Author: Carla

Courtesy of Hudson View Gardens • publication date unknown

Thousands of trees, shrubs, perennials, climbers and evergreens from five to fifty years old contribute beauty and maturity to Hudson View Gardens

Dr. Paterno, tremendously interested in gardening, determined to develop the landscaping at Hudson View Gardens to the limit of its possibilities. Dr. Paterno numbered among his acquaintances Robert Cridland, famous landscape architect of Philadelphia. Mr. Cridland was retained and after studying the property, developed an ideal plan in the Fall of 1923. This landscaping was so ambitious that the wiseacres said it would never be carried out. But now that the work is completed the skeptics are silenced because the planting at Hudson View Gardens is more complete than planned by its designer. It seems like sacrilege to discuss trees and flowers in numerical terms, but for the benefit of readers who have not seen the Gardens, the statement that fifty six thousand two hundred items appear on invoices from nurseries and the like, conveys the idea that landscaping at Hudson View Gardens is not a mere garnish.

In July 1924 the newspapers announced that at Rockwood Hall, Tarrytown, the residence of the late William Rockefeller, were some fine evergreens and other plants for sale. The property was to be converted into golf links. Dr. Paterno rushed to Rockwood Hall and selected nearly three thousand evergreens, choice specimens, from five to fifty years old. This was a piece of rare luck, because if young nursery evergreens had been used, Hudson View Gardens would not be fully grown up for many years. Dr. Paterno bought only the finest and most valuable specimens which had been prized by William Rockefeller. They were strong, carefully pruned to perfect form, and hardy enough to withstand transplanting. Among the varieties were Japanese Cypress, Koster’s Blue Spruce, Scotch and Red Pines, Douglas Spruce, American Arbor Vitae, Hemlock, Yew and Juniper. All were successfully transplanted. The Rockwood Hall evergreens were supplemented by five thousand others gathered from many nurseries. From Dr. Paterno’s North Castle Farm, near Mt. Kisco, about five hundred American Cedars from five to thirty feet high were taken from their nursery to their permanent home at Hudson View Gardens. These tall Cedars form a background for all the landscaping and are really an architectural feature; each is placed where it will emphasize the architect’s vertical lines. Another feature of Hudson View Gardens landscaping is a quantity of English Boxwoods, large bushes ranging in age from twenty five to thirty years, about six feet high and the same in diameter. Every walk is lined with Japanese Barberry bushes, of which there are fourteen thousand in all! At the foot of outside walls is planted Boston Ivy, which in a few years will reach the stucco bays. Clematis, a quick climbing, bushy vine with clusters of white flowers is another species planted at the foot of the building walls.

In the Spring thousands of flowers will bloom at Hudson View Gardens. Two thousand rose bushes, dwarf and climbing varieties, beautify the Gardens with their color and sweeten the air with their fragrance. When the climbing roses bloom the rough stone retaining walls will be almost completely concealed. As the roses wither the air will be permeated with the fragrance of hundreds of honeysuckle plants, carefully planted among he roses.

Because the Gardens are on sloping terraces there are no lawns, but low growing bushes, intertwined with roses. Thus rich, loose top soil is exposed to the air, free to absorb copious quantities of life giving nitrogen, which is fed to the roots of this profusion of plants. Garden areas in the shadow of stone walls are covered with fragrant English myrtle, which thrives only in shade. This myrtle, by the way, also came from Rockwood Hall.

Five thousand perennials are planted here and there among the evergreens. Tall hollyhocks rise near sunny walls. Digitalis, larkspur, columbine, plume, poppies, corn flower, hardy pinks, blanket flower, baby’s breath, hardy sunflowers, hardy peas, crimson bergamot, forget-me-nots, blackberry lilies, Japanese bell flowers, painted daisies, hardy salvia, Stokes asters, Sweet William, torch lilies, garden heliotrope, tufted pansies, wall flowers, iris, peonies, and others all add the beauty of their form and color to the Gardens. From Holland twenty thousand bulbs were purchased, spring flower, varieties of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, snowdrops, etc. Just for good measure many hybrid rhododendron, laurel and wisteria purchased from Rockwood Hall have been banked in the Garden courts.

The children’s playground is screened from the driveway by a clump of trees. Adjoining the playground is a formal rose garden with paths and benches shaded with umbrella trees. It is from the center of this Garden that Old Glory is to fly from these historic heights.

Uninitiated visitors will wonder why there are just four dwarf fruit trees, and apple, a peach, a plum and a pear, planted near the playground. Dr. Paterno transplanted these bearing trees from his farm so that the very young children of Hudson View Gardens would know that fruit does not originate in gaudily labeled cans. A number of flowering cherry trees are also in evidence, and Dr. Paterno does not expect to explain their significance on Washington Heights.

A number of Japanese dwarf maples have been scattered through the Gardens. Their bright red leaves add another touch of color. The first deciduous trees one views when visiting Hudson View Gardens are the fine young Norway maples which line both sides of West 183rd Street, the approach to Hudson View Garden, and both sides of Pinehurst Avenue. These are the only specimens not purchased and planted by Dr. Paterno. Without rhyme or reason, precedent of persuasion the City of New York planted these fine trees. Perhaps this is the way the City expresses its approval of Hudson View Gardens.

Courtesy of Hudson View Gardens • publication date unknown

Architecture and Gardening developed in the early 16th Century manner

Modern day floor plans are a vast improvement over the layouts of earlier periods, but in choosing a suitable exterior design for Hudson View Gardens, Dr. Paterno decided to go back four hundred years and adopt Tudor architecture. This style, while thoroughly domestic and informal, is neither rustic nor provincial. Pointed arched doorways reveal Gothic and ecclesiastical influence. The long lines of its steep gables make the buildings blend with the landscape, an effect enhanced at Hudson View Gardens by the planting of tall cedars, which in a few short years will be supplemented by clinging vines, already planted.

Mr. George Fred Pelham, the architect, has been an exponent of Tudor architecture applied to modern buildings. Hudson View Gardens offered him his greatest opportunity deliberately to apply to new elevations the lines that early 16th Century buildings acquired in the course of years through the addition of wings and extensions. An observing visitor at Hudson View Gardens will enjoy the many touches of originality with which Mr. Pelham avoided monotonous repetition. All outside walls are front walls, and every one is separately designed.

To carry out the illusion of Old Word architecture the materials used – brick, timber and stucco – are the same as employed in the construction of the finest examples of Tudor. Dr. Paterno purchased his front brick abroad, in Holland*, where clay is impregnated with a peculiar pigment not found on this side of the Atlantic. The very size of the Holland brick, too, differs from New World standards.

Casement windows are a feature of Tudor architecture which was created before the days of counterbalanced sash. At Hudson View Gardens casement windows of delightful proportions have been used. One of the common faults of modern architecture in apartment houses, in the part of the country especially, is that the windows are too narrow and too high. The use of the famous Hope metal casement windows [Hope Metal Casement Window Company of Birmingham , England] at Hudson View Gardens precluded such an error.

Long, flat surfaces were avoided at Hudson View Gardens. Walls rise at different angles, some terminating in gables, some in mansard roofs, and others in turrets. Roofs are of polychrome slate shingles. Timber is painted a dark weathered brown. The stucco is rather rough to give the elements a chance to weather it quickly.

Nature puts the final and longest touch on all architecture. One of the virtues of the Tudor style is that like good wine, it improves with age. Monumental buildings must be sandblasted periodically; frame mansions depend upon fresh paint to cover the ravages of the sun, rain and sleet; but Hudson View Gardens depend upon the elements to mellow their variegated facades.

*More about the Holland brick:

Ten Million Brick From Holland Used In Paterno Colony
The New York Herald, The New York Tribune 4 May 1924

Construction of 14 Co-operative Apartments on Seven-Acre Plot Opposite Castle Great Undertaking

Dr. Charles V. Paterno expects to have ready in August the first units of the group of fourteen apartment houses which he is erecting on seven acres opposite his home, The Castle, on Fort Washington Avenue. [Correction: On Northern Avenue, now known as Cabrini Boulevard] Dr. Paterno erected the apartment house at 270 Park Avenue, said to be the largest in the world. He said yesterday that the detail of this project was nothing compared with that involved in the co-operative group which he is rushing along at a pace which will establish a record for fast building in this city if nothing happens to delay matters.

The colony covers most of the site of Fort Washington and fronts on Fort Washington Avenue [Correction: Northern Avenue, now known as Cabrini Boulevard] and Pinehurst Avenues between 182nd Street and 186th Street. The population of the Hudson View Gardens will be 354 families, or about 1,500 persons.

About 10,000,000 brick will be used in the construction of the fourteen apartment buildings. Dr. Paterno sent to Holland for shiploads of brick, which produce a soft and mellow effect which make Continental homes at once the envy and the despair of American builders. From England have come thousands of the Hope metal casement window frames of special design.

Dr. Paterno staggered the manufacturers with an order for 354 motor-driven dishwashing machines, the same number of combination kitchen cabinet and refrigerators, each seven feet wide, incorporating four refrigerating compartments, flour and sugar bins, dough and bread boards, pot closet, coffee, tea and spice jars, and so forth; ironing boards which fold into broom closets, china closets, dressing rooms with wardrobes, wing mirror dressing tables and door beds.

