Author: Carla

Helen Laura Ritzmann (14 Aug 1911 – 22 May 1988) and Carlo Middaugh Paterno (23 Nov 1907 – 11 Dec 1995) were my maternal grandparents. Helen was adopted by her step-father Salvatore Albert Cotillo (19 Nov 1886 – 27 Jul 1939) when she was approximately 18 years of age. Helen’s mother Ida Sophia Berthold (15 May 1894 – 8 Jun 1977) married Judge Cotillo sometime between 1915 (divorce from first husband John Herbert Ritzmann) and 1929 when Helen was 18 years old and adopted. At this writing I do not have evidence of their recorded marriage.

“Helen Berthold Cotillo and Carlo Middaugh Paterno became engaged on her birthday of August 14, 1934. We married on my birthday on November 23, 1934. Her age was 23 and mine was 27.

Judge Cotillo performed a civil ceremony in his home [at 1172 Park Avenue] because of his great desire to do so. The formal Catholic service was held at the Castle in the evening.

The famous operatic diva, Rosa Ponselle, sang at our wedding. Ring bearer was the son of James A. Farley who was Postmaster General in the presidential cabinet of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Postmaster General and his wife, Bess, were close friends of the Cotillos.

Our honeymoon night was spent in the Tower of the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria at 49th and Park Avenue. It was Glenn Lybarger, my boyhood mentor-confidante, who chauffeured us into the city prior to the honeymoon cruise.

Next day from wedding night in the Waldorf Towers, Helen and I embarked on the Grace Line’s Santa Rose for the long cruise from New York via the Panama Canal to the Pacific and up to Los Angeles. Here we took the ocean liner Luraline to Honolulu for a great time there. Our honeymoon was a half-year of newly married bliss.” Carlo M. Paterno in his book My Family page 53

Helen B. Cotillo to Wed in Autumn – Troth to Carlo M. Paterno to Be Made Public Formally at Birthday Luncheon – Parent Will Be Hosts – Prospective Bride Graduate of the New Rochelle, Castle and Finch Schools • Sunday, August 12, 1934

Supreme Court Justice and Mrs. Salvatore A. Cotillo will give a luncheon on Tuesday at the Westchester Court Club to celebrate the birthday of their daughter, Miss Helen Berthold Cotillo, and at the same time to announce formally her engagement to Carlo M. Paterno, son of Dr. and Mrs. Charles V. Paterno of this city and Mount Kisco, NY. Only close friends of both families will attend the luncheon.

Miss Cotillo attended the New Rochelle, Castle and Finch Schools. She is interested in social service work and finds recreation in horseback riding, swimming and golfing.

Mr. Paterno attended the Riverside Country and Milford Schools, and was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale in 1930. He is a member of the Phi Gamma Delta and Vernon Hall, and a junior member of the Westchester Country Club. He is an expert horseman and golfer.

He is manager of the real estate holdings of his father , the well-known builder. Young Mr. Paterno is president of the 335 West One Hundred and First Street Corporation and vice president of the Karlopat Realty Corporation.

The marriage will take place in the Autumn.

The Evening Star, Washington, D. C. • Wednesday, August 15, 1934

Mrs. James A. Farley, wife of the Postmaster General, was the ranking guest at luncheon yesterday of Supreme Court Justice of New York and Mrs. Salvatore A. Cotillo, who entertained at the Westchester Country Club. The party was in celebration of the birthday anniversary of Miss Helen Berthold Cotillo, daughter of the hosts, and also to formally announce her engagement to Mr. Carlo M. Paterno, son of Dr. and Mrs. Charles V. Paterno of New York and Mount Kisco. Among others at the luncheon were Mr. Charles (Minnie) Paterno, Signora Grossardi, wife of the Italian consul general in New York; Mrs. Howard Chandler Christy and Miss Rosa Ponselle.

Luncheon Honors Helen B. Cotillo – Mrs. James A. Farley Hostess to Prospective Bride of Carlo M. Paterno • November 9, 1934

Mrs. James A. Farley gave a luncheon yesterday at the Central Park Casino for Miss Helen B. Cotillo, daughter of Supreme Court Justice and Mrs. Salvatore A. Cotillo, who marriage to Carlo M. Paterno will take place on Nov. 23 at Paterno Castle. The other guests were: Mrs. Cotillo, Mrs. Charles Paterno, Mrs. Thomas Sheridan, Mrs. John Dietz, Mrs. Harry Conay, Mr.s Howard Chandler Christy, Mrs. Gene Pope, Mrs. Henry Hughes, Mrs. Edward McDermott, Mrs. Daniel H. McKitterick, Mrs. James A. Foley, Mrs. Michael Delehanty, Mrs. Albert Frankenthaler, Mrs. C. Russell Feldman, Mrs. Frank Cooper, Mrs. Isadore Wasservogel, Miss Beth Leary and Miss Rosa Ponselle of the Metropolitan Opera Company.

