The New York Times, Sunday, August 27, 1911
Joseph Paterno Says That Sixteen and Twenty Story Structures Will Soon Supplant the Twelve-Story Standard of To-Day — West Side Building Operations Have Caused Wonderful Advance in Land Values — Remarkable Contrasts in Recent Years — Tenant Prefer Floors Nearest the Sky.
That the term cliff dwellers, as applied a few years ago to New Yorkers, when the apartment house evolution began to emerge from six and seven story buildings to those of ten and twelve stories, was not ill-chosen, has been amply illustrated in the enormous increase in apartment house construction within the past three or four years. The erection of expensive twelve-story houses occupying entire half-block frontages has never been greater than in the last two or three years, and the most potent evidence of the increasing trend toward apartment house life is to be seen throughout the entire west side section.
Another fact which intensifies the cliff dwelling tendency among New Yorkers is that the higher up in the air the apartment is the higher the price which the tenants are willing to pay. The top stories of these lofty structures rent on an average from 10 to 15 per cent more than those near the ground, and they are invariably the first ones to be taken.
For the past few years the standard of high-class apartment house construction has been regarded as twelve stories. Joseph Paterno, President of the Paterno Brothers firm of builders, believes that the time has come to take a step forward in the evolution of the modern apartment house and he predicts that in less than five years New York will see one or more sixteen and perhaps twenty story apartment houses.
Sixteen-Story Apartment Coming.
Mr. Paterno intended to make this step toward higher apartment house altitudes this season. When he purchased the block from on the west side of Broadway between 115th and 116th Streets, a few days ago, he announced that two sixteen-story houses would cover the plot. Mr. Paterno has since curtailed his ambitious efforts, and he stated yesterday that his new houses would be only twelve stories in height. [Rexor 600 West 116th Street & Regnor 601 West 115th Street] The plot about to be improved is right in the heart of the Morningside Heights section, which has been so wonderfully transformed in recent years under the leadership of the Paterno brothers, for within eight years they have erected over twenty splendid houses in the vicinity and all but two have been sold to investors.
“The reasons I have abandoned my intention of putting up sixteen-story houses is to avoid the annoying delays that would be necessary to get the plans for such houses approved by the Building Department,” said Mr. Paterno yesterday. “A jump from twelve to sixteen stories is a somewhat radical departure, I will admit, but no more so than was the case a short time ago when the advance was made from seven and eight stories to twelve. But the first one to start a radical change of any sort must be prepared to encounter difficulties and delays. Every builder who was among the first to put up twelve-story houses will recall the trials and petty details in working on the problems of the perfect twelve-story house.
“I have spent several weeks with my architect in working out the plans for the projected sixteen story house and have had scores of conferences with different officials of the Building Bureau and while I am confident that everything would succeed in the end I saw that it would take too much time. I have a valuable plot to improve. It will not do to leave it vacant any longer than necessary and to save time and financial expense I have decided to put up two high class twelve story houses, the total cost of which will be about $1,250.00.”
As Mr. Paterno paid about $770,00 for the plot the investment will come up to be $2,000,000 mark when the houses are finished by the Fall of 1912. The new buildings are being designed by Gaetan Ajello, the architect of the Paterno, the Colosseum [Note: the architects for the Paterno and Colosseum were Schwartz & Gross], the Luxor, just nearing completion on the southwest corner of Broadway and 115th Street and many others in the vicinity built by the Paternos.
Demand for Highest Floors.
Mr. Paterno told another interesting fact about his contemplated erection of a sixteen-story house which adds additional proof to the eagerness of New Yorkers to live high in the air.
Within a week after the announcement,” he said, “I received over forty letters from persons in all parts of the country asking if reservations could be made for the top floors. I never before realized how many people were anxious to live on the top floors of high buildings. Why, I could have had the six upper floors rented long before excavations began. It shows that among residents there is no objection to the sixteen-story house., indeed, the facts all point in the opposite direction. It is bound to come. Land is getting so high in the desirable localities of the west side that the operator must go as high as he can in order to make a proper return on his investment. I am positive that before five years the sixteen-story house will take precedence over the twelve-story building as the standard for the highest type of construction.”