At Dr. Paterno’s instigation the Western Electric Company produced four super-heterodyne radio receiving sets larger than ever before attempted, with over 1,500 outlets, four in each apartment. A laundry machinery company received an order for the largest private plant installed in any apartment operation. A new type of push button elevator with dual control is being installed.

Dr. Paterno is a great believer in co-operation. He says that 354 co-operating families can live in luxury and yet save money.

The Wood, Dolson Company, the selling and managing agents, report that, although but few of the apartments are near enough completion to show concretely how the finished colony will appear, there is a constant stream of inquirers at their field office each day.

There was a time when real estate brag books were en vogue for certain clientele. This brag book, located at the New York Historical Society, is for Windmill Farm, country estate of Minnie and Charles Paterno. It was created by Clement B. and Viva B. Davis who also made a Paterno Castle brag book for the Manhattan residence of Minnie and Charles.

The Four Seasons at Windmill Manor

1936-1937 An Heirloom Book by Clement B. and Viva B. Davis • No 3

Made for Doctor and Mrs. Charles Vincent Paterno of The Castle at New York City

Windmill Manor

“Fast falls the eventide” on the day and on the season that are spent. Winter is gone. The sleep is past. E’en now, ‘neath Winter’s softly-spread mantle, AWAKENING SPRING is tenderly greening hill and dale apace.

Not less welcome than cherry spring is the guest who arrives at the MAIN ENTRANCE To WINDMILL MANOR

A closer view of the sturdy STONE COLUMNS flanking the Main Entrance.

Delightful airy vista from near main entrance Looking toward the house

Across the broad expanse of FRONT LAWN looking toward the house through the soft, luminous haze of an early spring forenoon.

In the witching hour of early dawn – Who wouldn’t have the urge to follow this alluring RUSTIC BRIDLE PATH leaving the main driveway and leading “over the hills” but not so “far away” to the lake and the color-glory that is the Rock Garden?

THE LAKE as seen from the encircling driveway, looking eastward, showing Bathing Beach, Boat House lawn and The Dam.

Small section of Rock Garden looking westward from the bathing beach.

Whether in the glare of noonday or in the luminous haze of sunrise ~ the glorious ROCK GARDEN is always beautiful.

The charming BOAT HOUSE – fitted like a beautiful setting to the huge Rock Garden ring encircling the Lake.

Enter the ROCK GARDEN at any point and one’s reward will be a glow of color in endless pattern as in this view from near end of wall leading from the boat house bathing beach.

Charming mass of color and foliage in the angle where the driveway around the Lake swings on to the north end of the Dam.

Mere pigment is impotent to catch the brilliant glow from this bit of the ROCK GARDEN at west end of the Lake. Only could one dip his brush in liquid sunlight could he hope to capture the scintilant [sic] splendor of these massed purples and greens and the thousand orange-hued blossoms swaying and glinting in the bright spring sunshine.

PURPLE IRIS bordering the Driveway at north end of the Lake ~ looking toward the Dam.

Purple Phlox subulata and White Rhododendrons on the upper slope of the ROCK GARDEN alongside of the Driveway at north end of the Lake.

RHODODENDRONS on the slope of the Rock Garden near end of wall leading from the bathing beach.

New York Herald Tribune 31 May 1946

Dr. Charles V. Paterno Is Dead; Builder Stricken on Golf Course

New York Realty Man Who Erected Castle Village Collapses at Westchester Country Club; Lived on 1,500-Acre Estate on Connecticut Border

RYE, N.Y. May 30 – Dr. Charles V. Paterno, sixty-nine, [correction: age 67] New York real estate operator and builder, died this afternoon after he had been stricken during a golf match at the Westchester Country Club.

While playing a twosome with his brother-in-law, Anthony Campagna, a member of the New York Board of Education, Dr. Paterno collapsed at the tenth hole at 3:30 p.m. and was carried off the fairway by caddies. He was rushed by ambulance to United Hospital, Port Chester, and on arrival was pronounced dead by Dr. Russell Gervais.

Dr. Paterno, builder of Castle Village overlooking Riverside Drive, between 181st Street and 186th Street, and one of the most successful New York real estate operators, lived at Windmill Manor, a 1,500-acre estate in the Towns of North Castle, N.Y., and Greenwich, Conn. [Correction: The Greenwich estate was Round Hill.]

Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Anna Blome Paterno; his son, Carlo M. Paterno, of Ridgefield, Conn., four sisters, Mrs. Joseph Faiella [Rose Irene Paterno] of New York, and Mrs. Joseph Miele [Theresa Marguerite Paterno], Mrs. Anthony Campagna [Maria Stella Paterno] and Mrs. Armino A. Campagna [Christine Alvina Paterno] all of Riverdale, the Bronx, and three brothers, Michael E. Paterno, of Irvington, N.Y., Anthony A. Paterno, of New York, and Frank [Saverio] Paterno, who lives In Italy.

Builder by Accident

Dr. Paterno, a native of Castelmezzano, Italy, was born into a family of builders, but became one himself more or less by accident.

His father, John [Giovanni] Paterno, a contractor in Italy, was ruined financially in 1883 [correction: 1880] when an earthquake destroyed a block of houses he had just built near Naples. To repair his fortune he brought his family to the United States and settled in New York.

Charles Paterno was sent to Cornell Medical College and was graduated in the class of 1899. He no sooner had received his degree, however, than his father died, leaving the family in possession of a half-built apartment house in upper Manhattan.

It was decided that Charles should defer practice of medicine temporarily to help his brother, Joseph, who died in 1939, get the building finished. When it was completed the brothers traded it for a lot farther uptown, then built on that lot. They were carried along by a series of such deals, and in two years Dr. Paterno found himself with a profit of $40,000. Comparing this with a probable two years’ salary to a young physician, he decided to stick to real estate.

His second-choice career brought him tremendous success. He built apartment houses at 280, 285, and 290 Riverside Drive and acquired others, all at which his company, the Skybeam Realty Corporation of Greenwich, still owns, at 45 Fifth Avenue, 21 East Tenth Street, 125 East Thirty-sixth Street, 230 Central Park South, ?61 and 304 West Seventy-sixth Street.

But the buildings and developments for which he was best known were The Castle, his former home near Riverside Drive and 181st Street; Castle Village, the $6,000,000, 600-family apartment development built on the site of The Castle and opened in 1939; Hudson View Gardens, co-operative apartments at Pinehurst Avenue, between 182nd and 184th Streets, not far from Castle Village, and the Marguery, at 270 Park Avenue.

Marguery Was Largest

The Marguery, occupying the block bounded by Park and Madison Avenues and Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Streets, was said to be the largest apartment house in the world when it was built in 1917-’18. The building which has housed many prominent families throughout the years, was erected on stilts above the underground New York Central Railroad tracks. Dr. Paterno had leased the “air rights” over the property from the New York Central, and the lease reverted the railroad in 1932. Recently it was disclosed that Time, Inc., publishers of “Time, “Life,” “Fortune,” and “The Architectural Forum” magazines, had acquired an option on the building.

Castle Village, with its five red brick towers, is a familiar sight to motorists crossing the George Washington Bridge. The entrances are on Mother Cabrini Boulevard, but the five towers standing in a row form a lofty facade high above the east bank of the Hudson River between 181st and 186th Streets. The development was dedicated by former Mayor F. H. La Guardia in 1929.

The Castle, demolished in 1938 to make way for Castle Village, was a feudal pile reminiscent of a Rhine castle and for years was one of the city’s showplaces. When he built it in 1906 Dr. Paterno fulfilled a boyhood dream. As a youngster he used to row down the Hudson past Fort Washington Point and plan some day to have a castle on the bluff above.

Bought Bennett Tract

Eventually, he became the owner of many acres in the vicinity, including a $5,000,000 tract he bought from the James Gordon Bennett estate, and many acres along the Palisades in New Jersey. In the 20’s he toyed with the idea of building a ninety-story apartment house on the Palisades, but nothing came of it.

The Castle had a tower and turrets and was partly surrounded by a high fortress-like masonry wall twenty-five feet thick at the base. Much of this wall remains to embellish Castle Village.

At the time of his death, Dr. Paterno was chairman of the Skybeam Realty Corporation, which held most of his properties. His son, Carlo, is president.

One of Dr. Paterno’s enterprises was the raising of Christmas trees on his farm at Bedford Hills in Westchester County. He planted more than 1,000,000 trees on the 1,500-acre farm and reportedly realized a handsome profit on sales each December.

Dr. Paterno was married twice. His first wife, Mrs. Minnie Middaugh Paterno, died May 28, 1943 [correction: March]. She had been a musician and for a short time was a concert pianist in the late John Phillip Souza’s band. On Oct. 8 [1943] Dr. Paterno married the former Miss Blome, of White Plains.

Dr. Paterno presented more than 10,000 volumes, comprising one of the finest collection of Italian literature in America, to the Casa Italiana at Columbia University in 1927. Members of his family were largely responsible for the building of the Casa Italiana.