Miss Cotillo Wed to C. M. Paterno – Daughter of Supreme Court Justice Married at Castle Overlooking Hudson – Ponselle Sisters Sing – Member of Bench, Bar, Congress and President’ Cabinet Are Among Notables Present • November 24, 1934

One of the largest weddings of the late Autumn season was that of Miss Helen Berthold Cotillo, elder daughter of Supreme Court Justice and Mrs. Salvatore A. Cotillo, to Carlo Middaugh Paterno, only son of Dr. and Mrs. Charles V. Paterno, which took place last night at The Castle, the medieval residence of the Paternos overlooking the Hudson, almost within a stone’s throw of the George Washington Bridge.

The ceremony took place in the large conservatory, which had been transformed into an outdoor garden by means of silver birch trees and tropical and subtropical plants. There was a temporary altar at one end of the room, arranged against a background of the birch trees and flanked by seven-branched cathedral candelabras, the lighted tapers casting a soft glow during the ceremony, performed by the Right Rev. Mgr. Alphonsus Arcese, who was assisted by the Rev. Salvatrore Cafiero. During the service Rosa Ponselle of the Metropolitan Opera Company sang “Oh, Promise Me.”

Miss Carmela Ponselle, also of the Metropolitan Opera Company, sang the wedding march from “Lohengrin” as the bridal party made its way from the hallway through the conservatory to the altar. The procession was led by two flower girls, Sally Cotillo [Sarah Leticia Campbell Cotillo], sister of the bride, and Ruth Brown, grand-neice of Mrs. Paterno. [Correction: Ruth Brown was the granddaughter of Minnie Minton Middaugh Brown Paterno. Ruth’s father was Lyndon Middaugh Brown, son of Minnie and her first husband Rufus Lincoln Brown.] Then came a page, James A. Farley Jr., son of Postmaster General and Mrs. James A. Farley; the bride’s mother, who was matron of honor, and the bridge, who was escorted by her father to the altar, where she was joined by the bridegroom and his cousin, Boyd Brown, the best man.

The Bridal Costume

The bride wore an empire gown of white chiffon velvet, made with long, fitted sleeves and a full court train, rounded at the end. The gown was embellished with a dropped yoke of point lace. Her veil was of old rose point lace, and had been worn by the bridegroom’s mother at her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary [in 1931]. She carried a bouquet of white cattleya and butterfly orchids and pansies.

The flower girls wore Grecian frocks of pale pink velvet, with caps of the same material, trimmed with forget-me-nots and sweetheart roses, and carried colonial bouquets of the same flowers. The page was in a black velvet Eton suit. Mrs. Cotillo, the bride’s mother, wore a costume of white Florentine lace, embroidered in silver thread, and carried butterfly orchids in pastel shades.

After the ceremony the bridal couple received the congratulations of relatives and friends in the ballroom. They were assisted by the bride’s mother and Mrs. Paterno, the latter of whole wore a gown of silver cloth appliquéd in seed pearls and a corsage of white and purple orchids. Later there was dancing. A buffet supper was served by Sherry in the conservatory. The entire Paterno residence was thrown open for the festivities.

Official of the United States and Italian Governments, judges of various courts, members of the bar and other outstanding persons were invited to the wedding. Many of those unable to attend sent telegrams of congratulations, including Augusto Rosso, the Italian Ambassador, and Governor and Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman.

The Guests

Among those who accepted invitations were: Commendatore Nobile Antonio Grossari, Italian Consul General at New York, and Mrs. Grossari; Dr. Pierre Pasquale Spinelli, Deputy Consul, and Mrs. Spinelli; Postmaster General and Mrs. James A. Farley, former Governor and Mrs. Alfred E. Smith, former Ambassador James W. Gerard and Mrs. Gerard, Secretary of State Edward J. Flynn of New York and Mrs. Flynn, State Senator and Mrs. John J. Dunnigan, Judge and Mrs. George Murray Hulbert, Judge and Mrs. John C. Knox, Judge and Mrs. Martin T. Manton, Judge Edward R. Finch of the Court of Appeals and Mrs. Finch, Justice and Mrs. Edward J. Glennon, Justice and Mrs. Francis Martin, Justice and Mrs. James O’Malley, Justice and Mrs. Alfred H. Townley, Justice and Mrs. Irwin Untermyer, Justice William Harman Black, Justice and Mrs. Joseph M. Callahan, Justice and Mrs. John F. Carew, Justice and Mrs. Albert Cohn, Justice and Mrs. William T. Collins, Justice Edward S. Dore, Justice and Mrs. Alfred Frankenthaler, Justice and Mrs. Ernest E. L. Hammer, Justice Samuel H. Hofstadter, Justice Edward R. Koch, Justice and Mrs. Edgar J. Lauer, Justice and Mrs. Timothy A. Leary, Justice and Mrs. Aaron J. Levy, Justice Richard P. Lydon, Justice and Mrs. Philip J. McCook, Justice and Mrs. John E. McGeehan, Justice and Mrs. Edward J. McGoldrick, Justice and Mrs. Charles B. McLaughlin, Justice and Mrs. Julius Miller, Justice and Mrs. Kenneth O’Brien, Justice and Mrs. Samuel I. Rosenman, Justice and Mrs. Peter Schmuck, Justice Bernard L. Shientag, Justice and Mrs. Aron Steuer, Justice and Mrs. Louis A. Valenta, Justice and Mrs. John L. Walsh, Justice and Mrs. Isidor Wasservogel, Justice and Mrs. Charles C. Lockwood, Justice and Mrs. John H. McCooey, Surrogate and Mrs. James A. Delehanty and Surrogate and Mrs. James A. Foley.

