francisco, California? This institution is one of the largest financial organizations in the world. It has been created by these same people that you classify as “Grade D and E” and of whom you say “they are not wanted here.” I ask of you, Professor, what grade do you belong in? In my honest opinion, I would classify you in Grade Z, which is the remains of nothing.

I, with a large number of my immediate family, originated from the extreme south of Italy and – what do you think, Professor? – we are, today, the largest and greatest building organization in the United States, and we have, for the past forty years, constructed thousands of monumental apartment houses in the greatest city in the world (New York) where hundred of thousands of American families dwell.

So you see, we are continually contributing to the greatness of America and that is much more than an accidental five-thousand-dollar-a-year professor is doing.

You say that people below Rome are not Italians, but that they are of a different race. I say that you do not know what you are talking about. You probably know more about your half-naked barbarian ancestors than you do about the people that civilized the entire world.

Senator Cippico’s statement is sane and sound and there is no doubt that fair-minded Americans will appreciate Italy’s position and in due time will do justice to the nation that has given the world more than any other, especially to us, this wonderful land and the greater name that the university has ever known – America!

You say that Senator Cippico has brought with him sugar-coated pills. I agree with you. These pills are of the same stock that Columbus brought with him, and from the same origin that the name “America” came from and from the same people that civilized the entire world.

When Senator Cippico states that there can be no peace in Europe as long as England grabs everything and Italy starves, he is sincere in his statement and he is also sincere when he begs America to prevent another catastrophe in Europe.

You say that Italy does not send her Galileos, Dantes, Michelangelos, Verdis, Napoleons, Puccinis, Da Vincis, Garibaldis, Mascagnis, Ciceros, Columbuses, Vespuccis, Raffaellos, Savonarolas, Marconis, Carusos, and Mazzinis. These men need not travel. They are forever present in the mind of every intelligent man in the world and they are the very soul and inspiration of real men of today.

Could you point one of your ancestors and claim the same pride that I can? NO! a thousand times NO! They are “very conspicuous by their absence.” There is nothing in the world of which a man can be more proud of than being an American of Italian origin.

We have here many English propagandists, who unfortunately it seems through their cunning diplomacy, advantages of language, etc., have been able to connect with some of our educational institutions. However, they cannot fool the American people. We are all “wise” to England’s game and her clever propaganda.

Evidently England is worrying at the increase of population in Italy. Italy! – that has been glorified for thousands of years and which produces such geniuses, cannot remain dormant. Some day she will be able to demand reckoning and bring the murderers and thieves to justice.

You remember, Professor, once upon a time, England received a severe thrashing administered to her by America. Some day we may have to repeat the same “stunt” and permit me to inform you, Professor, if that day comes, the “Grade D and E” men, as you term them, will do their full duty and make a thorough job of it, as they did in the World War.

Thank God! that, as usual, Italy periodically brings forth a genius and makes the world take notice. Since the World War Mussolini has saved European civilization from anarchy, and the claws and abyss of Bolshevism, and is now showing Europe the only way to recovery.

In concluding, my dear Professor, I must say that my ancestors tried their best to civilize your half-naked barbarian ancestors, but the more I read of you, the more I am convinced that they made a bad job of it.

Ralph Ciluzzi
Builder, 2067 Broadway, New York

Il Corroccio • October 1925

This article is from the October1925 issue of ‘Il Carrocci’ which was a monthly magazine of Italian propaganda and defense culture in America, directed by Agostino De Biasi.

A Builder Ralph Ciluzzi

Who is the writer of that very vibrant letter addressed to Professor East which appeared in the last Carroccio; sharp, crude letter, written in a single impulse of indignation and so responsive to the general sentiment of the Italians? Who is Ralph Ciluzzi? And why at the bottom of the signature did the Direction of the Carroccio leave the title of “Builder,” with the address?

“Builder” means “builder.” Therefore, we wanted the publication not to have meaning only for itself – as a literal expression – but that the recipient received it as a demonstrative document of the blunder he had taken, denying value to the Italian emigrant and insulting him. We wanted to point out that whoever refuted and demolished it was a builder of our lineage, visible daily creator of what we are used to today to consider the most tangible expression of American grandeur: the majestic building that makes New York more and more imposing – an Italian builder, who builds gigantic palaces with designs by Italian architects, with Italian labor – and for this he wins the competition from the boldest and most powerful Americans.

Ciluzzi himself in his letter introduces himself with these words to the East: – I, with a large number of members of my family, come from the extreme south of Italy and – what new do you think, Professor? – we are today the largest building organization in the United States, and have, in the past forty years, built thousands of monumental apartments in the largest city in the world (New York) which house hundreds of thousands of American families.

Who, if not one of that majestic group of Italian-American industrialists individualized in the names of its greatest exponents: Paterno-Campagna-Ciluzzi?

Ciluzzi – our collaborator – in a fit of indignation dictated the letter to his stenographer and entrusted it to the press as an expression of his Italian soul, of Calabrian stamina.