A copy of this article from the “Building Management” publication was gifted to me by author Andrew Alpern. The first installment was published on 29 December 1919 and the second installment was published 12 January 1920. [My notes and comments are inserted into the article inside brackets.]

Apartments and Personal Desires
By Dr. Charles V. Paterno
President, Paterno Construction Company

The accompanying article appeared in the December issue of “System,” under the title, “Values People Will Pay For.” Dr. Paterno has made a careful study of the utility factors and luxuries that people insist upon when they spend their money for apartments to live in. He says: “I contend if people buying at a certain price demand appearance value rather than utility value, that is an important fact for every business man to know, and play to.”

[December 1919 issue of System is posted at the bottom of this article.]

THE family that acknowledges itself poor buys the cheapest thing it can get. This class is comparatively small. The next class buys that which looks as though it cost more than it actually does cost – they buy for “front.” The very wealthy people insist on getting their money’s worth. These are not cynical conclusions. I have reached them through 20 years of building and merchandising apartment houses. If these principles apply to the selling of places in which to live, which are by all odds the most important purchases that anyone makes, surely they must apply with equal force to everything that people buy for personal use. I can testify that they apply to everything connected with the home and the person – clothing, furniture, food, automobiles, and so on, and they seem to apply equally to office rents and office fittings.

The great American average public, taking New York as its cross-section (and the New Yorker, as every one knows, comes from everywhere on earth), buys, dresses and lives with the idea above all in mind of appearing to have more money than actually it has. The only two classes which are not bothered in this way are those who are so poor that it is useless to try to conceal poverty and those who are so rich they do not have to put a price mark on themselves.

These are not merely interesting theories worked out on a lazy summer afternoon under the shade of a great, green tree. They are principles classified, refined, and defined in trying to find out where and how people want to live, how their desires can be compromised with their pocketbooks and then in manufacturing something which at the moment seems to be the best compromise between desire and pocketbook. It is always a compromise on both sides. The buyer – that is, the renter – has to compromise between what he would like and what he can afford. The seller – that is, the builder – has to compromise between what the renter would like and can afford and what is most profitable to him from a commercial standpoint.

At the present day, in New York City, the shortage of living quarters is such that almost anything from a tent up can be rented the moment the plans are announced and at almost any price, but it was not always thus. For some years before the war, New York was overbuilt; more apartment builders failed than succeeded; but through good times and bad, we, through 20 years have kept steadily to a preconceived program of putting through one operation every year. [I adore how Dr. Paterno, as a trained medical doctor, uses the word “operation” to describe his construction projects!]

Results Prove Idea Correct

We have each year bought the ground, put up the building, rented it, sold it at a profit and then with the money in pocket, gone on to the next operation. We have never sold any operation without turning a substantial profit. Perhaps our idea of what people pay for and what is behind the price is not right. But in our first adventure as greenhorns in building, we had at stake all the ready money we could put our hands on, which was between $3,000 and $4,000.

Our last operation is probably the largest apartment house in the world and is rented for approximately $1,000,000 a year. Twenty years divide the two, but everything that we have today grew out of that first little investment, and so I think that our ideas on what people are willing to pay for are not far from right.

I got into building quite by accident. I stayed in it at first because I had to, and then because I wanted to.

My father had built three or four small apartments [151 West 106th Street, 154 West 106th Street, 156 West 106th Street & 204 West 106th Street]. Just as I graduated in medicine in 1899 he died, leaving two small houses in the process of construction [507 West 112th Street & 505 West 112th Street]. They were no good as they were – an unfinished building is almost an impossible thing to sell – and it was squarely up to my brother, Joseph, and myself, as, being the oldest boys, to get out the money of the estate. Our father had left Joseph and myself about $1,500 apiece, excepting that my share had been decreased to $500 on account of my medical education.

More than anything else, he had left us a splendid credit reputation. Where so many builders go into an operation without sufficient funds and then hope to get out by paring some one down here and another there, my father regarded his debts as sacred. When he bought, the seller knew that my father was going to pay in full, and promptly.

There was no question of a financial statement or anything of the sort with him; but the sellers got to know that he never bought anything without seeing his way clear to pay for it, and that was enough for them. Always he did pay and on the dot. That is the great big asset that he left to us boys, as asset the…

…value of which is difficult to measure; but certainly we should have been worse off in a business way had he bequeathed us an estate of a million dollars and a bad reputation, rather than the few thousands of dollars and the reputation everywhere of exactly fulfilling his every undertaking.

The building under construction was of the old familiar type of New York apartment. It had five stories, of wood and brick, without elevators, and with two apartments to the floor. Like all other building of the kind, the living room, or parlor, as it was then known, occupied the front of the building, and the other rooms opened on a passageway just as though they were so many cells. That was the standard design and the apartments were of the standard size and price; that is, from five to seven rooms and renting for about $10 a room. There was nothing in particular to differentiate them from some hundreds and perhaps thousands of other apartments.

I had intended simply to finish this building and go on with my medical career, but as we were finishing the first building, we had a chance to buy the plot next door [San Marino at 509 West 112th Street] at a very low figure. My brother and I got together, agreed to buy the land, and then traded in our new house at a small profit. We borrowed $2,000, took all the cash we ourselves had and entered upon our second adventure in apartment house construction – the first in which we, ourselves, solely were interested.

In those days people had large families. The principal thing that they wanted was room. I rented that first house personally, making my office right in the house and exhibiting the apartments to prospective tenants. We had not then the idea of merchandising apartments and it would not have done us much good is we had, for this was merely completing what somebody else had begun. In the second venture we followed exactly the same procedure as our father had worked out for himself. His ideas were good; the people then wanted space and not innovation. We got our tenants at once and then almost immediately sold the place at a profit of 100 per cent on our investment; that is, we came out of the transaction with $8,000 where we had entered into it with only $4,000.

Experience Gives Confidence and a Profitable Return

We were beginning to get a hold on the situation – though not consciously. Our success in these two ventures led a woman who knew our father to put in a plot of ground with us at 105th Street near Amsterdam Avenue [Salome at 149 West 105th Street].

THE people wanted big rooms. We made that a seven-story, 49-foot front building. That was two stories more than we had yet tried and the 49-foot front gave bigger rooms than the people had been accustomed to find. Also we put in two bathrooms for the first time, and, as an additional feature, increased the outlook of the living rooms, by running two columns of bay windows up the front, which also served to give a better facade. We used hardwood here and there – oak was popular at the time. But these apartments were better in their way than anything that could then be had for the money. We rented them very quickly, and when rented, we sold the house on the investment basis with a net profit to us of no less than $40,000.

That put us on our feet. It was the first real money we had ever had. And with the money we got the lesson that a little ingenuity in design – a little catering to the popular taste of the moment – not only permitted higher rentals, but also the sale of the building on an investment rather than on a cost basis. Up to that time we, and I think nearly every one else, had considered an apartment largely as a plot of land and a building, and our first two ventures had been disposed of as such. Now, however – and this has been our practice ever since – we discovered the value on the income-producing quality. If you consider land as land and a house as a house, any ingenuity that you may exercise is more or less wasted; but on the other hand, if you take the more logical ground of building something which the public will purchase as an investment, then you can capitalize all the brains that go into the design.

We adhered to our program, during the next several years, of putting through an operation each year, and all of them were on the same general model as the one that I have just described, except that each was just a…

…little better in some point of finish; but all were primarily designed comfortably to house a rather large family at not too high a price.

People were not then accustomed to paying high rental. I doubt if there were an apartment anywhere in the city for more than $3,000 [per year]. But I began to notice a change in the demand. The families seemed to be smaller and requests came in for four, five and six-room apartments, well finished and well located. There was then no subway and people liked to live within easy access of the elevated road. I also began to gain the impression that a view might be of importance. We had yet no thought of attempting the extremely high-priced apartment, but up on Morningside Avenue was a splendid site; I heard that Columbia University was going to buy extensively in that neighborhood (afterwards they did so) and there would be no question of crowding. Only farms were about, but on a venture we put up two houses of four, five and six-room apartments, still only seven stories high, because that was the greatest height the building laws would permit for a non-fireproof building. For the first time we devoted a little attention to the entrance-way. We did not actually decorate it, but we made it a little better looking – something more than a way in.

Getting More Rent Because of the View from the Windows

The view rented those apartments instantly. They were full of tenants almost as quickly as they were finished. We sold the houses at a good profit and built more of the same kind right beside them, and sold them in turn. The experiment of going into the wilds taught us one lesson, which is that the moderate-priced renter considers no neighbors as good neighbors and that unless one can buy land in the first-class neighborhood, then next best thing is to buy where there are no neighbors at all, provided, of course, that the no-neighbor site in conveniently located in the way of transportation. If there are no neighbors at all, the tenants will expect that any neighbors that do come will be good ones. We also decided that it was not good business to have more than seven rooms in any apartment, and that policy we continued until we got into the really high-priced rentals.

We then had money enough to essay a little more. We were beginning to find out what it was that people would pay for and we bought a few lots on Riverside Drive. It was a plot, by the way, in which I used to pasture my horse. On that we put up our first two big buildings, each with 75-foot frontage and 10 stories high [Altora Residence Club & Porter Arms]. It was fireproof construction and every room had a parquet floor. By that time we always knew our rentals before we built. Our method was to discover the market value of floor space in any neighborhood and then try to give something a little better than could be had elsewhere, marking up the rent accordingly. For instance, we calculated that the fireproof construction and parquet floors together should permit a rental increase of 33 1/3 per cent. These improvements by no means involved a corresponding increase in the cost of construction.