Others were Representative and Mrs. Joseph A. Gavagan, Representative and Mrs. Martin J. Kennedy and Representative and Mrs. Vito Marcantonio, Public Welfare Commissioner Edward Corsi and Mrs. Corsi, Dr. Charles Amoroso, Deputy Commissioner of Correction and Mrs. Amoroso, Assistant Attorney General William J. Mahon, Controller-elect Frank J. Taylor and Mrs. Taylor, President Bernard S. Deutsch of the Board of Aldermen and Mrs. Deutsch, Borough President Samuel Levy of Manhattan and Mrs. Levy, District Attorney and Mrs. William Copeland Dodge, Commissioner of Public Works H. Warren Hubbard and Mrs. Hubbard, James J. Dooling, Frank Kelley, State Senator Thomas I. Sheridan and Mrs. Sheridan, former Sheriff John E. Sheehy and Mrs. Sheehy, Water Supply Commissioner John J. Dietz and Mrs. Dietz, Commissioner and Mrs. Edward P. Mulrooney, former Mayor and Mrs. John P. O’Brien, former Surrogate and Mrs. John P. Cohalan, George J. Ryan, president of the Board of Education, and Mrs. Ryan, Dr. and Mrs. Angelo Patri, Assistant District Attorney Felix Benvenga, Chief Magistrate James C. McDonald, Magistrate and Mrs. Thomas I. Aurelio, Judge and Mrs. Joseph F. Caponigri, Judge and Mrs. Morris Eder and Judge and Mrs. Myron Sulzberger.

Also Agnostino De Biasi, Italo Falbo, Marcello Girosi, Francesco Macaluso, Mr. and Mrs. Generosa Pope, Louis Wiley, Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Burkan, Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Boston, Captain and Mrs. Irving L. Evans, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Goodstein, Dr. Joseph Kahn, Mr. and Mrs. George Z. Medalie, Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand I. Pecora, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd P. Stryker, Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Taft, Mr. and Mrs. George W. Whiteside, Assemblyman and Mrs. Salvatore Farenga, Mr. and Mrs. Lucius Boomer, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Chandler Christy, Baron and Baroness Bernardino Gailuppi, Mr. and Mrs. Henry V. Allien, Mrs. and Mrs. Michael J. Delehanty, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gerli, George Burling Prince and Dr. and Mrs. Martin Stein.

December 10th – Dear Judge and Mother, It was a grand surprise to hear your voices last night. It sort of made me feel that everything was alright. I do hope Sally is feeling better by now. Well Judge I’m afraid I don’t win my bet about Helen packing…

… my pants but she has tried very hard and is handling everything very well. You should see Helen checking over my laundry when she sends it out and when it returns. Now that’s a pretty good start. Of course I’ll admit it’s a hard job to get Helen to write. Helen’s excuse is that I keep her busy day and night…

… The trip on the Santa Elena was really most enjoyable and the various ports and cities that we visited were very interesting and great fun to see. Today we lunched at the Brown Derby the drove through Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. Tomorrow we are planning to visit some fo the studios….

… Helen has been grand and has put up with all my peculiar traits so far. Evidentially we will be married for years and years as we have started planning our golden anniversary. Much love to you all and again many thanks for all the cooperation in making our wedding such a success. Helen promises a long long letter tomorrow. Your son, Carlo

For Mother xxx For Judge xxx For Sally xxx For Aunt Hattie xxx For Uncle Bill xxx For Anna xxx

Darlings, That husband of mine has been at the desk for hours and I haven’t been able to write the letter I promised last night. PS – He doesn’t know how to spell any better than I do. But the worse he spells, the more I love him (if that is possible). Love to you all, xxxxxx Helen.

Michael Christopher LaBarbera (1949-) is my third cousin and is a retired Army helicopter pilot. Enjoy his Veterans Day 2020 video below.

Michael Christopher LaBarbera (1949-) is the son of Lisa Joan Paterno (1928-2007) who was the daughter of Charles Vincent Paterno (1903-unknown) who was the son of Saverio Francesco Paterno (1876-1950) who was the oldest brother of my great grandfather Dr. Charles Vincent Paterno (1878-1946).

Columbia I: Castles, Skyscrapers, and the Charles V. Paterno Library (source) by Paul Cohen
Italian Americana Vol. 8, No. 1 (FALL/WINTER 1986), pp. 9-14 (6 pages)

The massive retaining walls of Dr. Charles V. Paterno’s fortress-like residence can still be seen on Riverside Drive between 181st and 186th Streets. There on the bluffs above the Hudson River, the Paterno family lived from 1907 to 1938 like feudal lords with Washington Heights below as though it were their fief. Seeing the turrets and tower in the distance, one might have thought the home, which rose from masonry walls 25 feet thick at the base, resembled a medieval castle on the Rhine. The white marble interior included an enormous swimming pool surrounded by bird cages, as well as an organ with 3,097 pipes (intended to be played by three people and valued during the depression at $60,000).