It seems that these pretentious and overbearing Americanists find it all to not get the result they propose. As far as we are concerned, there are countless Italians who, between business necessity, good sense of adaptation, sentiment, culture, education, have placed themselves among the Americans, advanced points of our quiet and systematic penetration. Penetration, perhaps, is not the right word; we will say cohesion, because it better responds to the ultimate goal: the understanding between the two peoples, harmonious cooperation, perhaps the fusion of blood and interests. These elements of ours operate on an equal footing with the Americans, equal among equals. They first took a prominent position; now they keep it. It is not known why everyone recognizes that America is made by the effort of all the emigrated nationalities, and when it comes down to distinguishing between them, only the Italian must remain in the shadows, forgotten if not insolent. So, what do the diligent as well as insolent East Americans do?

They really go to step on the calluses of those who can give them excellent kicks. And when they have the bad inspiration to attack, they provoke the reaction in the same element that could be considered anything but a participant in American life in its most typical expressions. If we did not appreciate the sincerity and loyalty with which so many of our emigrants keep to the American way – and we did not realize the special position in which the vicissitudes of life with foreigners have placed them – we would bless these American nationalistic excesses which cause sudden and vehement return to the love of Italy of those who apparently seem distracted by it.

It is not exactly the case of our Ciluzzi, but generalizing it is like this: Americanizationists have the mission of breaking the threads of the plot that is naturally weaving, over the years, here in America, between natives and us and between us and other foreigners . The more they inveigh against Italianism, the more Italianness flourishes, this reawakened more roaring in consciences that have already become American.

Born to a builder father, in Staletti, a village on the Ionian Sea, in the Catanzaro area, he emigrated very young in 1900. Well-off, he wanted to study. He was at the University of Buffalo where he earned his Doctor of Medicinal Chemistry degree. He opened prosperous drugstores in New York State and New Jersey; but he gave in to her immediately. The building fever intoxicated him; he acted the pressure of the kinship that took the leadership of the construction of the large “apartment houses” in the metropolis.

Ciluzzi was a partner of his brothers-in-law Paterno and Campagna; then he created his own company.

What he did in short years of work is revealed by the large buildings he built and owned. Ralph Ciluzzi loves that an Italian owns the house where the Americans stay; owning a house means many things, mainly that of making the tenant understand that, after all, he is not the “owner,” even of American stock….

Brief: Ciluzzi has built over 15 million dollars of buildings to date. The illustrations we publish tell what it is about. They are the most solid, best built and furnished, most comfortable, most comforting buildings that can be found today. There is no detail of improvement that Ciluzzi does not find and apply. It is he who controls the construction of the buildings, from the rock of the foundations to the roof, then the administration of the rents. This means that man, from his command post and of feverish responsibility, maneuvers thousands of workers, artists, technicians, clerks-simultaneously-because construction is rapid and each department is linked to another. Thrown down the old factory, ripped open the rock, braked the spring currents that often meet in the subsoil and require very expensive brake works – it is necessary to provide, in a single moment, for the cement, the stone, the bricks, the sand, the steel, iron, timber, piping, bathrooms, light, radiators, coolers, locks, glass, marble, decorations. There are hundreds of contractors that need to be educated and supervised; they are fantastic amounts of daily spending.

Ciluzzi is there, providing everything. The best building material used in New York is what Ciluzzi and his friends employ. Being able to make purchases for millions at a time, they combine reduced prices with excellent quality.

When Ciluzzi “operates,” the “real estate” market immediately senses the importance of his initiative. Last summer, the purchase of four buildings on West End Avenue at 89th Street made the city news: four buildings in good condition to be torn down to make way for a 15-story building, costing over one million dollars. What the competent admire in Ciluzzi is the clear vision that he has of his plans and the certainty with which he implements them, with infallible luck.

With all this, Ralph Ciluzzi also finds the time to… write to Professor East.

A remarkable thing for those who, in full American activity, have not lost any sign of their belonging to Italy. In America, besides the buildings of his industry, he owns houses and villas for his own use; but he also loves to have them in Italy, in the land of his fathers. The unquenchable passion of Italy!

Lately Ciluzzi gave a wash house to Staletti; first act of public charity performed in his country; first of an unmissable series. Soon the electric light system will come, then….who will live will see. Because whoever has the noble and firm conscience to rise up – as with the Carroccio letter – against a professor of an American University, and to summarize in his voice the voice of an entire nationality, and the pride of being able to say: “I” show you with “my” work that you are false and a liar, he cannot fail to be one with the earth that saw him born.

Il Carroccio mentions Ralph Ciluzzi on the agenda of the gratitude of all Italians.

I’m presenting an online webinar about my great grandfather Dr. Charles V. Paterno’s residential castle on January 19, 2023 from 8 to 9:30pm with Q&A to follow. Below are all the details from New York Adventure Club. I hope you’ll join me!

To reserve your spot, please register HERE for $10.

How did Dr. Charles V. Paterno, a 29-year-old living in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, get the sort of money to build a 4-story marble castle in 1907 overlooking the Hudson River? And what sort of lavish lifestyle did he and his family enjoy during its brief 30 year existence? Using rare documentation, historical maps, and extensive photographic evidence, it’s time to explore one of New York’s premier mansions of the Gilded Age like never before.

Join New York Adventure Club as we uncover the complete story behind the Paterno Castle of Washington Heights, from the initial inception, design, and function of the palatial residence to debunking many myths that have long-survived the structure since its demolition in 1938.