We found that a southern exposure was worth 10 percent, that it paid to make the kitchen as convenient as possible and to put in a first-class refrigerator. It is mostly women who decide whether or not an apartment is to be taken, and, even if a woman has servants, the character of the kitchen means a great deal. An extremely good-looking refrigerator and range will sometimes nearly rent an apartment! [On this note you might like to read Where People Prefer to Live By Dr. Charles V. Paterno • 1918] People do not seem to consider the investment value of these things. They are entirely willing to pay on impression, for strangely enough, very few people know what anything in the building way costs. For the men we put in better bathrooms; we had not then reached the very expensive bathroom with porcelain fixtures, but used good-looking enameled iron. The extremely wide application that these facts have in the manufacture and distribution of all products intended for individual use must, I think, be evident to the reader.

People were then still buying, or rather renting, largely on value and they would not pay a high price for a poor thing, just because it looked fussy. We rented everything ourselves. I heard what people had to say and it was part of my job to convince them that we really had what they wanted – all the time taking mental notes to get their best ideas into our next undertaking.

I really cannot overemphasize the importance in building, and I presume it is the same in every other line of manufacturing and merchandising, of keeping in personal contact with the customer, so that no outsider’s report, no agent’s report, can be interposed between the actual demand and your own estimate of that demand. And so I sensed changes.

I found a new public coming into prominence – people who were more anxious for looks than convenience. Although the women still like the large bedrooms, they were particularly struck with large living rooms. In the old apartment you entered into a narrow hallway down one side of which ran a perfectly blank wall. Visitors had to make their way through this uninviting hall, past a door or two to the living room in the front. The dining-room was commonly at the extreme rear, and, therefore, guests for dinner had to tramp through the length of the apartment, and, if the hosts did not life to exhibit all of their rooms they had to keep the doors closed, which was all right so far as men were concerned, but women visitors knew quite as well as the hostess why all the doors were closed!

Of course, nobody told me what they wanted in so many words, but I began to discover that what the people were looking for was some kind of apartment in which most of their money might be spent in the furnishing of the living-room and dining-room and an arrangement so that these could be shut off from the…

…rest of the space. The old demand was for plenty of room to shelter a big family; the new demand was for a place in which visitors might be well entertained without having too intimate a knowledge of the menage – a place where they might be confined in a couple of showrooms.

I gathered these ideas through many sources, largely from the chance remarks of tenants as I was showing them through; but also from the fact that a great many of these prospective tenants were considerably more expensively dressed than the rentals they wanted to pay showed that they could afford. If they wanted to put so much of their income into their clothes, evidently they would also want to put as much as possible of their living expenditure right up in front also!

In our next venture, which was a $1,000,000 structure, “The Paterno,” we carried out some of these ideas. We made a great many apartments and as the main features of each provided a large living-room, a good-sized dining-room, and a well-equipped bathroom and kitchen. Finally we designed a main entrance hall, which, although it did not approach the elaboration of later entrance halls, was spacious, well furnished, and all aglow with prosperity.

We made every one of the bedrooms comparatively small and then further took off their space by putting in large closets. It must have been that the occupants of the earlier types of apartment houses were not supposed to own any clothing other than that which they actually wore, because as far as I can recall, the only time closet provision was ever made was when we happened to have a bit of space that we did not otherwise know what to do with. Wardrobes are impossible things in apartments.

I rented “The Paterno” in record time. It was exactly what the people wanted and was easily the best thing which, up to that time, had been erected. That was before the present magnificent apartments in certain sections of New York. It was not then safe to provide many apartments with rentals exceeding $2,500 [per year].

The Next Stages in the Business Development

Having sold this production according to schedule, I went in for something still better, taking a whole block from Broadway to West End Avenue with a 12-story building [The Alameda] to rent at from $20 to $25 a room, as against $10 a room in our first venture. We had determined that people like to pay about 50 per cent for show and 50 per cent for convenience, and therefore we let ourselves out as much as we wanted to on the entrance hall.

Most of the tenants we could expect had been at some time in their lives in Europe and they like a Continental touch. Perhaps, because I was born in Italy, I had that entrance hall done splendidly in Italian Renaissance with great high ceilings, imported some of the furniture and tapestry from Italy, and then had reproductions made of other Italian masterpieces of furniture. It does not pay to put into an entrance hall any piece of furniture or statuary which a tenant can get downtown or price anywhere. The things must look expensive and be hard to duplicate. This entrance takes up valuable renting space and costs money to furnish and money to keep up, but tenants are glad to pay an advance of 10 per cent on their rentals simply because of the impression on uncle when he comes to town. Therefore it is a good investment.

The impression on uncle, and the neighbors, is an important element in values that is sometimes not given due consideration. Too often it is dismissed as a vanity. And it would be proper to do that if fewer people were vain, or if more judged by fundamental facts. But it is true that the surface appearances in the things men eat and wear, the automobiles they ride in, as well as the furnishings of their homes, have a marketable value. That is the important fact that I am trying to make clear from my experience, which happens to be solely in erecting just the sort of homes people want.

When Do You Reach the Point of Diminishing Returns?

In general, any expense added in the way of show or decoration in an apartment is a good investment, if the tenants will pay the extra charge. It is the part of the merchandiser of apartments, as of the merchandiser of other lines, to discover the exact point at which show stops paying. I have seen it carried to great extremes and have seen very valuable space wasted which is not reflected in better rentals. Mere gorgeousness will not do, and neither will shoddy imitation. The profitable point is somewhere between. The thing to bear in mind is not so much the comfort of the tenant as the impression gained on entering first the apartment building and then on entering the apartment itself. Allowing for the maximum in this impression, then everything additional that you can put in for the comfort of the tenant makes the apartment that much more easily rented. But the things that really add to the price concern the visitor more than the tenant – the “front” – excepting the one point of convenience of transportation. Everyone wants to get downtown easily. A good and convenient location is essential.

We had been dealing first with people of moderate means who wanted space, then later with people of greater means who were willing to sacrifice space and comfort if thereby they might appear to have even greater means. We had not gone into real wealth, but I noticed that those persons who were considerably wealthier than the average of our tenants looked less at the entranceways and more at the structure and convenience of the apartments.

This important fact forced itself on me as I turned over in my mind the salient features of a really big undertaking in which no rental would be less than $5,000 a year. The tenants for such a place, I judged, would want an apartment to be something better in the way of convenience and finish than they could possibly obtain in any house or hotel. Also I doomed the big, magnificence common entrance, for I thought that wealthier people would prefer and pay for separate entrances and elevators, that they would like the convenience of having practically a private elevator to get away from the hotel atmosphere of elevators in great batteries.

I also planned for light and air in every room and the maximum of convenience. Especially I knew they wanted and would pay for better service than they could reasonable expect even from a large staff of servants. I designed to give the absolute privacy of a home and the convenience of a hotel – and I felt they were willing to pay for the combination.

These are the points which I had in mind in the design of what is probably the largest and one of the most expensive apartment houses in the world, known as 270 Park Avenue, although it covers an entire block. People who are willing to pay high rents usually do not like to live in an apartment house with a name. That is one of the curious trends of public taste. In the beginning people were ashamed to live in an apartment house unless it had a name; now, however, the name is not a feature.

It Isn’t Always Easy to Combine Comfort and Appearance

We designed this apartment around an Italian court and garden. That garden was a problem! We had to have it in order to give light and air – so that none of the rooms would be inside. I knew that it should be European rather than American looking, but many European features will not be accepted in this country because they are not convenient, and so I Americanized and Italian loggia by putting it on the ground floor, so that one might enter the apartments from the garden and be protected from the weather. Truly, to adapt a European feature to an American house, it must have a wholly utilitarian function as well as being an addition to beauty. The garden itself we kept down to the formal Italian, in order to gain the effect of complete rest….

…and detachment from the general world of New York.

Instead of a big entrance hall, we put entrances and private elevators for each group of apartments, so that each individual apartment had its own exclusive vestibule leading from the elevator, and thus to all intents and purposes had a private elevator.

Then, too, instead of small apartments with small rooms we went to the opposite extreme. The largest apartments have 17 rooms with a foyer, gallery, and six baths. The living rooms in some are 20×40 feet, and the dining rooms, 20×30, with five servants’ rooms and a servants’ hall. They are complete mansions in themselves. The smallest apartments have six rooms and three baths and the rents run from $15,000 down to $4,000 [per year].

The people who would pay these rents must have the ultimate convenience. A restaurant in even a moderate=priced apartment is sure to be a losing venture. But there had to be a restaurant in an apartment house of this new character, if for no other reason than to be able to sell the apartment.

It could not be a poor restaurant and the only way to make sure that that did not happen would be to have it take in charge by the most fashionable hotel in New York. But the manager of this hotel, when I approached him, informed me of an unvarying rule never to act as a caterer outside of the hotel and never under any circumstances to undertake the management of an outside establishment. This was something of a drawback, but it is not my habit to stop on the first refusal.