This singular structure was actually one of the more modest buildings erected by Charles Paterno who as a boy dreamed of dwelling in a castle along the Hudson. Soon after completing “The Castle” in 1907, he went on to build New York’s first elevator apartment. Then, in 1914, he began work on the largest apartment building in the world. “The Marguery” at Park Avenue and 47th Street, which he could not finish until 1919 because of shortages during the war. Paterno astonished New Yorkers in 1927 by proclaiming that he would next construct the tallest building in the world. The plan, which eventually had to be abandoned, called for a 90-story apartment tower in Bergen, New Jersey: it would have been 100 feet higher than the Eiffel Tower, then the world’s tallest structure.

Dr. Paterno, a small, dapper man who wore a precise, narrow goatee and a daintily curled mustache, was call the “Napoleon of the Manhattan Skyscraper Builder” by the newspapermen who delighted in his grandiose announcements. The son of a builder, Paterno was born in Castelmezzano, Italy in 1878. He came to New York in 1883 after an earthquake collapsed a block of houses his father had just completed in Naples, ruining the family financially. [CARLA’S CORRECTION: Father Giovanni “John” Paterno departed Castelmezzano alone in 1880 for New York City. His wife and first four children followed in 1885.] Charles’ first ambition was to become a doctor; he was graduated from Cornell Medical School in 1899 and was on the verge of beginning a medical practice that year when his father suddenly died. At the time of the death, John Paterno had been engaged in constructing an apartment building on 112th Street near the Cathedral, and Charles and his elder brother Joseph [CORRECTION: Charles is older and was born in 1878. Joseph was born in 1881.] were obligated to finish their father’s half-built apartments.

Paterno Brothers, the name of the firm they later formed, soon found itself constructing larger and larger apartments throughout the Morningside Heights area, and many of the most distinctive apartment buildings along Morningside Park and especially Riverside Drive were built by them. Columbia University, then in the midst of building its new campus, was creating lucrative opportunities for ambitious builders like Charles Paterno. As a result of his success, he was soon making too much money to return to medicine.

The Paterno family’s participating in the development of the University community led to their involvement in the establishment of Casa Italiana. In 1925, when serious planning of this Italo-American project began, Charles’ brother Joseph became one of the chief fund raisers. And when Paterno Brothers began construction of the McKim, Mead & White building in 1926, Joseph Paterno personally oversaw the work from start to finish.

Joseph Paterno interrupted his supervision at least once, however, when he accompanied President [of Columbia University] Nicholas Murray Butler to Italy in 1927 where they were lavishly entertained by Benito Mussolini. The Italian premier expressed great enthusiasm for the Casa Italiana and gave his visitors a magnificent party at the Villa d’Este outside of Rome. He opened the gates of the Villa for the first time in forty years and had its hundred of fountains turned on to honor his guests from Columbia University. Joseph Paterno and Nicholas Murray Butler each triumphantly returned to New York with inscribed photographs of Il Duce; the photograph to Joseph read: “A Guiseppe Paterno, della buona razza Italian” (To Joseph Paterno, of the best Italian stock), quite a prize for an immigrant Italian who had been selling newspapers on the streets of New York not too many years before.

Dr. Charles Paterno, unlike his brother, did not take an active role in the construction of Casa Italiana, but in 1925 he made a pledge in an undetermined amount to purchase books for a library which would bear his name; it would occupy one floor of the new building and consist of about 10,000 volumes. With money promised, representatives of the Casa had gone to Italy in the summer of 1925 on their first book-buying mission. After a warm reception from Mussolini, they talked with Ciro Trabalza, the Director General of Italian Schools abroad, who offered to help them assemble a nucleus of Italian books for the library. Also that summer, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, Minister of Finance, made a gift of some of the first books for the collection. Soon thereafter, Charles Paterno decided that his gift would be in the amount of $15,000 and the offer was quickly accepted.

Books started arriving from Italy even before the building was dedicated on Columbus Day, 1927, coming slowly at first but by 1928 some 3,000 had already arrived and about 3,000 more were on order. Many were coming as gifts but most had been ordered with Paterno’s money by Professor John Gerig of the Italian department. In 1930 the books were arriving at an alarming rate. According to Charles Paterno, “There are five or six thousand or more volumes that should be placed on the shelves which are now in boxes, unpacked and unbound and several thousand still to arrive and there is no place to put them.”

The shortage of space, always a problem at the Charles V. Paterno Library, became apparent during its first years of existences, and even Paterno complained to President Butler about that problem in 1930: “I have criticized those who are responsible [for he purchase of books] because I did not wish to have them order any more books than the number that would be required to fill the shelves available in the present Paterno Library.” As the donor of the library, he proposed adding another floor of the building to accomodate the swelling quantity of books he was paying for, but the new director of the Casa, Giuseppe Prezzolini, discouraged that plan, fearing that the library would soon swallow up the Casa if allowed to expand. He argued that the library should be “an implement of the Casa Italiana and not the Casa an implement of the Library.”