Led by Carla Golden, great-granddaughter of Dr. Charles V. Paterno, our virtual deep dive into the magnificent Paterno Castle will include:

• A brief overview of Dr. Paterno and how he made his fortune (hint: it wasn’t from being a practicing physician)
• A discussion of the inspiration behind Dr. Paterno’s luxurious residence in Washington Heights
• A look at features of the castle that reveal the family’s unique lifestyle, from hosting parties on the roof and growing culinary mushrooms in the basement
• The recent discovery and unveiling of never-before-seen blueprints of the massive castle addition
• What castle remnants still remain today after its demolition in 1938
• An evidentiary exploration of long-standing Paterno Castle myths including the number of indoor swimming pools, the report of an underground tunnel entrance from Riverside Drive, and the truth about ‘The Pumpkin House’

Afterward, we’ll have a Q&A with Carla — any and all questions about the Paterno Castle are welcomed and encouraged!

Can’t make it live? Don’t worry, you’ll have access to the full replay for one week!

To reserve your spot, please register HERE for $10.

On Wednesday, January 11, 2023 at 6pm EST I will be presenting with LandmarkWest! a webinar about the apartment houses and other buildings constructed by The Paterno Family on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Tickets are free for members and $5 for non-members. Registration can be accessed HERE.

From LandmarkWest!:

The Paterno Family: Chronicling an Architectural Legacy 
Wednesday, January 11th 6:00-7:00pm via Zoom
Free for LW! Members/$5 for Non-Members

One of Manhattan’s—and the Upper West Side’s– most successful real estate family dynasties of the 1900s was the mighty Paterno clan. Yet surprisingly, their entry into the world of bricks and mortar happened mostly by accident. Even more incredibly, nearly all of their buildings still stand generations later.

Carla Golden, great-granddaughter of Dr. Charles V. Paterno, is our guide to a fascinating history of the Paterno family’s real estate development legacy spanning from 1896 to 1964. As preeminent builders in the 20th century, the Paternos built a total of 164 buildings throughout Manhattan. On the Upper West Side, Paterno Brothers Construction, working with architects such as Gaetan Ajello, George F. Pelham, Schwartz & Gross, and Rosario Candela have left us a rich and lasting built history. 

Join Landmark West! for this special evening exploring the early history of the Paterno family (starting with the unexpected event that prompted them to emigrate from Castelmezzano, Italy to New York City) and why the immediate success of Paterno Brothers Construction on the Upper West Side was a case of being in the right place at the right time. Plus, we’ll take a closer look at many of the brothers’ most famous UWS buildings, including, of course, The Paterno at 440 Riverside Drive (photographed above).

The Paterno family is coming back to the Upper West Side!

Speaker Carla Golden started exploring her genealogy whole-heartedly during the 2020 pandemic shutdown and, in doing so, read a statement that claimed the Paterno family built over 100 buildings in Manhattan. Finding those buildings soon became a personal challenge; she began researching historic Manhattan buildings online and found 164 Paterno buildings. She’s now obsessed with learning everything she can about these structures, saying that “I feel they are just as much a part of my family as the people.” Carla lives on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Registration for this event HERE.

On November 9, 2022, at 12pm EST, I will present a webinar hosted by Untapped New York about the many monogrammed buildings constructed by my Paterno family. Details and registration link are below. Hope to see you there!

---

THE PATERNO FAMILY: THE IMMIGRANT LINEAGE THAT HELPED BUILD UPPER MANHATTAN

The Paterno family monogrammed most of the apartment houses they built with treasured Manhattan architects Gaetan Ajello and Rosario Candela. Why? Let’s explore that question as we take a virtual tour around the Upper West Side and Upper East Side visiting the nearly 40 Paterno family structures that are adorned with various letters of the alphabet.

On November 9, join Untapped New York Insiders for a members-only virtual tour of the nearly 40 Paterno family structures with the great-granddaughter of Dr. Charles V. Paterno, Carla Golden. The event is free for Untapped New York Insiders (get your first month free with code JOINUS).

On the tour, we will discover the first Paterno building to showcase a monogram. As the tour continues, we will learn what effect brotherly competition had on the use of multiple monograms per building and which family member was the only one to employ un-matching monograms. Later, we will uncover which family members combined their initials to make a completely cryptic monogram and who thought it would be a good idea to stick his face on his building instead of a monogram.

REGISTRATION LINK

To date, the number of Paterno family buildings in Manhattan that I’ve been able to positively identify has been 163. Today I am delighted to add another to the catalog, though the 164th it is a very different kind of building.

The Paterno building that stood at 345 Riverside Drive at the corner of 107th Street in 1937 was not a tall apartment house, but a prefabricated steel tiny house. It was a curious Paterno project that began with great intentions for what would have been Dr. Charles V. Paterno’s last building project before his death after completing Castle Village. However a quirky deed restriction thwarted Dr. Paterno’s plans.

As was common practice by apartment house builders, narrow single homes and lots that averaged 25 feet wide street-side and 100 feet deep were purchased to conjoin four or five consecutive lots to become 100′ x 100′ or larger to accommodate an apartment house.