How a Single Attraction Increased Net Income

I felt that I had to have that restaurant to make the place an absolute success and therefore I plunged. I offered to give to the hotel management on-half of all the profits and an additional bonus of $25,000 a year and they accepted. I expected to lose money on that restaurant, but to make it up in the way of advertising. I am not losing money on the restaurant. Directly because of it I have rented several $15,000 a year apartment, and, since the most expensive apartments are not rented for a term of less than five years and the least expensive for not less than three years, renting an apartment is a conclusive matter.

This last apartment house has more than 3,000 rooms and housed in it are more than 100 millionaires.

And thus it goes around the circle. In the $5 and $10 a room apartments the people wanted space and what they conceived to be convenience, if possible. In the $1,500 apartments they wanted appearance and convenience – if convenience did not interfere with appearance. But the millionaire colony goes right back to the $10 a room people in demanding all the convenience that may be had – but not simply for the money. They want all the convenience that may be had, not quite, but almost regardless of the money.

I think these idiosyncrasies of my public are representative of fundamental facts in human nature; and it has been my effort to show that I am not writing an article merely about the merchandising of New York apartments – a very specialized sort of business indeed – but abut putting the values that people really want into all the products we sell, whatever they may be. And I content if people, buying at a certain price, demand appearance value rather than utility value, that is an important fact for every business man to know, and play to.

View the full Paterno Family architecture catalog HERE.

This article originally appeared in The American Magazine, Volume 86, July 1918 through December 1918 published by The Crowell Publishing Company, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York. Images and transcript below.

Where People Prefer to Live

Some things I have learned out of my experience in building apartments which accommodate 28,000 human beings

By Dr. Charles V. Paterno

PEOPLE who live in small towns often seem to think that the problems of city life are quite different from the ones they have to solve. Some of them are different; but when you come right down to rock bottom, a great man of these problems are universal.

When the man in Clinton, Iowa, or Oklahoma City, or Youngstown, Ohio, or anywhere, looks for a home, he has to think of almost the identical points of which a man in New York thinks when he is seeking an apartment. As I have built apartments in New York City which, all together, house about twenty-eight thousand persons, I naturally have had to make a study of the things people look for, or should look for, in choosing a place to live.

In every town, for example, there is the problem of accessibility. If there is a street-car line in your town, you prefer to live within a minute’s walk of it. If there isn’t any transportation line, you look for a house which is pretty close to your store.

In New York, accessibility is even more vital. A man’s first questions about a New York apartment are, “How near is it to the subway, elevated and street-car line? How long will it take me to go to and from my business?” For an apartment only one block from a transportation line he will pay at least ten per cent more than for one four blocks distant. And for one ten minutes nearer his business than the apartment in which he has been living, he will actually “raise the ante” thirty per cent if he can afford to.

Apartments in a good neighborhood, yet near the business districts, are almost twice as expensive as those two or three miles distant.

If you live in a small town, you may think that men in New York are foolish to pay so much extra money just for the sake of convenience. But ask yourself if you wouldn’t be willing to pay more for a house near a car line than for one located so far away that you would have to wade through drifts of snow in winter or walk ten minutes under a boiling sun in summer. It is worth something to you, both in time and in comfort, to avoid that – and your rent shows that it is.

But this is not the only problem of location. Women, especially, like to live in a fashionable neighborhood. Men, too, want to appear prosperous; and they know that the ability to pay the high rents asked in an exclusive section generally passes as a proof of posperity.

But in New York people really go to extremes about outward show. If I built the finest apartments in the city, but located them in a poor section, do you imagine that people would leave the “better class” districts and flock to these apartments, even at a lower rental? Certainly not. They would rather have a few small rooms in an exclusive neighborhood than a good-sized apartment in an unfashionable section. Pride seems to mean more to them than comfort does.

This desire for show is one of the chief causes of high rents. Since people demand handsome entrances and luxurious fittings they must expect to pay the costs of these things in the form of increased rent. Not long ago, when I built in New York the largest apartment house in the world, I spent forty thousand dollars on an ornamental garden two hundred and seventy feet long and seventy feet wide, in the courtyard of the house. The maintenance of this garden alone costs me about five thousand dollars a year. You can easily see that, when I estimated how much rent each apartment must bring, I had to figure in, together with everything else, the original cost and the yearly expenses of the garden.

Though many people are more interested in outside show than inside comfort, there are two rooms in which every man and woman is interested, no matter what rent they are paying. One is the man’s own personal bathroom. The other is the kitchen. Women who have no servants know that they will have to spend much of their time in that room. And even women who have servants know that unless the cooking facilities are close to perfection there is going to be trouble. Therefore, while the man fusses with the bathroom, the woman looks the kitchen over very carefully.

MEN like bathrooms to be large as possible. Unfortunately, in New York they are usually pretty small. The ideal bathroom for a man is one with a good shower, a large mirror with lights on both sides for convenience in shaving, and a bathtub long enough to stretch one’s self luxuriously at fully length. Soap, as everyone knowns by sad experience, is a must elusive things in bathing, so I endear myself to my tenants by having the soap dish built into the wall alongside of the tub. Whenever men see this contrivance the give three cheers.

In the kitchen and pantries, a woman wants modern improvement, but she is especially keen about shelves. She wants a lot – and then a lot more. In the ordinary city apartment there is usually shelf room for only two or three hundred dishes. I know build shelves which can hold more than a thousand. And when the woman see this generous provision they almost echo the mean’s three cheers from the bathroom. The size of ice boxes is usually another cause for complaint. Knowing this, I install many that will hold two hundred pounds of ice each. In houses where people have many servants, the ice boxes are also arranged so that one side opens into the kitchen and the other into the panty. I never had built them this way until several women told me that when there is only one door to a refrigerator quarrels among servants always take place as a result of two or three wanting to get things at the same time.

Because women like to have as much light as possible when cooking on the gas ranges, these should be placed close to a window. There should also be a good electric light overhead. A hood on top of the range is another convenience which every woman appreciates. This hood contains flues which draw up all the odors, so that, even when only five feet away, one cannot smell what is being cooked. Instead of the one sink, which used to be considered all that was necessary, modern kitchens have several. One of these which is deeper than the others, Is useful for pots and pans. There is also a special closet for brooms and brushes, so that they won’t have to be placed in corners or behind the doors, where they are always falling down.

People who pay thirty-five dollars a month in small towns can usually get a pretty nice house. In New York, however, I’m sorry to say that unless one can afford to pay at least sixty-five dollars a month, double what is paid by people outside the city, it is almost impossible to have an apartment in which the rooms will be light. People in New York often have to pay as much as forty and fifty dollars a month for apartments containing rooms dark enough tot require electric or gas light even in the daytime. These rooms have windows, of course; but the building are so high and so crowded that the light fails to reach more than perhaps one room. Such conditions are unfortunate; but what can be done about it when enough people to populate half a state insist on occupying one small island?

Because light rooms are such a rarity, the rates for apartments which have them are at least thirty to forty per cent higher than for those not so light. There is even a vast difference in the prices paid for apartments on the lower floors of a building and those on the upper floors, because, of course, of the better light and air when one is high up. Take two apartments, just alike, except that one is on the second floor of an elevator apartment house and the other is on, say, the eleventh. The one on the second floor will rent for perhaps $700, while the other will being $500 more. In most modern houses an apartment of fourteen rooms and five baths will being $7,500 on the lower floors and $9,500 on the upper ones, a cash difference of $2,000 a year. People want light wherever they live, but in New York one has to pay from $500 to $2,000 a year extra to get it.

DR. CHARLES V. PATERNO was born in Italy but came to this country when he was only five years old. Although he is a graduate of Cornell Medical College he never has practiced his profession, but has become probably the greatest builder of apartment houses in this, or any other country. He is now 39 years old. Since he was 21, he has built more than 75 of these houses; enough to accommodate a total “population” of more than 28,000 persons.

Last spring he completed the largest apartment house in the world. This picture shows Dr. Paterno and a corner of the $40,000 garden, 270 feet long and 70 feet wide, in the courtyard of this great New York structure, whose yearly rentals amount to a million dollars.

Dr. Paterno is married, has one son, and lives in New York City in a house which he built for himself, overlooking the Hudson River.

Despite this increased cost, however, may people ask for apartments above the sixth or seventh floors. Through experience, they know that the higher one is the less one gets the noise and dust from the street. An additional advantage, also, is the fact that flies are conspicuous by their absence up there.

People often ask my opinion as to the best floor on which to live. I have always answered “the one next to the top,” because on that floor you are high enough to get good light and air and yet you escape the risk of any leak from the roof in winter, while it is also cooler than the top floor in summer.

Sometimes, however, people object to going very high, because they are afraid the children may fall out of the windows, or that their chances of escape, in case of fire, would be less. But almost every apartment house has window guards too high for the youngsters to climb over; and as for fire, there are very few serious blazes in modern apartment houses, principally because of the struct fire regulations. A new innovation, however, is a staircase leading from each side of an apartment, thus giving tow modes of exit instead of the customary single one.