The director recommended another solution, one wich would reduce the number of incoming books and narrow the scope of acquisitions. He suggested that Dr. Paterno make his library “a center of information on contemporary Italy (1860 to the present day).” It would then become, in addition to its value for students of Italian literature and history, “a center which would also attract men of politics and business who wished to study and understand contemporary Italy.” Prezzolini’s motives in wanting the collection more political than literary and more contemporary than historical had to do with his own interests in politics which had won him the friendship of Benito Mussolini and led him to the conclusion that “Facism is the best [form of government] Italy could have under the circumstances.”

Prezzolini’s views were not generally shared by people outside of the Casa Italiana, and his political activities often got him into trouble. In the early 1930’s charges were made that the Casa had become a propaganda center, and after The Nation ran a series of articles on “Fascism at Columbia” in 1934, Prezzolini was picketed by Columbia students. “At Columbia University’s Casa Italiana,” one recent historian has written, “Fascism found a vertiable home in America.” Undoubetedly Prezzolini wanted to give the Paterno Library a direction which would serve, among others, those especially interested in learning a great deal about Mussolini.

In fact, Prezzolini had befriended Mussolini in 1905, written a book on him in 1924, and, while serving as Director of the Casa Italiana, kept Mussolini informed about the activities here. “I am following with interest the work done by the Casa Italiana of Columbia University,” Mussolini wrote to Prezzolini shortly after the Italian government had sent a sum of money to the Casa in 1934, “and I am pleased with what is being accomplished in favor of our culture.” Prezzolini forwarded this letter to Dr. Butler, along with a letter of his own, “I thank you cordially for your letter,” replied Butler, “with its charming message from Mussolini. It is pleasant indeed to know that he is following our work and appreciates it.” The Columbia President went on, perhaps recollecting Il Duce’s splendid party at the Villa d’Este, “I hope sometime to get back to Italy, in which case I should wish to of course to pay my respects to him at once.”

Charles Paterno does not seem to have gotten involved in this political fuss which centered on the Casa Italiana, but his brother Joseph once wrote to President Butler expressing his displeasure when he learned that Count Carlo Sforza, the famous anti-Fascist and exile, had been invited to speak at the Casa. During the years when the Casa Italiana was being attacked in the press, Paterno Library was actually singled out as an oasis in the Casa free of Fascist influence. Even though Prezzolini was the referring to the Paterno Library as “the heart of the Casa Italiana,” the authors of “An Academic Scandal at Columbia,” The Nation, 1934, forlornly pointed out that “all the splended resources” of the Casa Italiana have been, “with the exception of the Paterno Library which is part of the university library system, exclusively controlled by the fascist group.”

In the midst of the political scandal, Charles Paterno continued to give money to his library, even though the depression had stripped him of a dozen buildings and million of dollars; during the deepest years of the great depression, his contributions sometimes only amounted to a few hundred dollars to be used for binding. By 1936, however, the library had grown to the point where it was being called “The finest collection of Italian books outside of Italy,” and Charles Paterno was well on his way to recovering his real estate fortune. In 1937, he and his son Carlo established the endowment fund of $30,000 which has provided the source for purchasing books ever since.

And in the late 1930’s, Charles’ creative mind was once again coming up with sensational building projects. In 1938, he demolished his wonderful castle to make way for a spectacular group of five 14-story apartment towers, each one in cruciform shape. Called Castle Village, the 600-suite complex, which featured New York’s first ramp garage, was dedicated in 1939 by Mayor La Guardia who praised it builder for creating “this magnificent housing unit, which will afford the sunshine, scenery and comforts of a millionaire’s living quarters to those without a millionaire’s income.”

To replace “The Castle,” in 1938 Paterno built himself a 26 room Chateau on the highest point of land between New York and Boston. Considered one of the costliest residences ever constructed in Greenwich, Connecticut, “Chateau Lafayette” was a mixture of pre-Renaissance Anglican and French styles of architecture. Paterno divided his time between this new home and a 1,700 acre estate called Windmill Manor, located in North Castle, New York. He had purchased the estate in 1922 and that year had planted 1,500,000 pine and cedar trees on which he hoped to do grafting experiments with the aim of producing a perfect Christmas tree. Quantities of these trees were sold each year at enormous profits until they grew too large to be marketable. Because of Paterno’s love of Christmas, another one of this ambitions was to train four of the 25 deer which roamed about Windmill Manor so that one snowy Christmas Eve they might be hitched to a sleigh and, with Dr. Paterno at the helm, driven down 5th Avenue.

He died before the deer could be properly domesticated and without having improved the Christmas tree to perfection. On May 30, 1946, while playing golf with his brother-in-law [Anthony Campagna] at the Westchester Country Club, Paterno had a heart attack at the Xth [tenth] hole. He left two enormous unfinished projects. He had hoped to build “the finest cemetery east of Los Angeles” in Armonk, New York, a $4,000,000 memorial park which would employ 300 men and provide facilities for baptisms and marriages as well as burials. But the horrified residents of Armonk had been giving him as many zoning problems that Paterno had withdrawn his application shortly before his death. His other plan, the conversion of Windmill Manor into a sportsman’s paradise, was moving along more smoothly. Two-and-a-half golf courses had already been built; artificial lakes were being formed (one had been stocked with 50,000 brown and speckled trout); magnificent bridle paths had been created by rearranging the remaining pine and cedar trees; and runways had been laid. The special feature of this club was to be blimp taxi service to and from Manhattan with a ship departing from each end every fifteen minutes and a landing field somewhere near 50th Street.

