Charles V. Paterno

Born in Castelmezzano, in the Italian region of Basilicata, to Giovanni Paternò, a real estate businessman, and Carolina Trivigno, Paterno emigrated to the United States due to financial problems caused by an earthquake which destroyed a construction project that his father was involved with. He graduated from Cornell Medical School in 1899, with the intention of becoming a doctor of medicine[2] but he never practiced the profession.[3] After his father's death, Paterno and his brother Joseph took over the family real estate business.[4][5] By 1918, the Paternos owned 75 buildings housing about 28,000 people.[6]

The Paterno name is connected to the construction and the development of a number of modern, luxurious apartment buildings in the Upper East Side, Morningside Heights, and Washington Heights neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, including:

• The Colosseum (1909–1910)
• The Paterno (1909–1910)[7]
• Hudson View Gardens (1923–25)
• 825 Fifth Avenue (1926–1927)
• Castle Village (1938–1939)

Paterno died at the Westchester Country Club in Harrison, New York, on May 30, 1946.[3] He is memorialized by the Paterno Trivium at the intersection of Cabrini Boulevard, West 187th Street, and Pinehurst Avenue in the Hudson Heights subsection of Washington Heights.[8]

Hand-colored postcard of the Paterno Castle, ca. 1920)

The Paterno Castle, was an early 20th century Neo-Gothic four-story 35-room castle shaped mansion located in New York City, where Charles Paterno lived, in what is now a apartment complex.

The completed castle survived barely two decades. Paterno later moved from the castle to Greenwich, Connecticut,[9] and in 1938 he decided to demolish the castle and most of the surrounding estate to erect the "Castle Village" complex of co-operative apartments.[10] The area was becoming increasingly residential, and The New York Times quoted Paterno as saying that "the many improvements in that part of the city...had led to a strong residential movement in that area with a definite demand for the finer type of garden type apartments."[4]

Some remnants of the estate can still be seen to this day.

• 
  The Colosseum apartment building in 1910
• 
  The Paterno in 1910
• 
  Hudson View Gardens as seen from Bennett Park
• 
  A building of the Castle Village complex
• 
  825 Fifth Avenue, c.1939-1941
• 
  A remnant of the Paterno estate, now a utility building for Castle Village
• 
  The retaining wall from the estate is still used for Castle Village, seen behind it.
• 
  A stone pillar remnant from the estate
• 
  The "Pumpkin House", the former guest house of the Paterno estate as seen from the Hudson River Greenway.

Notes

Further reading

• "Charles V. Paterno: His Castle Ruled Washington Heights" Keith York City

• Media related to Charles Paterno at Wikimedia Commons