Though most people like to live above the fourth floor, there are some whose business or profession makes the ground floor desirable. Doctors or dentists, for example, like this location because their names can be well displayed there. They also want their patients to be able to reach them with a minimum of delay or difficulty. In the cheaper class of apartments, milliners and dressmakers often display their names and wax models in the windows of a first-floor apartment, thus having show window, shop, and home all for the same price.

ONE of the remarkable things about apartment house life is that such an extraordinary proportion of the tenants move every year. In May and October, the two months in which people change their residence in New York, it is almost impossible to get a moving van until the rush is over. Before one tenant is out, the new one is often on hand, demanding to be allowed to move in.

Twenty per cent of New York moves every year, thirty per cent moves every two years, and about ten per cent moves every three years. The average “life” of a tenant is about two years. I know a man whose record is regarded as almost phenomenal because he has remained in one house for eight years! If there are fifty apartments in a house a tenant who remains five years will have a complete set of new neighbors at the end of that time. That is really one of the reasons why people in New York apartment houses do not become acquainted with one another. In a small town, everyone knows everyone else. On New York you can live three years in an apartment house, and you probably won’t get to know more than one or two families out of thirty or forty.

There are two copies of the 1930 ‘The Pageant of the Seasons at The Castle’ brag book by Clement B. Davis to my knowledge. The first copy is a “rough draft” located at the New York Historical Society. The second is the final copy that was housed at the castle and served additionally as a guest book and is currently in possession of a family member.

Below are photographs and transcriptions from both books marked ‘NYHS’ for the “rough draft” version at the New York Historical Society and “PC” for the Paterno Castle final version.

Before beginning, however, here is a diagram (which is not part of the brag book) of the Paterno Castle estate showing the orientation of the main house and the many greenhouses connected by the glass conservatory. If you’d like to see a beautiful and informative aerial photograph of the mature estate, click HERE. Construction of the castle began in 1907 and the castle was razed in 1938.

Page 1: “The Castle” with entrance gate illustration

Page 2: “Moonlight – we three and THE PERGOLA” Photo from left to right: Dr. Charles V. Paterno, Minnie Minton Middaugh Paterno, Carlo Middaugh Paterno

Page 3: “The PAGEANT OF THE SEASONS AT THE CASTLE Done into Pictures by Clement B. Davis for Dr. and Mrs. CHARLES V. PATERNO and CARLO • 1930 1931 • Heirloom Book N21”

Page 4: Photograph of the castle approaching from the north toward the porte-cochère

Page 5: “Our Castle”

Page 6: Illustration of fictitious castle and mounted knight

Page 7: PC (there were slight adjustments from the NYHS version): “Dreams and Dragons and Things – There is something about a castle that sets it apart from other types of home, no matter what their grandeur or magnificence. In the word itself is glamour ~ a lilt and a swing, as it were, that lays hold on thought, and fancy wanders, willy-nilly, to those ancient “once upon a times” of

Romance, enchantment, and
Prancing steeds,
To the days of derring-do:
Of elves and witches and
Valorous deeds,
Of ogres and vampires too.
Of the princess fair
In dire distress,
With tidings of which the
Fairies flew
To the far-away prince, most
Noble and best –
Of the dragons he boldly
slew ~ and ever
awaiting the valiant prince and his rescued princess fair
was their stronghold of safety –
their CASTLE.

Dreams? May be. But sometimes dreams come true – and where lives the little boy who…”

Page 8: “…has not thrilled to the accounts of those “valorous deeds” and seen himself doing greater things and attaining possession of his own more wonderful castle of dreams? To most of those little boys their thrill was but for a passing moment and soon, in the excitement of childish games – was gone. Among those myriads of little boys, however, there was one, in far-off, sunny Italy, to whom the desire for his castle was more than a passing whim. He really and truly wanted a “really and truly” castle – one that he and his princess could live in. Time passed. Boyhood went its way silently into “Yesterday’s sev’n thousand years” and in place of the boy was the man. Childish desire for his castle also went its way until, in man’s estate, desire had expanded into determination but the way was long and rugged and there was many dragons to be overcome ere the castle could be gained. Only the man knows what those dragons were and how fierce the fight to vanquish them but…One by one he laid them low and the little boy’s dream came true!”

Page 9: Castle gate with Paterno coat of arms. The inscription is not clear. It could be “VIVE DEO UT VIVAS” which means “Live for God that you may live” or “VIVE UT VIVAS” which means “Live that you may live.” It looks most like “VIVE DE UT VIVAS” which does not translate. Any Latin experts out there? If so, please contact me. [Note: Renato Cantore has in his book that the inscription is “Vive Deo ut vivas” meaning “true life is the one dedicated to God.”]

Page 10: PC: “THE INFINITE CYCLE – In Nature’s Infinite Round the light airiness of SUMMER deepens into the colorful richness that is AUTUMN in its turn sinking into the still, cold sleep of WINTER which, itself, ere many moons shall wax and wane will arouse into the soft awakening of SPRING and once again the Infinite Round is begun.”

Page 11: “In Nature’s infinite round, the light airiness of SUMMER deepens into”

Page 12: NYHS: “The Old Purple Beech – No one knows by whom it was planted ~ or when. Sphinx-like, it smiles but answers no questions though, some day it may tell its age.” PC: “The Old Purple Beach – No one knows who set it out or when.”

Page 13: Photo of tree

Page 14: NYHS: “With but half a sun above the distant Palisades, this is the faeryesque effect one gets of the massive Wall and Pergola towering high above the “Drive.”” PC: “With but half a sun above the distant Palisades one gets this faeryesque view of the massive WALL and Pergola towering high about “The Drive.””

Page 15: Photograph of the estate retaining wall, including pergola, from the north looking south overlooking Riverside Drive

Page 16: Photograph of the Paterno family on the estate. L to R: Dr. Charles V. Paterno, Carlo Middaugh Paterno, Minnie Minton Middaugh Paterno. PC: “Now, the Madonna Lily, for instance -“

Page 17: NYHS: “MADONNAS – Lilium candidum – Madonna Lilies”; PC: “MADONNAS”

Page 18: “Within the NORTH END OF THE PERGOLA looking out over the Hudson through the luminous haze of a summer afternoon.”

Page 19: A view within the pergola overlooking the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge

Page 20: “From every point of THE LOFTY PERGOLA, as from some tall cliff, spreads the broad panorama of Drive and River and distant Palisades.”

Page 21: The Paterno family in the pergola above the retaining wall overlooking Riverside Drive and the Hudson River. Seated: Carlo Middaugh Paterno with his mother, Minnie Minton Middaugh Paterno, to the right and Dr. Charles V. Paterno leaning on the banister, cigar in hand.

Page 22: “The solemn silhouette of TOWER and PERGOLA when “Now has descended a serener hour” and day gives way to twinkling star-light.”

Page 23: Photograph from the driveway north of the main house looking towards the pergola and the George Washington Bridge

Page 24: NYHS: “The colorful richness that is AUTUMN in its turn fading into” PC: “The colorful richness that is AUTUMN – in its turn, sinking into”

Page 25: An early illustration of the Paterno Castle before the conical roof of the northwest turret was removed and before the retaining wall was installed (Drypoint etching by Clement B. Davis December 1930)

Page 26: NYHS: “A quiet Sunday Morning Respite from week-a-day activities.” PC: “A quiet Sunday morning respite from the regular week-a-day activities.” Seated left to right: Carlo Middaugh Paterno, Minnie Minton Middaugh Paterno, and Dr. Charles V. Paterno

Page 27: Seated left to right in the conservatory: Carlo Middaugh Paterno, Minnie Minton Middaugh Paterno, and Dr. Charles V. Paterno

Page 28: “What could be more cozily charming that this cheery BREAKFAST ROOM midst palm and blossom?”

Additional pages in the PC version: “Bo Chum and Mie Toy are not so sure as to what it’s all about but they seem much concerned over that queer looking thing under the black cloth.” Photo of Minnie Minton Middaugh Paterno with her two King Charles Spaniels Bo Chum & Mie Toy

Page 29: This is a rare photograph toward the interior of the main house. Most Paterno Castle photos were taken in the conservatory where light was optimal. Here the photographer is facing north from the conservatory corridor into the main house dining room beyond the ornate gate.

Page 30: “The Glory of AUTUMN SUNSHINE through The Grille”

Additional pages in the PC version: Left: Charles and Minnie Paterno sitting in the conservatory; Right: Minnie with her cockatoo.

Page 31: View from just inside the front door of Paterno Castle looking into the porte-cochère

Page 32: PC: “Let’s duplicate! We could use another one of those little cups, couldn’t we?”; NYHS: “Let’s duplicate! We could use another of those little old cups, couldn’t we?”

Page 33: Just outside the front door of Paterno Castle under the porte-cochère, Dr. Charles V. Paterno faces his son Carlo Middaugh Paterno. A third unidentified man stands behind.

Page 34: NYHS: “The beautiful effect and charming vista of Pergola and distant Palisades one gets Looking Westward in the Big Sun Room”; PC: “The beautiful effect and charming vista of Pergola and distant Palisades one gets looking Westward in the Sun Room.”

