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1912 Mentone 895 West End Avenue
NB 615-1912
West End Avenue, West 104th Street, southwest corner
12-sty apartment house, 100.11×89.11 COST:
$500,000
OWNER:
Michael E. Paterno Realty Co, 601 West 115th st
ARCHITECT:
Gaetan Ajello, 1 West 34th st
ADDRESS IN REAL ESTATE RECORD:
WEST END AV, s w cor 104th st
Located in Riverside – West End Historic District Extension II designated 23 June 2015
1950 Paterno Family (Kelley Paterno page 287)
885, 895 and 905 West End Avenue, at the corners of 103rd and 104th Streets
– designed by Gaetan Ajello 1912 to 1917
WEST END AVENUE DOCUMENTATION Survey 2008
Name: The Mentone
Address: 895 West End Avenue. Southwest corner West 104th Street
Block / Lot: 1890/61
NB Number: 615-12 Date: 1912
Original Use: Apartment House No. of units:
Stories: 12 Height: 145’
Estimated Cost: $500,000
Façade Materials: main material brick base granite lower floors limestone trim terra cotta cornice metal
Structure: steel
Original Owner: Michael E. Paterno Realty Company, 601 West 115th Street
Architect: Gaetan Ajello, 1 West 34th Street
Landmark Status: None
Comments: The Mentone is one of Gaetan Ajello’s boldest buildings on West End Avenue, with a two story limestone base, brick laid in Flemish bond, extensive white terra-cotta trim, and shallow balconies with iron railings. The two-story central entrance is crowned by a second-story round arch. The façade has a complex window arrangement with single, double, and triple openings, with the individual sash separated by pilasters. Segmental-arch lintels on the fifth and twelfth stories are emblazoned with a “P” for Paterno. The building is crowned by a deep bracketed cornice. (source)
Date: 1912
NB Number: NB 615-1912
Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Information: Block 1890, Lot 61
Type: Apartment Building
Architect: Ajello, Gaetan
Developer/Owner/Builder: Michael E. Paterno Realty Company
NYC Landmarks Designation: Historic District
Landmark Designation Report: Riverside Drive– West End Historic District Extension II
National Register Designation: N/A
Primary Style: Renaissance Revival
Primary Facade: Brick and Limestone
Stories: 12
Historic District: Riverside-West End Historic District Extension II
Decorative Metal Work: Iron balconettes
Significant Architectural Features: Tripartite composition with two-story base, nine-story middle section, and one-story capital; rusticated limestone base with granite watertable; double-height segmental-arched entrance enframement with molded pilasters, cartouche keystone, denticulated entablature, and recessed spandrel with cartouche ornament; iron-and-glass double-leaf doors with transoms; lower stories feature bracketed window sills and voussoir lintels; molded beltcourse separates base from brick-clad upper stories; third-story windows feature full limestone enframements with radiating lintels and impost blocks supporting molded beltcourse below fourth-story windows; upper-story windows with bracketed sills and radiating lintels; every other floor features alternating bays with segmental-arched molded lintels, deeply projecting sills, and iron window guards–fifth-and 12-stories with cartouche ornament; historic casement windows with transoms and divided into three sections by vertical mullions; molded beltcourse separates middle section from top story; 12th story features round-arched window openings; bracketed cornice
East Facade: Designed (historic)
Door(s): Historic primary door
Windows: Historic (upper stories); historic (basement)
Security Grilles: Not historic (upper stories); historic (basement)
Cornice: Original
Sidewalk Material(s): Concrete
Curb Material(s): Bluestone (West End Avenue); granite (West 104th Street)
North Facade: Designed (historic)
Facade Notes: Similar to West End Avenue facade
West Facade: Not designed (historic) (partially visible)
Facade Notes: Red brick side wall; regular arrangement of window openings; concrete service way and yard accessed through metal fence and gate (possibly historic)
South Facade: Not designed (historic) (partially visible)
Facade Notes: Parged brick side wall; one bay of window openings (source)
895 West End Avenue (aka 891-899 West End Avenue; 300-302 West 104th Street)
Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 1890, Lot 61
Date: 1912 (NB 615-1912)
Architect/Builder: Gaetan Ajello
Original Owner: Michael E. Paterno Realty Company
Type: Apartment building
Style: Renaissance Revival
Stories: 12
Material(s): Brick; limestone
Decorative Metal Work: Iron balconettes
Significant Architectural Features: Tripartite composition with two-story base, nine-story middle section, and one-story capital; rusticated limestone base with granite watertable; doubleheight segmental-arched entrance enframement with molded pilasters, cartouche
keystone, denticulated entablature, and recessed spandrel with cartouche ornament; ironand-glass double-leaf doors with transoms; lower stories feature bracketed window sills and voussoir lintels; molded beltcourse separates base from brick-clad upper stories;
third-story windows feature full limestone enframements with radiating lintels and impost
blocks supporting molded beltcourse below fourth-story windows; upper-story windows with bracketed sills and radiating lintels; every other floor features alternating bays with