Dr. Paterno’s endowment continues to serve the Paterno Library and almost all of the acquisitions for the Library to this day come from that fund. The Library, which now has about 20,000 volumes, still occupies its original cramped quarters on the fourth floor of the Casa Italiana. From time to time books have had to be transferred to Butler Library to make room for new acquisitions. In 1972, the largest of these moves occurred when all of the Italian history books (about 5,000 volumes) were removed from the Paterno shelves; the emphasis of the remaining collection is literature. Robert Connolly, who has been in charge there since 1962, thinks the Charles V. Paterno Library is still “one of the largest libraries of Italian books outside Italy.”

EXTERNAL LINKS:

The Fascist Building in Upper Manhattan – The Casa Italiana has a complicated history on Columbia University’s campus. By Caroline Wazer May 2, 2016

A Portrait of Carlo [Charles Vincent] Paterno by Giuseppe Prezzolini, Head of Casa Italia at Columbia University 1955

Joseph Paterno (21 April 1881 Castelmezzano, Italy – 13 June 1939 Manhattan, NY, USA)

Newsboy’s Dreams Become Realities • The Sun • Sunday, September 29, 1912 (source)

Joseph Paterno, Starting With Nothing, the Creator at 31 of Flat Houses Assessed at $22,000,00

“Papa, why do they make the building so high?”

A poor little Italian newsboy stood shivering at his post in Park row one raw, gusty day late in November in 1889. He looked sharply at his father as he asked the question. Across Park row a derrick on the topmost steel girders of a new building was just hoisting a huge block of stone into place.

The elder Italian buttoned his overcoat more tightly about him.

“Because it pays, my son,” he explained. “The higher they make the building the more rent it brings in to the owner. That is the American way. It would not do in Naples, where I was a building contractor before you were born.”

The bright eyed lad pocketed a coin from a cutomer. Then he wrinkled his brow and frowned.

“But, papa,” he protested, “if that is so why don’t they make the houses and the tenements high too, so they will bring in more rent?”

The father smiled sadly.

“You have an eye for business, I see, my son,” he said, patting the matted curls of the youthful newsboy. “Perhaps some day when you are a grown man you may build some high houses and then we shall see.”

A decade and more was to pass before the shivering little newsboy, whose father four years before had come to America a broken spirited foreigner, was to take the first steps in the realization of the idea first conceived on that wintry afternoon of November 1889. But never during that time was the determination to carry into execution his youthful dream put aside for something which seemed to promise greater returns. And like every man who has an idea combined with the proper amount of sticktoitiveness the little Italian newsboy arrived.

Today in his luxuriously furnished private office in one of his latest build apartments just off Riverside Drive the former newsboy can show you pictures of forty-two skyscraper apartment houses built by him whose total value is computed in the tax list of the city of New York at $22,000,000 and whose actual value in the real estate market is estimated at from four to five million more. This, briefly, is the story of Joseph Paterno. You have heard of the Paterno apartments? You have seen the Coliseum [sic]? If you live on Morningside Heights you may be reading this in one of the apartment houses that Joseph Paterno erected.

Don’t think, however, that the newsboy of the 1889 bounded at once into his millions. Only in the pages of Horatio Alger do newsboys do such things. The early 90’s found him working afternoons in a dentist’s office. Then there came an end to school days. He found that he couldn’t attend school in the morning and work until late at night helping the dentist to make artificial teeth. In order that he might keep his health and still earn his share of the household expenses of a family of ten he gave up school.

Then through his father came his first opportunity. Back in Naples the elder Paterno had been in the building business. Fortune had smiled upon him for a few years, but an unfortunate contract on a public building in Castelmezzano near Naples, which was all but finished when an earthquake shook the city and destroyed Paterno’s work of a year, ruined the gray haired contractor and first turned his eye toward America.

One Sunday morning John Paterno took Joseph to mass in a little Italian church. There the elder man met “Signor” McIntosh, a well to do Irish American building contractor. An acquaintance sprang up, and from it resulted the partnership of McIntosh & Paterno. The combination of the man from southern Europe and the son of Bonnie Scot – and proved a happy one. The firm put up its first building at 151 West 106th street. So favorably did the work of the partnership impress the corporation for which the building was erected that contracts for four more buildings were given the firm of McIntosh & Paterno. Then John Paterno took sick and began to pine for a sight of the vineyards of his native Naples before he died.

“Joe,” said the old man, as he was being helped aboard ship to sail for a last glimpse of his native land. “I have left you a fair start. You have worked by my side and proved yourself a good boy and a hard worker. I don’t think I’ll ever come back to America again, my son, and so I take this last opportunity to speak to you.

“Do you remember that cold winter afternoon about ten years ago when we were fours years in the country – one afternoon down on Park row – when you asked me why they didn’t build high houses and tenements? Well, my son, your childish suggestion has recurred to me often. It was a child’s idea, but nevertheless a good one, and my advice to you now is: Take up where I have left off; pick out a good neighborhood, one that has a future, and no matter whether you have to beg or borrow the money build, build, build.