Page 35: Photo inside the conservatory facing west toward the river

Page 36: “A momentary appearing of the sun from behind gray clouds gave this bewitching glow of color on the MASSED PURPLE CHRYSANTHEMUMS beneath the dancing kiddies.”

Page 37: Photo in the conservatory of chrysanthemums with statue of children atop

Page 38: “The serene old Castle at peep-o-day guarding those within yet deep in slumber.”

Page 39: Photo taken from the pergola of the northwest corner of the Paterno Castle. Remember the illustration on page 25 which had the conical turret roof? It is no longer present.

Page 40: “The still cold sleep of WINTER which, itself, ere many moons shall wax and wane, will arouse into”

Page 41: “WHEN WINTER COMES” (photo of footprints in the snow)

Page 42: “SEEMINGLY ALOOF FROM THE WORLD the old castle rests serenely atop its icy slope but anon, midst din of dynamite and steel and steam -“; this page does not appear in the PC version

Page 43: “this charming woodsy setting will soon be gone forever”; this page does not appear in the PC version

Page 44: “WINTRY STILLNESS when, seemingly, not a creature is stirring – “not even a mouse.”” (image of gate at the entrance of the driveway situated north of the main house)

Page 45: “SNOW – soft and light as thistle-down, yet one of the mightiest of geological forces, silently at work.”

Page 46: PC: “Through the veil of falling snow-flakes There appears the shadowy form of “A goodly building, bravely garnished, The house of a mighty Prince, it seems to be. Faery Queene“

Page 47: “The ice-encrusted old gate pillars, glinting and glittering in the waning light.” (Image of the closed gates from same vantage point on page 45)

Page 48: “Serried ranks of tall POINSETTIAS awaiting their turn for glad service in spreading the spirit of Christmastide.” (Note: Dr. Charles V. Paterno was a tremendous fan of Christmas. You can read more about that passion HERE.)

Page 49: “Floral vista toward the “Door in the Wall” where once stood the fireplace which, later, was to be “pushed way back.””

Page 50: THE FIREPLACE where, to the music of the soft swish of swirling snow without, “Old friends, new friends, gather ’round together.” (NYHS: Handwritten note on left side reads: “This page is unfinished.”) Note Paterno coat of arms on mantel.

Page 51: NHYS: “Vista through palm and poinsettias toward the fireplace that was “pushed way back.”” PC: “Charming vista through palms and poinsettias toward the fireplace which was “pushed way back.””

Page 52: “In the BILLIARD ROOM “The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, But Here or There as strikes the Player goes.” Rubaiyat“

Page 53: Image of the billiard room south of the conservatory

Page 54: “Looking northward toward THE CASTLE, Toward the castle of Paterno while “Ever deeper, deeper, deeper Fell the snow o’er all the landscape, Fell the covering snow, and drifted Through the forest, round the village.” Longfellow“

Page 55: “The PORTE-COCHERE forms a charming frame for the sun-lit expanse toward the north gate.”

Page 56: “The Castle as seen from the north pavilion of the pergola.”

Page 57: “Wintry vista through the arches of the pergola.”

Page 58: “The massive columns of the pergola in winter garb.”

Page 59: NYHS: “Through the soft veil of the cold wintry rain the huge old castle in the distance seems airily faeriesque.”; PC: “Through the soft veil of the cold wintry rain the huge old castle seems airily faeriesque.”

Page 60: “Who wouldn’t dance to the sonorous chords of”

Page 61: “Purple and Gold and Greens and Brown – crashing into the high crescendo of the SCARLET POINSETTIAS?”

Page 62: “What if the nipping cold does tingle through the stark trees in the wintry moonlight? Within the CALM OLD CASTLE all is snug and comfy.” (This page does not appear in the PC version.)

Page 63: Photo of castle in the snowy moonlight. (This page does not appear in the PC version.)

Page 64: “The Ides of March has come and gone and as Spring, like jocund day, “stands tiptoe upon the misty mountain tops,” DEPARTING WINTER waves a beautiful farewell.”

Page 65: “The soft awakening of SPRING and once again the infinite round is begun.”

Page 66: Illustration of sun rising over hill.

Page 67: Photograph looking northward with a view of greenhouses, billiard room, conservatory, and main house

Page 68: “THE OLD SWIMMIN’ HOLE”

Page 69: Photograph of the swimming pool. Note diving board and exercise ropes.

Page 70: “The beautiful effect of Water in motion”; This page does not appear in the PC version.

Page 71: Photograph of the swimming pool. (This page does not appear in the PC version.)

Page 72: “General view of the castle bathed in the sunshine of early spring.”

Page 73: Photograph of castle estate from and elevated vantage point showcasing the northern-most driveway leading through the porte-cochère

Page 74: “Detail of Westward aspect of the Castle as seen from near the pergola”

Page 75: Photo looking east from the pergola on the river side of the estate

Page 76: “South Pergola Tower from north pergola tower at dawn”

Page 77: Photo from one pergola pavilion to another with Riverside Drive below

Page 78: “Looking southward along the RETAINING WALL at matin hour”

Page 79: Photo view from the retaining wall mid-ledge looking at both pergola pavilions

Page 80: “THE BEAUTIFUL ROCK GARDEN, in the exuberance of the middle of May changes its color scheme almost from day to day.”

Page 81: “A SMALL SECTION OF THE ROCK GARDEN”

Page 82: “In the background of this bit of the ROCK GARDEN is the old Purple Beech and the big Horse Chestnut in full bloom.”

Page 83: “The picturesque STONE STAIRWAY leading up from the Rock Garden”

Page 84: Illustration of flowers

Page 85: “Grace and color alongside the driveway to the exit gate.”

Page 86: “Parting glimpse of the castle and porte-cochère as one drives toward the exit.”

Page 87: Driveway from the south through the porte-cochère

Page 88: “The four seasons have slowly and beautifully gone their way and – the round is ended. The pictures too, in a way, are cyclical in that they end almost where they started a twelvemonth ago for, at the top of this tall tower took place that leisurely stroll in the moonlit pergola.”

Page 89: PC: “CASTLE-O’-DREAMS – but a few hundred feet west of old Fort Washington – stands not far below the crest of the highest point of Manhattan Island. (271.4”) From the Castle’s lofty perch on the precipitous western slope of this hill there spreads out an ever-changing panorama across the stately Hudson to the ‘Jersey shore and the world-famed Palisades – chameleon-like in their varying hues of purple and pink and red and blue and gray. Contrary to popular belief this river was not discovered by the man whose name it bears but by Verrazano, (1524) a Florentine navigator, nearly a hundred years before Hudson saw it. (1609) From a map based on Verrazano’s charts it seems that the river’s first published name was “San Germano.” Next came Gomez, the Portuguese, (1525) and called it “Rio San Antonio.” Hudson, himself, referred to it as the “Manhattes.” Its first legal name, given by the Dutch, was the rather pretentious “De Riviere van den Vorst Mauritious.” Other names were “Rio de Montagne” the River of the Mountain; “Groote Riviere” “Nordt Riviere;” “Nassau;” and, by the English, called “Hudson’s River.” Compromise, after many years, finally emerged by the simple process of common consent so, at present, the harbor section about up to Yonkers, is known as the “North River.” From there onward it is the “Hudson.” There are many curious things about this much-benamed old river, not the least of which is its very unriverlike behavior. At times it spreads out beneath the Castle windows as currentless as a lake, while again it rushes past at the speed of a mill race first in one direction then in the other at the whim of the tides as they come and go. Another, and perhaps the most astonishing, fact about the old river is that, for many miles of its lower reaches, it really is not a river at all but a fjord – perhaps the only one in the United States and a most fitting outlook, indeed, for a castle. The setting of the Castle, that solid old granite-gneiss ridge on which it rests, has seen many changes since that day, eons and eons ago when it probably spewed up from unknown depths below and lay, a slowly cooling and crystallizing mass of molten rock, many hundreds of feet below the surface of the earth. Then slowly the overlying rock disintegrated to soil, the Age of Ice came and the old granite mass knew the rush of swirling water from melting glaciers which…”