To orient the reader to the 1930 map above, find the white dot. It sits on a brick (denoted by the color pink) house on a lot that is numbered 326 along W. 107th Street. This is the address for this house. The number 30 below 326 designates the width of the lot. This lot is 30′ wide. The underlined 5 represents how many stories there are in the home with this one being 5-stories tall. The number inside the circle represents the depth of the main structure. This house is 58′ deep on a lot that is 100.11′ deep (see length of empty lot next door.) The 31 indicated on the lot (in the white area) marks it as being Lot 31 on Block 1892 (see the large numbers in the center of the block).

Dr. Charles V. Paterno first purchased the empty corner lot at 328 West 107th Street (Block 1892 Lot 32) in 1923 which ended up being the problematic lot. Perhaps Dr. Paterno didn’t learn about the stipulation until after the purchase (unlikely) or he was not dismayed by the stipulation thinking that he could easily satisfy or maneuver around it.

Curiously Lot 32 was the only lot on the block which had never been developed.

The stipulation was that for Lot 32 at 328 West 107th Street, the first building to be constructed had to be a single-family residence. Dr. Paterno was not in the business of single-family homes. He was a well-known developer of fine apartment houses.

When Charlotte Anne Mount (1836-1904) owned Lot 32 she was approached by Samuel Gamble Bayne (1844-1924) who was, at the time, the President of the Riverside Drive Property Association and lived in a grand mansion at the corner of 108th Street and Riverside Drive. Bayne asked neighboring property owners to sign a restriction agreement on 9 December 1897 stating that only “high class residences” with no more than two detached homes were to be built on each lot. When Charlotte’s Mount’s estate sold Lot 32 to Dr. Charles V. Paterno in 1923, along with it came the deed restriction.

Nonetheless, Dr. Paterno went on to purchase the lot and structure at 326 West 107th Street (Block 1892 Lot 31) in May 1930 and three more lots and structures at 320, 322, and 324 West 107th Street (Block 1892 Lots 28, 29, and 30) in June of 1930. This assembled for Dr. Paterno a five-lot site measuring 100.11 feet by 125.2 feet which is adequate for an apartment house. It seems that in 1930 Dr. Paterno was ready to construct a new apartment house facing Riverside Drive, however, the stipulation could not be ignored and had to be honored. Additionally, at that time, The Great Depression was descending.

Here are the four row houses at 320, 322, 324, and 326 West 107th Street with the empty lot at the corner along Riverside Drive. (photo source)

The Depression (1929-1939) put a halt on most new building construction. In the meantime, Dr. Charles V. Paterno and his son Carlo Paterno leased office space in 1936 on the 64th floor of the 77-floor Chrysler Building at 405 Lexington Avenue which opened in 1930 and was designed by William Van Alen.

[Side story: Carlo, my grandfather, recounted to his grandchildren that before they left their office for lunch each day they had to call down to the lobby receptionist to see if it was raining outside. Being so high up in the clouds, it wasn’t possible to know the current weather status at street level.]

Perhaps it is here that Dr. Paterno and Carlo became aware of and/or met William Van Alen, the architect of the Chrysler Building, who in 1935 had started working with a new company National Houses, Inc. designing prefabricated steel houses to offer affordable housing during The Depression. While this tiny steel house may not have met Bayne’s “high class” residence demand it did meet the “private residence” demand. To finally satisfy the deed restriction for 328 West 107th Street, Dr. Paterno had Van Alen design and construct a tiny steel house.

In 1936 Dr. Charles V. Paterno, representing Karlopat Realty Corporation, filed for a new building permit (NB 281-1936) at 328 West 107th Street for a 1-story dwelling.

In 1937 The New Yorker wrote about the “small, square, white-pointed, single-story modernistic house at the corner of Riverside Drive and 107th Street…accessible by a flight of steep wooden steps” which clearly was perched upon Manhattan schist boulders.

The Van Alen-designed structure cost between $3,000 and $4,000, measured 29.7′ x 24.7′, and included a compact kitchen, a dinette paneled with stained plywood, a 12×12 living room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. Made from 2-by-4-foot steel panels bolted together, with four windows, it met Federal Housing Authority standards and was classified as a “low cost workingman’s residence.”

After resolving the deed dilemma with the tiny home in place, Dr. Charles V. Paterno got busy in 1938 demolishing his residential castle to build Castle Village and building his new Greenwich, CT, estate home called Round Hill. The Van Alen steel tiny home stood for approximately five years and was demolished in 1941 (DP 214-41). Dr. Paterno’s wife died in 1943 after a prolonged illness, he remarried later that same year, and he died in 1946. Perhaps he was too busy with other construction projects and personal life events, not to mention national attention on World War II (1939-1945), to focus on building an apartment house at 345 Riverside Drive. His son, Carlo, sold the five lots – all now free and clear of deed restrictions – in 1951 to the builder who would construct the 6-story apartment house that still stands at 345 Riverside Drive today.

Welcome to the 164th Paterno building! It clocks in as the smallest Paterno project that just happened to be designed by a very famous architect.

Deep appreciation is owed to Tom Fedorek who did an extensive amount of research on 345 Riverside Drive to create a 70th anniversary presentation for his fellow-residents of the apartment house that was completed in 1951. You can view his presentation video on my research page HERE.