John Paterno died and is buried in a little cemetery in the suburbs of Naples. Over his grave is a handsome marble tomb built by his son. The wild grapes twine around the cross over the tomb and Neapolitans point to it with pride.

Joseph Paterno found it hard sledding at first. He had not his father’s experience; he was young. In stature he was not perhaps so impressive as some of the burly contractors of the period. But one thing he could do: he could work. Any one who enters his office today senses the spirit of the man the moment he hears the clicking typewriters. Each clerk seems imbued with a feverish spirit which brooks no delay. The place fairly breathes energy. The visitor feels as if he too should get up, rush to a telephone, close contracts, bang a typewriter, jump through the window – anything just so he may be doing something.

Another thing. He found in the early years that those Park row days had not been without their lessons. Human nature, faces – they were as open books to the young Italian. It is said of Paterno that never since he put up the first of his forty-two apartment houses has he ever been cheated on even so much as a contract for brass tacks.

The first step young Paterno took in the carrying out of his ambition was to select the neighborhood in which he should put up his first apartment. In the late 90’s Morningside Heights was the scene of four great building projects. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine had been started, Grant’s Tomb had assumed shape, Columbia University and a half dozen modern dormitories and halls were being rushed to completion, St. Luke’s Hospital promised soon to be a reality.

That was enough for young Paterno. Telegraphing to his brother, Dr. Charles V. Paterno, who was just taking his degree at Cornell, to come to New York at once. Joseph Paterno put the proposition of a partnership up to him in very few words. The young medical student at first thought his brother had gone mad when he suggested a ten, fifteen or if possible a twenty story apartment house for the Heights. Finally Joseph’s enthusiasm carried the conservative brother off his feet. Both young men scurried about town trying to raise every dollar they could get to put into the fraternal partnership.

Now what to do? Joseph looked about him for an angel, a backer. And while doing so the enthusiastic young contractor came into contact with his first good sized bucket of cold water.

“A ten story building away up there in the woods?” repeated one downtown real estate operator. “Pooh! Come down to earth, young man. Why, there isn’t a real estate plunger of the most reckless type in this city whom you could get to back you in such a harebrained scheme as that.

“You’re a visionary – like all the rest of your Latin race. Now, young man, you’ve got a good head on your shoulders as your father had before you, and once you have the rough edges shaved off you’ll make an excellent business man. Tell you what I’ll do with you. Put up a block and a half of six story buildings on the Heights and I’ll back you.

“If I do say it mayself, I’m making you an offer you won’t get in many a moon for there isn’t another man downtown here who’d take a chance on building up there for ten years yet. What do you say? Will you put me up five story apartments or not?”

Young Paterno considered. It was true; he might not get such financial backing for some time again; he had been the round; and then, too, it would only be putting off his boyhood dream for a few years at the most.

“You’re on,” he said. “I formally accept your offer. But remember this, sir, before twenty years have passed you will be tearing down your five story apartments to put eighteen and twenty story buildings in their places.”

“You will have your dreams, won’t you, son? Well, go ahead. Let’s see what you can do.”

With what Paterno did do every real estate man in New York is familiar. The block and a half of six story apartments on Morningside Avenue West are today a paying investment, but hardly anything more. The man who furnished young Paterno with the money to build them has admitted time and time again his regret that he did not put in a substructure capable of sustaining five or ten more stories or that provision had not been made in the first place for more elevators, etc.

One of young Paterno’s first buildings was the San Marino, at 509 West 112th street, near the new Cathedral of St. John the Divine. When the San Marino was built there was no subway tapping the Heights, the 110th street elevated station had not been erected; even the street car service was poor. The San Marino paid, however, and with its six stories it was one story nearer young Paterno’s ideal.

There followed a host of apartments of similar size, which young Paterno erected in such rapid succession that he could hardly keep tab on his own success. And then, in 1904, with the signing of a sheet of foolscap came the realization of the dream. In that year Joseph Paterno signed a contract to erect the Broadview, a ten story building at 616 and 620 West 116th street.

[CARLA’S CORRECTION: The 1907 12-story Broadview is located at 606 West 116th Street. The building at 616 West 116th Street is the 1906 10-story Altora Residence Club and the building at 620 West 116th Street is the 1906 10-story Porter Arms.]

The realization of the boyhood dream on Park row was at hand. Paterno ordered his first carload of steel with an exuberant air of a child placing the crowning pyramid on his house of building blocks. Proud? That he was. Pleased? As pleased as Punch.

And once Paterno started the ball rolling how the other real estate operators who had trailed him in his success on the Heights fell all over themselves in their efforts to keep pace with the latest skyscraper apartment idea! Paterno, with a twinkle in his eye, saw them and went them one better in the Paterno and the Coliseum [sic], which he rushed to completion.