segmental-arched molded lintels, deeply projecting sills, and iron window guards–fifthand 12-stories with cartouche ornament; historic casement windows with transoms and
divided into three sections by vertical mullions; molded beltcourse separates middle
section from top story; 12th story features round-arched window openings; bracketed
cornice
East Facade: Designed (historic)
Door(s): Historic primary door
Windows: Historic (upper stories); historic (basement)
Security Grilles: Not historic (upper stories); historic (basement)
Cornice: Original
Sidewalk Material(s): Concrete
Curb Material(s): Bluestone (West End Avenue); granite (West 104th Street)
North Facade: Designed (historic)
Facade Notes: Similar to West End Avenue facade
West Facade: Not designed (historic) (partially visible)
Facade Notes: Red brick side wall; regular arrangement of window openings; concrete service way and yard accessed through metal fence and gate (possibly historic)
South Facade: Not designed (historic) (partially visible)
Facade Notes: Parged brick side wall; one bay of window openings (source)
Both 895 and 905 West End Avenue were designed by Gaetan Ajello, as well as nearby 885 West End Avenue. Born in Sicily in 1883 and trained as an architect and engineer, he then emigrated to the U.S in 1902. Working for the Paternos and others, Ajello had a distinctive style, derived from the Renaissance palazzi of his native Italy, that is particularly evident in 885, 895 and 905 West End Avenue. All three are of creamy white glazed brick. The entrance is within a two-story high stone frame. He makes bold use of terracotta ornament around the window openings, which are often double width. The facades are further decorated with stone or metal balconettes. (In the recent renovation of 905, the deteriorated stone balconies have been replaced by fiberglass.).
Ajello’s buildings are usually easy to identify. He made a point of signing the cornerstone with “G. Ajello, Architect.” He also provided clues identifying his clients. On most of his buildings, centered directly above the entrance, is a stone cartouche with one or more initials, for example, a P for Paterno; a C for Charles Paterno; a J, M, or A for one of the other brothers.
Building heights today are controlled by zoning, but decades before New York City adopted its first zoning law in 1916, there were regulations that limited the height of residential buildings. These were embodied in the Tenement House Act which, despite its name, applied to all multifamily dwellings. In 1902 the act was amended to allow buildings of fireproof construction to rise to one and a half times the height of the street. The height
limit for West End Avenue, which is 100 feet wide, was thus 150 feet. With the ceiling heights customary at that time, a builder could erect a building of 12 or 13 stories within a rise of 150 feet. The earliest such buildings usually had 12 floors, perhaps to avoid an “unlucky” 13th floor. Note that 895 West End Avenue, completed in 1916 but designed in 1912, has 12 floors. 905 West End Avenue, designed four years later, has 13 floors. In the 1920s reduced ceiling heights, combined with construction techniques that allowed
thinner floor slabs, enabled developers to fit 15 or even 16 floors within the 150-foot limit. West End Palazzos, 905 and 895 Brought “High” Rises to the Block by Gilbert Tauber
By comparison, 895 West End Avenue, across 104th Street, has had all the luck. Its windows are original; their wooden frames have a texture that even expensive metal replacements cannot approach. In the 1990s, the firm of Walter B. Melvin Architects replaced a missing cornice with an estimable reinterpretation, using off-the-shelf brackets, but to good effect. Best of all, the first two stories are in limestone in big rusticated blocks — it’s sort of a mini-University Club — and the stone is blessedly unpainted. Bring a loupe, or even just a good pair of eyes, and peer up close at the ancient shells and other sea creatures from millions of years ago. There is a particularly scary spiderlike specimen below the second window to the left of the main entrance, and the whorls and patterns even run through the building’s cornerstone. This part of West End has many good stretches of marine sediment turned to rock. STREETSCAPES | WEST END AVENUE A Preservation Handbook in a Few Short Blocks By Christopher Gray
“This very distinguished Italian Renaissance-palazzo-style building was erected in 1917 and converted to a cooperative in 1983. It has 48 apartments and was one of three similar buildings designed by Gaetano Ajello for the Paterno Brothers (the other two being at 885 and 895). The Building has Classic sixes, Sevens and Edwardian fives .. with ceiling heights going upwards of nine feet.
The white-brick, 12-story building has a two-story rusticated limestone base with a two-story, arched entrance with a canopy flanked by globular lanterns which lead to a step-up, creamy white marble lobby that has a large and handsome stained-glass window depicting the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument forged by the legendary Louis Comfort Tiffany [not verified] embodying the artistic spirit of the Gilded Age.” StreetEasy