I was invited to write a guest column for We The Italians website and magazine which I was honored to do. I encourage you to read it online at the link below:

IT and US: Paterno Family, Chronicling a New York Real Estate Legacy

La Basilicata nel Mondo (People from Basilicata in the World) was an illustrated monthly magazine produced by Giovanni Riviello in Naples, Italy. It was one of the mostly widely distributed Italian magazines abroad. It regularly featured natives from the southern Italian region of Basilicata (also known by its ancient name Lucania) who were excelling in America.

Doctor Charles V. Paterno

The builder of Hudson View Gardens in New York

Here is a man, of whom it can truly be said that he heard the voice of destiny, and had the merit and the daring to follow it, going decisively along that path of life, which the invisible traced to him. Small, thin, nervous, with extremely lively, mobile and penetrating eyes, he immediately appears, to those who know him, as a bundle of intelligence and vibrant energies, thus radiating from his person that powerful vitality, which is concrete and almost translated logically in the speed of decisions and in the fervor of action and thought. His physique has all the characteristics of the Italian race, animated by the gentle Latin blood: and his mustache and his typical beard, which seems taken from a Van Dyck painting, perhaps demonstrate his primitive inclination for the profession of doctor, together with his innate artistic aptitudes.

But it is the fate of the Paternos from Castelmezzano, which makes them builders, from father to son, and from generation to generation.

Charles Paterno studied medicine and graduated brilliantly from Cornell Medical School in the year 1899. Very young, fervent with ingenuity and aspirations, cultured and sagacious, he certainly already enjoyed all the joy of making a name for himself in the field of medical science, vast and so human, when the death of his father suddenly improvises him. The parent left the construction of a building on 112th Street unfinished. And Charles put aside, he temporarily hoped, the medical books and surgical instruments, to carry out, together with his brother Joseph, the filial duty of carrying out the last paternal effort. It was the first sign of his destiny as a builder, from which he would never free himself again.

Either it was the fascination of that tremendous art of building, which gradually crept into his subtle soul as an adventurous artist, or his brotherly love, which drew him to share his fate with his brother Joseph, certainly and that having finished the building and sold it, Charles Paterno does not return, as if it was proposed, to his life as a scientist. The case operates once again. Attached to the building was a construction area, which was assigned to the two Paterno brothers, as part of the payment, so that Charles is still hired as a contractor for new construction work. With about $3,000 in capital, the two brothers, who were still almost boys, boldly took on a new job, from which they made an almost equal amount of net profit. At this point, Charles Paterno truly finds himself at the crossroads of his life. Return to his profession as a doctor, or continue to be a builder? Not brief, not without perplexity, not without torment of the spirit, were to be the struggle, which is stirred in the soul of the young man. To return to his profession as a doctor meant, in a certain way, an ideal denial of his father’s profession; remaining as a builder meant the end of his dream of youth and of the long vigils of study and preparation for the severe discipline of science. Were also to consider the risks and prospects of both careers; but, finally, he won in him, and perhaps the loving advice of his brother Joseph, his father’s profession, was not extraneous to his decision. Charles Paterno definitively became a builder.

Thus begins the industrial ascension of the two young and great architects of New York construction.

Their constructions follow one another with a constant and dizzying crescendo; their fame rises and spreads, as does their fortune. They raise a 7-story building on West Street, from which they make a profit of $40,000. Their projects become more and more important and grandiose, they impose themselves, due to the majesty and harmony of architectural lines and proportions, to the admiration of the building technicians, conquering the two brothers the popularity in the environment of the builders, the sympathy and the buyers’ esteem. Manhattan, the colossal Manhattan, is completed by their works, with a speed that tastes of vertigo.

The ascension of the Paterno brothers is complete. And when, in 1907, the construction crisis broke out, which overwhelmed many of the most accredited firms in New York, the position of the Paterno was already so solid, that they were among the few who were able to cope with the chaos of their industry, and overcome, with infinite shrewdness and sagacity, very rough moments. When the crisis was over, in 1909, they therefore found themselves among the most experienced and equipped builders in New York, more ready for a building revival in a big way, and they launched a new start in the increasingly intense and feverish work.

But Charles Paterno, in whom the spiritual quarrel had never completely subsided, again suffered the fascination and the lure of books and science. And this time he decided to really go back to his profession as a doctor. During the construction crisis, he had stayed by his brother’s side, not to leave him alone in the storm. But, having overcome the danger, the last ideal reason for him to remain as a builder disappeared, while his soul inclined more and more towards science, and the renunciation of it seemed to him more and more hard and bitter, as a sterile thing to him he seemed to continue to mortify his genius, for whose sacrifice he could not find, in his nobility, adequate compensation, the large gain.

The two brothers shared their assets. Joseph remained in his place, in the construction sites. Charles began to be a doctor, with that success, which could not fail to smile at his worth in the field of science. But fate did not hold back from tempting him. And here, one day, in his cabinet, a man appeared, who was not a sick person, who, instead of a medical consultation, asked Charles Paterno if he had ever by chance intended to buy a large building plot on the West Side between West End Avenue and Broadway. The offer was advantageous, and presented itself to Doctor Paterno not only as another admonition of fate, but surrounded by all the seductive colors, from which the temptations must present themselves to Saint Antonio in the desert. Again he was struggling with himself. He gave in to fate, which he wanted so. He buried the surgeon’s tools, he closed his cabinet, broke off all medical contracts, and returned – this time forever – to the construction site.