To celebrate his thrity-first birthday young Paterno – he will always be “young” among the real estate men – gave a party the other night in his twelve story block of apartments deluxe between 115th and 116th streets. The block includes the Lexor [CORRECTION: Rexor], the Regnor, and the Luxor. A friend who attended that party gave this explanation of why Paterno had succeeded where others have failed:

“You often have heard it said of an executive that he should turn the details of his work over to subordinates. Joe doesn’t believe in that. He has subordinates, plenty of them, but he knows every detail of their work just as well as they do themselves and he could step into their shoes at a moment’s notice. He believes that ‘If you want a thing done, do it yourself.’ is a motto that still holds good. He frequently says that if a workman sees that you notice the little thing he won’t be so apt to slight the really important ones.

“I have often smiled at Joe because of another little trait. He will never assent to a proposition at once, but generally puts it off for a day or even for forty-eight hours before he makes his decision. He believes that decisions made on the spur of the moment often come back like white cats to haunt you in your sleep. He places more confidence in the judgement of the ‘cold, gray dawn’ than he does in the snap decisions made when the lights are rosy around the dinner table and the perfume of a good cigar makes every proposition seem fair and perfectly feasible.”

In personal appearance Mr. Paterno is slightly under medium height and of swarthy complexion. He has a positive manner in talking which seems to get instant results from his clerks. He gesticulates freely and has a quick, penetrating side glance which misses nothing in the expression of his auditor’s face. He talks quite as freely while putting up a window as while pulling it down and is the only contractor operator in New York who can put on his coat, interject an order to one of his renting agents and answer a telephone call at the same time he carries on a conversation. He combines the Latin volubility with the financial shrewdness which his youth on the East Side evidently instilled deep in his nature and is reputed among those in his own line of business to be the only man in New York who can talk a woman into believing that she is positively panting after an apartment she sometimes doesn’t want.

Mr. Paterno says that his motto is “quick construction.” He keeps after his workmen so there is no lagging and buildings are finished promptly. Also he never tries to be “smarter” than the other fellow.

“All I ask for,” he says, “is a fair deal, not the best of a deal.”

I learned while reading Anthony Campagna’s Autobiography that my great grandmother Maria Carolina Trivigno (1853-1925) and his grandmother Maria Arcangela Trivigno (1839-1880) were sisters. It was only then did I realize that the Campagnas and Paternos do not just share just a long history by marriage but also by birth.

Maria Arcangela Trivigno (1839-1880) and Maria Carolina Trivigno (1853-1925) were sisters and shared several other siblings. They were daughters of Vito Canio Trivigno (1815-1898) and Maria Vittoria D’Amico (1818-1885).

Maria Arcangela Trivigno (1839-1880) married Michele Arcangelo Campagna (1830-1916) in 1857 and were the parents of Giuseppe Campagna (1857-1917) and other children.

Maria Carolina Trivigno (1853-1925) married Giovanni Mario Paterno (1851-1899) in 1872 and were the parents of Celestina Paterno (1873-1939), Maria Paterno (1886-1967), Christina Paterno (1899-1959), and seven other children.

Giuseppe Campagna (1857-1917) married Agata Maria Taddei (1862-1951) before 1884 and were the parents of Anthony Campagna (1884-1969), Michael Angelo Campagna (1895-1964), Armino Albert Campagna (1898-1985), and other children.

Anthony Campagna (1884-1969) married Maria Paterno (1886-1967) in 1909. They were second cousins once removed and spouses.

Armino Albert Campagna (1898-1985) married Christina Paterno (1899-1959) in 1923. They were second cousins once removed and spouses.

Celestina Paterno (1873-1939) married Victor Angelo Cerabone (1868-1954) and were the parents of Carolina Helene Cerabone (1900-1996) and other children.

Carolina Helene Cerabone (1900-1996) married Michael Angelo Campagna (1895-1964) in 1922. They were 2nd cousins and spouses.

The Campagnas and Paternos are related by birth and by marriage.

Additionally a sister of Maria Arcangela Trivigno (1839-1880) and Maria Carolina Trivigno (1853-1925) named Maria Giuseppina Trivigno (1862- unknown) married Michele Arcangelo Paterno (1860-1917) who was the brother of Giovanni Mario Paterno (1851-1899). So Maria Carolina Trivigno and Maria J. Giuseppina Trivigno were both sisters and sisters-in-law.

Maria Giuseppina Trivigno (1862-unknown) and Michele Arcangelo Paterno (1860-1917) were the parents of Francis S. Paterno who lived in Manhattan and was an apartment house builder like his cousins. His buildings are not included in the Paterno Family Architecture Catalog.

Maria Giuseppina Trivigno (1862-unknown) and Michele Arcangelo Paterno (1860-1917) were also the parents of Maria Celestina Paterno who married Louis Sciubba who worked with Francis S. Paterno on a project or more.

Another Trivigno sister, Maria Luigia Trivigno (1859-1942) married Domenic Pellettieri (1855-1901). Together they had a son John A. Pellettieri (1886-1945) who helped build 25 Sutton Place, 820 West End Avenue, 800 West End Avenue, and the Wellston, all with Anthony Paterno.

The building construction business was a family and extended-family enterprise!

Additionally grandson of Maria Carolina Trivigno (1853-1925) named Michael Jeremiah Paterno (1909-1992) and granddaughter of Maria Luigia Trivigno (1859-1942) named Louise M. Massari (1909-1995) were married making them second cousins and spouses.