Anthony Campagna and The Paterno Family Construction Dynasty
From the late 1800s into the early 1900s, the Upper West Side experienced an apartment boom, thanks to major investments from real estate developers – including the extended family of John Paterno. The Paterno family monogrammed most of the apartment houses they built with treasured Manhattan architects Rosario Candela and Gaetan Ajello with a terra cotta cartouche displayed prominently on the building façade that can be seen to this day.
Giovanni Maria Paterno, aka John Paterno, left Castelmezzano, Italy in 1880 at 29 years of age. He and his descendants built over 164 buildings in the New York City borough of Manhattan, predominantly apartment houses, over the course of nearly seventy years starting in 1896, and under the company name of Paterno Brothers Construction for fifty-five of those years. Today 148 apartment houses built by the Paterno family still stand as testimony to the pre-World War II building boom of Manhattan, superb construction quality, and timeless aesthetics.
When John Paterno started to complain to his son Joseph about his declining health, he was escorted back to Italy where he died at the young age of 48. His son, Charles, was recruited away from his medical studies to help Joseph complete a building project their father had started at 112th Street. Unbeknownst to the Paterno family, mired in shock and grief over the death of John, fate was plotting the beginnings of a purely accidental business model that would prove to be the robust engine behind what would become an apartment house empire. After completing and selling the buildings, Dr. Charles Paterno realized that he would likely never earn as much as a doctor than as a builder, but eventually maintained his medical license and title all his life. This medical training became an unconventional asset on building sites for his construction crews and their families.
From the late 1800s into the early 1900s, the Upper West Side experienced an apartment boom, thanks to major investments from real estate developers – including the extended family of John Paterno. The Paterno family monogrammed most of the apartment houses they built with treasured Manhattan architects Rosario Candela and Gaetan Ajello with a terra cotta cartouche displayed prominently on the building façade that can be seen to this day.
Giovanni Maria Paterno, aka John Paterno, left Castelmezzano, Italy in 1880 at 29 years of age. He and his descendants built over 164 buildings in the New York City borough of Manhattan, predominantly apartment houses, over the course of nearly seventy years starting in 1896, and under the company name of Paterno Brothers Construction for fifty-five of those years. Today 148 apartment houses built by the Paterno family still stand as testimony to the pre-World War II building boom of Manhattan, superb construction quality, and timeless aesthetics.
When John Paterno started to complain to his son Joseph about his declining health, he was escorted back to Italy where he died at the young age of 48. His son, Charles, was recruited away from his medical studies to help Joseph complete a building project their father had started at 112th Street. Unbeknownst to the Paterno family, mired in shock and grief over the death of John, fate was plotting the beginnings of a purely accidental business model that would prove to be the robust engine behind what would become an apartment house empire. After completing and selling the buildings, Dr. Charles Paterno realized that he would likely never earn as much as a doctor than as a builder, but eventually maintained his medical license and title all his life. This medical training became an unconventional asset on building sites for his construction crews and their families.
Buildings were erected, rented, and sold almost annually under a formula that Charles and Joseph, now operating as Paterno Brothers Construction, eventually mastered. Younger brothers were trained in the industry and brothers-in-law were brought into the fold as they married into the family. Charles persuaded his second cousin Anthony Campagna, a young lawyer also from Castelmezzano, Italy, who had recently come to America, to join Paterno Brothers Construction as well. Campagna married their sister Maria Paterno and became an equal developer of fine Manhattan apartment houses, and Paterno Brothers Construction now had a doctor and a lawyer on the team! Campagna selected a young architect, Rosario Candela, for Candela’s first solo commission, our home, The Clayton.
The Paterno Manhattan apartment house building machine roared with ferocity and expedient success. Large Italian construction crews were brought to NYC by the Paterno organization. Crews on Paterno projects typically worked more than 60 hours per week, which is how their 10- to 18-story buildings usually were erected within a year’s time!
Anthony Campagna’s first building with Paterno Brothers Construction was the Lucania, completed in 1912. He subsequently built fine luxury apartment houses on both the West side (including The Clayton), and on the East side on Fifth Avenue (834, 955, 960, 980, 1115, 1120), on Park Avenue (35, 530, 1021), and on East 70th at Fifth. He also developed 173-175 Riverside Drive which occupied the entire blockfront between 89th Street and 90th Street on the Upper West Side and the art deco Rialto Theater in Times Square during the Depression.
After the market slowdown from the both the Depression and World War II, Anthony continued his success as an independent developer, but at a much slower rate, and held a place as an influential businessman in New York City real estate. He became an active philanthropist, especially with Italian American themes, and in Italy as well. A graduate of the Law School of the University of Naples, Anthony served many years as a Bronx member of the New York City Board of Education where he worked pro bono to head the School Construction Authority and oversee an important era of school construction. He was a co-founder and building partner of the Casa Italiana at Columbia University and traveled back to Italy and helped restore Virgil’s Tomb in Naples and a Roman tower in Minturo. He was conferred the rank of Count by King Emanuel III for his charitable projects in Italy in 1930. Anthony Campagna passed away in New York City in his apartment at Delmonico’s Hotel at the age of 84 in 1969.
Credits:
Collections of the New York Preservation Archive Project
Anthony Campagna: Wikiwand
Carla Paterno-Cappiello Golden: Marabella Family Website
The Paterno Manhattan apartment house building machine roared with ferocity and expedient success. Large Italian construction crews were brought to NYC by the Paterno organization. Crews on Paterno projects typically worked more than 60 hours per week, which is how their 10- to 18-story buildings usually were erected within a year’s time!
Anthony Campagna’s first building with Paterno Brothers Construction was the Lucania, completed in 1912. He subsequently built fine luxury apartment houses on both the West side (including The Clayton), and on the East side on Fifth Avenue (834, 955, 960, 980, 1115, 1120), on Park Avenue (35, 530, 1021), and on East 70th at Fifth. He also developed 173-175 Riverside Drive which occupied the entire blockfront between 89th Street and 90th Street on the Upper West Side and the art deco Rialto Theater in Times Square during the Depression.
After the market slowdown from the both the Depression and World War II, Anthony continued his success as an independent developer, but at a much slower rate, and held a place as an influential businessman in New York City real estate. He became an active philanthropist, especially with Italian American themes, and in Italy as well. A graduate of the Law School of the University of Naples, Anthony served many years as a Bronx member of the New York City Board of Education where he worked pro bono to head the School Construction Authority and oversee an important era of school construction. He was a co-founder and building partner of the Casa Italiana at Columbia University and traveled back to Italy and helped restore Virgil’s Tomb in Naples and a Roman tower in Minturo. He was conferred the rank of Count by King Emanuel III for his charitable projects in Italy in 1930. Anthony Campagna passed away in New York City in his apartment at Delmonico’s Hotel at the age of 84 in 1969.
Credits:
Collections of the New York Preservation Archive Project
Anthony Campagna: Wikiwand
Carla Paterno-Cappiello Golden: Marabella Family Website
Images of the construction of The Clayton from La Basilicata nel Mondo (People from Basilicata in the World), an illustrated monthly magazine produced by Giovanni Riviello in Naples, Italy. It was one of the mostly widely distributed Italian magazines abroad and regularly featured natives from the southern Italian region of Basilicata (also known by its ancient name Lucania) who were excelling in America.
SOURCE: Marabella Family website
SOURCE: Marabella Family website