“A man, to be truly worthy of being a man, said Leonardo da Vinci, must demonstrate that he can be excellent in everything, whatever he sets out to do.” And of Charles Paterno it can certainly be said that, whatever the field of his activity, he would still have achieved success.

Let’s follow a little, on the basis of some data, the gigantic activity of this titan of New York building art. The culminating period of its construction activity coincides, fatally, with the tragic period of the European war. Destiny, which had so irresistibly roped him. Destiny, which had so irresistibly called him to the sacred art of his father, now seemed to want to make his way to triumph bristling with obstacles, so that Charles Paterno had given proof of all his extraordinary energy, and engaged in the struggle all his male genius, giving of himself the whole measure of the man of exception. At the beginning of 1914, when no one could think that the greatest war which the history of the world can remember would be unleashed on old Europe, Dr. Paterno started a colossal lot of housing construction on Madison and Park Avenues between 47th and 48th Streets, for the fabulous sum of $ 10,000,000.

In 1918, when the war had not only devastated Europe, but had also made its tragic repercussions felt in the United States of America, forced to intervene, Doctor Paterno had already completed the work. Only such a man could, in that immense upheaval of values, of men and of things, triumph in such an enterprise. Every day, the working conditions became more harsh and harsher, every day it was necessary to face the unexpected, lavishing energy and spending large sums to grab the raw materials, the price of which was becoming more and more even, and the hand of work , which, as a result of the war, also became very expensive and rare, not only, but less efficient and specialized than that of normal times. To all these reluctances of fate, Dr. Charles Paterno was able to oppose the cold, calm tenacity of man, who wants to win at all costs, and knows that his victory is the reason for his whole life. But, once the works were completed, the tragedy became bitter. The consequences of the war weighed heavily, with the stagnation of emigration, business, the human movement, and the large houses of Doctor Paterno remained desperately empty of tenants, while their maintenance and fiscal rights continued to gobble up money. The builder did not lose heart. A man of action, he also knew how to be the man of waiting. “Knowing how to wait, said Bismark, is a great virtue.”The warning was treasured by Doctor Paterno. And that storm passed too. Little by little, the normality of life and trade resumed, until the repercussions of the war disappeared, and not a room of a thousand and a thousand, of which Doctor Paterno’s houses were capable, remained empty of tenants. Destiny was finally kissing his predestined one. The waves of men returned. The multitudes became so large that Manhattan seemed unable to accommodate them all. The urgent need for new constructions arose. Dr. Paterno’s apartments gave an income of $900,000 for 1919, which rose to $1,200,000 in 1922.

Nor is this the culmination of his fortune as a builder. Two projects, translated into reality in the most admirable way, have made Dr. Charles Paterno deserving of construction in New York, giving him great popularity and the undisputed title of poet and esthete of the building art. The first is Hudson View Gardens which was defined as the experimental station of harmoniously blended beauty and architectural novelty.

Such a place of spiritual rest would have been very suitable for the construction of a cathedral, so much is the sense of serenity and mysticism, which infuses the divine peace of greenery and waters. And Doctor Paterno’s soul as an artist felt this fascination, because to the buildings, which rise solemnly in their severe architectural lines, on the natural grandeur of the rock, he gave an air and an outward appearance of houses of prayer.

But even aside from the beauty of the place and the stately aesthetics of the buildings, many advantages make life blissful in Hudson View Gardens, for the infinite comforts, which make it immensely cheap, and for the bonds of friendship, which unite all the inhabitants as in true spiritual community, although only from October 1, 1924 the houses of the enchanting place began to be inhabited.

Hudson View Gardens stands on a rocky rise overlooking the Hudson River.

The place is famous in the history of the United States of America, as, during the Revolution, it was the scene of warlike episodes, and the siege and bombing, which took place on November 16, 1776, by the British, against General Greene and Colonel Magard, who were defending Fort Washington, which, at that time, stood right on the heights of the Hudson.

In the construction of the houses, Doctor Paterno wanted and was able to find, as we have already pointed out, a style that harmonized well with the beauty of the place, and happily chose the Tudor architecture of the 16th century, so sweet and solemn and almost mystical even in its light and changing harmony. The executor of the projects was Mr. George Fred Pelham, a valued architect, who, avoiding any monotonous repetition, was able to give the buildings a distinct tone of originality, which arouses the admiration of the observer.

Lawns and gardens, with all sorts of flowers and rare and beautiful trees, adorn and enhance the beauty of these houses.

But, according to the Horatian precept “omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci” [“He gains everyone’s approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful.”] the apartments of Hudson View Gardens are equipped with infinite, refined modern comforts. Especially the kitchens are equipped in such a way as to eliminate, up to the incredible, any waste of time, starting with the washing of the dishes – which is performed by a machine in a very short time – up to the most minute and various needs, which are facilitated by a wise arrangement of tools, utensils and accessories, essential to the needs of modern cuisine. Even in this, Dr. Paterno wanted and knew how to be a fine psychologist.