Some idea of the startling advance in property in the choice west side section may be found by taking the big plot just purchased by Mr. Paterno as a basis of values. It was bought from the Clark estate for, as has been stated, about $750,000. There are nine lots in the plot, the 115th Street corner containing four and the 116th Street corner five lots. Eight year ago $100,000 was offered for the 116th Street corner when $105,000 was asked, and at the same time $80,000 was asked for the 115th Street parcel. The entire block front, therefore, could have been acquired for about $180,000. In eight years the advance has been $370,000, nearly $72,000 a year or $6,000 a month. The pieces of property anywhere else is the city that can show such a remarkable rise in value within a corresponding time can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand.
116th Street Property Values.
“When I paid $25,000 for the inside lots on the south side of 116th Street, just west of Broadway, five years ago,” added Mr. Paterno, “all the brokers and builders thought I was crazy. Similar lots today, if they can be had, are worth from $45,000 to $50,000. Inside Broadway lots in the vicinity of 116th Street are worth about $80,000 with anywhere from $100,000 to $120,000 for corner.”
Adjoining the Barnard Court, a six-story structure on the southwest corner of Claremont Avenue and 116th Street, the first house built in that block from 116th to 110th Street, the twelve-story apartment known as the Campus has just been finished by Mr. Paterno’s brother-in-law, Victor Cerabone. He paid $40,000 apiece for the lots, and eight years ago inside lots on the same block were selling for $14,000.
Take another notable corner, that on the north side of 116th Street and Riverside Drive, now covered with the imposing Paterno apartment erected jointly by Joseph and Dr. C.V. Paterno. The entire plot was purchased piecemeal, and it was the most troublesome plot ever bought by the Paternos, as the old Bloomingdale Road ran through the property, and in order to clear the title to several minute pieces it was necessary to get quitclaim deeds from seventy or eighty heirs. About $200,000 was paid for the corner. The land is now considered with about $650,000.
Similar illustrations might be made regarding stores of other prominent corners and block fronts which in the last half dozen years have been handsomely improved.
Old Homesteads Gone.
The remarkable contrasts in land values on the west side are in keeping with the notable transformation in the physical aspect of the district. Only a few days ago wreckers began tearing down the handsome Colonial Rudd mansion overlooking Riverside Drive at 114th Street. It was one of the last survivors of early west side days. So rapid has been the change from the old to the new that it seems strange to recall that it was barely five years ago when the ancient Vandenheuvel house, in the block facing Broadway, between Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth Streets, was torn down to make way for the great twelve-story Apthorp apartment, which takes in the entire block to West End Avenue.
From Eighty-ninth to Ninety-third Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, on the Astor blocks, are yet to be seen some of the evidences of early Bloomingdale days, Ninety-second Street, especially near Amsterdam Avenue, and the Amsterdam Avenue block from Ninety-second and Ninety-third Street, revealing in several archaic one and two story farm houses indications of the time when towering brick and stone apartment houses were not even dreamed of. Within one block of one of these old wooden houses, that on the northwest corner of Broadway and Ninety-second Street, is the new twelve-story Roxborough apartment. These two building, within a block of each other, offer a striking example of the great changes from the old to the new west side.
Further north, at 127th Street and Riverside Drive, the comfortable home of Mayor Daniel F. Tiemann has just been torn down. Mayor Tiemann presided over the destinies of the city in 1858 and 1859 and his ink factory was near his Harlem home. The old homestead has been for years one of the picturesque landmarks of the upper Riverside Drive section just above Grant’s Tomb, and many person familiar with the locality will be surprised to hear that the attractive white house shaded by grand old trees has passed from sight. The Tiemann property has within the last four years been cut up and improved with big apartment, and now, on the very site of the old home, just below the Alabama apartment, erected a short time ago on the Riverside Drive corner, another big apartment is going up and the last visible trace of the early country days has thus been removed from this district of the west side.
Examples such as have been briefly mentioned might be multiplied in many other parts of the west side from the old Harsen homestead near Broadway and Seventieth Street all the way to the viaduct at 130th Street which spans the once familiar village of Manhattanville. Towering apartment have taken the place of colonial mansions surrounded by large estates.
The old lanes and the old roads have been wiped from the map and instead of one of two families inhabiting a district covering several blocks thousands of families are now to be found and the active building operations under way and contemplated for the near future show that the limit of population for the west side has by no means been reached.
Carla’s Note: It wasn’t until 1923 that the Paterno family built a 16-story apartment house at 290 Riverside Drive.