Page 90: PC: “…gouged out the earth from around it, formed the marsh at Inwood valley between Inwood hill and Riverdale and left the old granite mass exposed as a huge, finger-like ridge rising high above the surrounding country. Ages upon ages again crept into yesterdays. Soil once more covered the rock so that when the little “Half Moon” carried Hudson up the river which was afterward to bear his name, a dense forest of birch covered the section from Yonkers to Jeffrey’s Hook near which now stands the east tower of the huge George Washington Bridge. This forest was the hunting ground of the native Indians and known to them as Weckquaskeek – the Birch Bark Country. Once again time slid into eternity. Weckquaskeek and its kindred spirit, the Indian, had given way to civilization. The ancient granite ridge had become prosaic “Long Hill.” Revolution had flamed over the section leaving freedom in its path and on that sunny July day of 1907 when “the Boy” and his “Princess fair” looked upon the land through the eyes of appraisal, the section had become open farm land checkerboarded with fields and dotted here and there with peaceful country homes. A bold eminence jutting out toward the river caught their eyes and they promptly decided that now was the time and here was the place for that wonderful CASTLE-O’-DREAMS to materialize into stone. Busy weeks intervened until that momentous 23 day of November 1907 when two memorable events occurred. A little visitor by the name of Carlo came to live with “the Boy” and his “Princess fair,” and ground was broken for the actual erection of their CASTLE-O’-DREAMS. Once again the old ridge trembled to the shock of powder but under far different circumstances from that tragic night of November 1776, just 131 years almost to the day, since Washington, from the ‘Jersey shore had sorrowfully watched the red smoke of battle sweep across this very site as Fort Washington fell to the British assault. As to the planning of their CASTLE-O’-DREAMS the “Princess fair” had some definite ideas of her own. With a pencil she sketched the well-known diagram of that ancient childhood game of “Tit-tat-to,” saying “Here! This is how I would like it.” And so, from so simple a motif, grew the main building of the Castle, stone upon stone, until that happy day of June 21, 1908, when “the Boy” and his “Princess fair” and the little visitor fared forth and took possession of their wonderful CASTLE-O’-DREAMS perched high up on the steep side of what, but a paltry million or so years ago, was a fiery mass of molten stone a thousand feet or more, perhaps, beneath the surface of the ground. The new castle soon settled into its place in the scheme of things, and those who know “the Boy” also know that flowers must soon have begun to…”

Page 91: PS: “…bloom in profusion over the steep hillside about the Castle. Shortly, however, those beautiful flowers and shrubs became a vexing problem for Mr. Wanderer, passing by in growing numbers, seemed to have mislaid his copy of that well-known injunction against coveting “they neighbor’s goods.” He seemed unable to recall whether, along with the prohibitions relative to “his ox and his ass” specific mention had been made of “flowers” – anyway, he lived too far away to be a “neighbor” so he clambered up the steep hillside and applied what the cafeteria would call “self service.” These annoying practices of Mr. Wanderer seem too trivial to have led to such colossal results but that Cyclopean wall, rising like some huge fortress from Riverside Drive, grew out of the desire to stop these petty depredations. An amusing incident developed during the construction of that wall. “The Boy” had told the contractor where to set his derrick so as to handle the big rocks to the best advantage but the contractor disregarded instructions with the result that, later, the derrick had to be moved to where he had been told to put it. When the wall was completed the contractor included the cost for this change in his bill but “the Boy” refused to pay for this item. Years went by when the contractor again urged payment. “The Boy” made a rapid calculation and decided to pay the bill as rendered, and chuckled as he told the story. “We both won,” said he, “The contractor got his money nor did I pay for moving the derrick, for the interest, in the meantime, had accumulated to the amount of the bill.” As to CASTLE-O’-DREAMS, the time had come for new growth to meet new needs. Again the “Princess fair” had an idea. The fireplace was too close. “I’d like it pushed way-y-y back” she told “the Boy” and April 23, 1926, the expansion, which had been in thought for many moons, was begun. “The Boy’s” delight was to please his “Princess fair” so low foundations soon rambled out from the south wall over an area much greater than that of the main building. Slender steel forms arched upward into the air and, presently, a wide-spreading house of crystal had grown from the wall of the Castle where the fireplace had formerly stood. The fireplace gave way to a great door and, itself, receded to the far side of the huge glass Sun Room ,beyond which, a billiard room, swimming pool, fourteen greenhouses and the big rock garden had become the visualized answer to a friend who, some time before, had asked “Why don’t you fill up that unsightly hole?” but had received only an evasive reply. While the “unsightly hole” was being so beautifully “filled up” a new fence, each post a battlemented white stone tower, took the place of the old while, at the same time, the graceful, slender-columned…

Page 92: PC: “…pergola began to take shape along the top of the great fortress-like wall, rising in two stages from Riverside Drive, seventy-five feet below. Thus, in three major stages of development, has CASTLE-O’-DREAMS come into being; – First, the original stone structure – commenced November 23, 1907 and completed in the fall of 1909. Next, the big retaining wall – begun 1921 and completed in 1925. Then, the glass structure, the new fence, and the pergola – three units in one, as it were – begun in 1926 and completed in the spring of 1928. AND NOW, as one gazes at all his wide-spread beauty the glowing foliage of a venerable old Purple Beech – scarlet-studded in the bright June sunlight – catches the eye and lays hold on fancy. Who, or what manner of person was it, he wonders, who, hundreds of years ago, had set it out – whether the old tree heard the spiteful snarl of the bullets on that fateful November night of 1776 – if it had stood, a mere switch, in the door yard of some Dutch farmer’s “clearing” among the beautiful old trees of the vanishing Indians’ Birch Bark Country and fancy, yet unsatisfied, “…dipt into the future far as human eye could see” striving vainly to picture the course of change and what manner of thing will have, in its turn, replaced this present growth of steel and brick and stone which has supplanted all those noble trees of the Birch Bark Country – a million years hence. Clement Benjamin Davis

Page 93: “Clement B. Davis PICTORALIST of Homes and Gardens ~ Artists’ Colony, 529 Studio Road, Ridgefield, N.J. ~ Phone Morsemere 3025”

Page 94: NYHS: “On this page to be the favorite portrait of the lady of the house, preferably facing toward the her left so as to be looking toward the names of the guests, beginning on opposite page just below the greeting.” PC: reproduction of portrait of Minnie Minton Middaugh Paterno

Page 95: “Hail Guest! We ask not what thous art. If friend, we greet thee hand and heart; If stranger, such no longer be; If foe, our love will conquer thee.” (This page does not appear in the PC version.)

The pages below appear only in the Paterno Castle (PC) version of the book:

Transcription: SALUTE! To grace the Hudson’s lofty heights, Paterno Castle stands – The charming symbol of delights, Which crown successful hands. Here luxury and art commune, The pool invites the fair, Rare flowers waft their rich perfume, Sweet music fills the air. As Castle glows with light and life, And feast and joy hold sway, We toast our host and his sweet wife, This silver wedding day. As years roll on, as they surely will, And silver days have sped, May peace and love still bless this hill, Through golden days ahead! – Charles T. Lark – To Doctor and Mrs. Charles V. Paterno, Castle Paterno, New York City, December 23rd, 1931. [Note: a large party was held for Charles and Minnie Paterno at the Castle on their 25th wedding anniversary.]

The photos below are to demonstrate the size of the Paterno Castle brag book:

The Paterno also commissioned a brag book for their country estate, Windmill Farm, which you are welcome to view HERE.

When: 8:45pm on Monday, 4 June 1945

Where: A richly-appointed six-room suite on the 7th floor – apartment #705 – in the 12-story Marguery hotel-apartment building at 270 Park Avenue built in 1917 by Dr. Charles V. Paterno and his Vanderbilt Realty Corporation

The Players

Marion Mayer Grimes Langford (age 55 according to her; age 70 according to reporters) – from Buffalo, NY; Albert’s wife of three years; daughter of public utility magnate Joseph B. Mayer; frequenter of clubs and casinos and hostess of illegal late-night card games; widow of lawyer Robert Harry Grimes; patroness of the arts; resident of The Marguery for eight years

Albert E. Langford (age 63) – From Brooklyn, NY; Marion’s husband of three years; textile, leather, and luggage executive at Conlin & Smith

Wendy – Marion’s black Pekingese

Edison Cable – career criminal with 2 felony convictions and 20 arrests

The Situation

On the evening of 4 June 1945 as Marion and Albert lounged in the bedroom reading, Wendy growled at a secondary service door of apartment #705 to which Albert went to investigate. Two short, dark men (according to eyewitness elevator operator) said they wished to speak with Marion about a mutual friend to which she refused. Upon returning to the door from the bedroom with her answer, the two men shot and killed Albert and then escaped down the stairwell and out into the central courtyard.

After the murder, sixty to eighty people – associates, friends, entertainers, dubious business partners, socialites, night clubbers, matchmakers, and other colorful characters – were interviewed and interrogated to no avail. This roster is as much a part of the story as the actual murder.

Theories

1. Extortion – the killers were after Marion’s money
2. Thievery – the killers were after Marion’s jewels and artwork
3. Murder for Hire – the killers were paid by Marion to eliminate Albert in order to free her up

Aftermath

On 2 July 1946 Marion married her new husband Walter von Elvers, a young dentist.

In April 1950, it was alleged that Cable (age 44) hired two crooks to steal Marion’s jewels. When they shot Albert, who they didn’t anticipate encountering, Cable sped off in the getaway car without them. The crooks sought revenge on Cable who in turn confessed to a burglary charge so that he could be tucked away “safely” in Sing Sing prison.

In 1957 the Hotel Marguery was demolished.

Cable died in 1969 without ever naming his accomplices in fear that he would be accused of murdering Albert E. Langford.

Articles Researched

JUSTICE STORY: Mystery of NYC’s Hotel Marguery murder baffled cops for years NY Daily News JUN 28, 2020

LANGFORD MURDER STILL A MYSTERY NYT June 6, 1945

‘FINGER MAN’ NAMED IN LANGFORD MURDER NYT April 21, 1950

Edison Cable charged with murder of Albert E Langford The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 21 Apr 1950 pg 3

Murder at the Hotel Marguery (Part 1) (Part 2)

The Hotel Marguery Mystery

The Lost Hotel Marguery — No. 270 Park Avenue