The American woman, who often considers herself a slave when she is forced to work hard in the kitchen, finds, on the other hand, with so many beautiful means at her disposal, almost fun, and as interesting as a sport, the preparation of the familiar daily lunch.

It is not uncommon for the work of a maid to be required in the home. Well, Dr. Paterno has also provided for this by providing the inhabitants of Hudson View Gardens with a body of expert housekeepers, who work on an hourly basis.

In this way, the harassment of using unknown and not always practical people has also been eliminated.

In case the need arises or if you prefer to eat outside the home, it was also thought to install a first-class restaurant in the neighborhood, which lacks nothing, from ballrooms to radio sets.

It is also worthy of much interest to install radio sets in each apartment, so that everyone can enjoy concerts, conferences, etc. according to their tastes.

Hudson View Gardens consists of six four-story buildings, on the west side, overlooking the Hudson River and nine six-story buildings on the other side of Pinehurst Avenue, built on an elevation of land high enough to give even to these the view of the river. In all there are 354 apartments with 4 to 6 rooms, equally furnished and equipped with the same modern means of comfort.

Everything has been thought of in this model neighborhood and Charles Paterno has neglected nothing to make it the ideal New York home. There is even a “daycare,” a kind of nursery school, to which mothers can entrust their babies with the utmost safety. For older children, there is a gym equipped and maintained to form their delight.

The wealth of Hudson View Gardens is completed by an infinite number of other comforts, including a laundry, a hairdresser, a barber shop, a tailor’s shop, founded by Nicola d’Alessandro, also a son of Basilicata, a post office and even a private police service.

Every family, however modest it may be, has the opportunity to buy one of these houses on their own, with an infinite number of facilitations due to the cooperative ownership method. In this way, 354 families can become owners of an apartment without responsibility and with minimal expense. A small deposit is paid at the signing of the contract and at the time of granting the house the payment of a part of the established sum is made; the remainder is paid in small monthly installments, applying the interest of 6%.

It is clear that Hudson View Gardens is a great institution, and one cannot help but be astonished, as one thinks that everything was conceived and created by a single mind, that of Dr. Charles V. Paterno, who, by creating the garden city of New York, it pursued a magnificent humanitarian and civil purpose rather than industrial purposes.

For this man, a magnificent example of the vitality of the Lucanian lineage, any praise is inadequate. All the manifestations of his personality, industrialist, scholar, head of the family, citizen, philanthropist, patriot, very Italian heart, touch the highest sign.

The waters of the Hudson sing the most beautiful praise of him, on which he realized his beautiful dream of beauty and elevation of life, with the construction of that Hudson View Gardens in which he himself, together with his family, has the his residence, in a haven of peace and poetry, a respite from the battles of his tumultuous existence.

The other project, which has attracted the attention of the New York building world to Charles Paterno, is the construction of a sumptuous and beautiful fifteen-story building, which will be completed for the upcoming spring, on the elegant and very important Riverside Drive artery, between 100th and 101st streets, and in which apartments are available for a number of two hundred families. The plan of this building is so harmonious in its architectural structure, the graces of the Latin style are so perfectly merged with the synthetic simplicity of American building, the apartments are so happy, that, as always happens for the buildings of Doctor Paterno, the sale and rent of the apartments are already complete, even before the building is completed.

But the great lever of Dr. Charles Paterno’s building success does not consist only in his masterful technical expertise, in his exquisite artistic intuition, in the gracefulness of his modern architecture. It is above all constituted by the seriousness and honesty to all proof, by the rigid scrupulousness in the use of first quality materials in the factories, by the testing and strict control of the works, which he himself carries out in person, with supervision, which has eye for everything and never runs out. He is not only the soul and brain of his construction sites: tireless, prodigiously tenacious at work, he is the first worker, the ideal and material leader of his workers.

From the point of view of construction technique, the brilliant stone poet, who designed and built the Hudson View Gardens, can be defined as a revolutionary. Rightly, in fact, Charles Paterno thinks that the building technique has remained very backward, in comparison with modern evolution and the progress achieved in many other fields, and he strives his ingenuity in the search for means, which also adapt construction progress to others. To an American journalist, who had gone to interview him in his office, he once said, in this regard, as follows: “The art of building has made no progress. In all other fields great strides have been made, and It always advances. Doctors today have wonderful methods of sustaining life, which they did not have a hundred years ago. Their science is always progressing: every day a new discovery eradicates an evil in the human organism. (In these words, sympathetically and nostalgically, his vocation as a doctor, silenced, to follow destiny). But the art of manufacturing is the same, it is unchanged over the centuries. We raise the walls in the same way as the ancients Egyptians, Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, that is, by hand; we build with bricks, in the same way that was built hundreds of centuries ago, overlapping the bricks one by one, with the hand of man. If there were departments of research, as there is in the medical field, as in any other field; then, we might perhaps know at least why we don’t advance; and, knowing the hindrance, we could apply the remedies. Only in the method of excavation have we made progress: we have cranes, mechanical shovels, drills; but, when there is the rock to be drilled, we still use old methods.

To make real progress, manual labor, which is very slow, necessarily, must be eliminated, rationally replaced by the mechanical, rapid means, with the indefatigable machine. The art of construction is hampered by the lack of inventions, which limit the audacity and activity of man, and the inventors are in turn hindered by the workers’ organizations, which oppose themselves deafly, for a misunderstood spirit of safeguarding themselves, to the success of every expedient or mechanical discovery, tending to eliminate and restrict the use of manual labor. It seems like a vicious circle. But, add onto of all this, expedients are invented. There is one, which is currently being perfected, for laying the bricks. How the car works, I do not yet know perfectly. And already something. We will go a long way. I’m sure. And the workers, far from seeing in these discoveries an enemy of their employment, must, in the machine, in every new machine, see an ally and a collaborator of their intelligent work and their labor.”

Severe and tireless with himself, affable and cordial with other men of very high culture and noble sentiment, bold and cautious at the same time, very intelligent and full of initiatives and brilliant resources, Dr. Charles Paterno, as we have seen, summarily following his great industrial work truly has in itself all the requirements of the extraordinary man. But he lives modest and quiet. And he has kept alive the cult of his distant, small native village – Castelmezzano di Basilicata – and he is proud of his Italian origin. The voice of the great distant homeland exerts a powerful fascination on his spirit, and to the Italian architecture, which he esteems and cultivates sovereignly, he intones the motifs of his constructions.

In the affability of intimate conversations, he always talks, with a Manzoni-like humor, of his truncated career as a doctor. “At one time, he recalls, I was selected as director of the Italian hospital in East River. After all – he adds, and smiles finely – I have not completely ceased to practice my profession. I am the doctor of my workers.”

And, in fact, it is so.

To his family, he consecrates all of himself, and is proud of his son, a young man of great talent, who studies engineering at Yale University.”He is studying engineering – his father says of him – but he could also become a surgeon!” And he smiles, satisfied. And if you ask him what plans he has for his son’s career, for the future: “I don’t know – he replies – I don’t know, because he’s my son. I too wanted to be a doctor … and instead I became a builder. “

But the personality of the builder of Hudson View Gardens in New York is too varied and complex for one article to be enough to make it whole. As a characteristic of his phenomenal activity, we will only recall that, among his occupations, which alone would absorb the activities of many men, he also finds the time to write a nice magazine, Hudson Views, in which the salient facts of the New York garden city life are written. And as proof of his great love for Italy we will only remember that we owe only to him the initiative of the Italian Hospital in New York, and that, to the House of Italian Culture at Columbia University he donated the entire library, for a value of $30,000. This man, so well-deserving, has also experienced what human ingratitude is. His own country, to which he has consecrated his work and his talent in a foreign land, has not even made him a knight.

But Charles Paterno finds in himself, in his own conscience and in his own spirit, the greatest satisfaction, the noblest reward and the most serene praise for his work, which imposes himself on the admiration, even tacit, of all, and confers on him the highest title of nobility and Italian character.

In Basilicata, Charles Paterno also gives frequent and beneficial proofs of his filial devotion.

And we, proud, as his fellow countrymen, of the nobility and grandeur of his work, offer him our greetings and best wishes for ever new triumphs.

I’m presenting an online webinar about my Paterno family and their Manhattan architecture on October 21, 2022 from 8 to 9:30pm. Below are all the details from New York Adventure Club. I hope you’ll join me!

How did one of Manhattan’s most successful real estate family dynasties of the 1900s happen mostly by accident? And how could it be that almost all of their buildings still stand generations later? Fortunately, a great-granddaughter of the family has meticulously cataloged each of their projects and New York story like never before. From 35th Street to 188th Street between Riverside Drive and East End Avenue, it’s time to explore the real estate legacy of the Paterno family and their significant contribution to New York architecture.

Join New York Adventure Club as we chronicle the Paterno family’s real estate development legacy spanning from 1896 to 1964. As one of New York’s preeminent apartment house building empires of the 20th century, the Paterno family built a total of 164 buildings throughout Manhattan, nearly all of which are still standing.

Led by Carla Golden, great-granddaughter of Dr. Charles V. Paterno, our virtual deep dive into the Paterno family’s architectural portfolio will include:

• The early history of the Paterno family and what unexpected event prompted them to emigrate from Castelmezzano, Italy to New York City
• How an unfortunate event led a young Dr. Charles V. Paterno to join his younger brother as a real estate builder instead of ever practicing medicine
• Why the immediate success of Paterno Brothers Construction on the Upper West Side was a case of being in the right place at the right time
• The story of how one family member’s unpopular actions helped lead to the creation of New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission
• A discussion of how the Paterno buildings’ quality construction and timeless aesthetic helped form the iconic style of Manhattan that is treasured to this today
• A virtual visit to nearly every one of the existing and demolished Paterno buildings, ranging from 155 apartment houses, four family homes, and even a magnificent castle
• A closer look at some of Paterno Brothers Construction’s most famous buildings, including the Paterno Castle and The Paterno on 440 Riverside Drive

Afterward, we’ll have a Q&A with Carla — any and all questions about the Paterno legacy are welcomed and encouraged!

Can’t make it live? Don’t worry, you’ll have access to the full replay for one week!

Get all the details and register for $10 at New York Adventure Club.