Carter's Review

The 15-story apartment building at 280 Riverside Drive on the northeast corner at 100th  Street was erected in 1926 and designed by Rosario Candela, the architect of the many of the city’s finest pre-war apartment buildings.

It is known as Oxford Tower.

It was erected by Dr. Charles V. Paterno and originally had about 85 apartments but now has about 125.

Paterno had Candela design a “twin” building at 285 Riverside Drive on the southeast corner at 101^st Street.

Bottom Line

Although not one of his most famous buildings, this is a Candela-designed building erected for one of the famous Paterno Brothers at a prime Riverside Drive location overlooking the handsome Firemen’s Memorial.

Description

This red-brick building, which is also known as 327-337 West 100^th Street, has a one-story limestone base and two-story-high window surrounds on the second and third floors and the top two floors.

It has two triangular decorative elements on its façades on Riverside Drive and the side-street.

It has some protruding air-conditioners and no sidewalk landscaping.

It has a one-step-up entrance.

Amenities

The building has a doorman and a live-in superintendent.

Apartments

Apartment 14A is a three-bedroom unit with a 19-foot-wide entry foyer that opens onto a 25-foot-long living room and a 24-foot-long dining room adjacent to the large kitchen, a pantry a servants’ hall and two maid’s room.

Apartment 13L is a one-bedroom unit with a 13-foot-wide entry foyer that opens onto an 18-foot-long living room next to an eight-sided narrow kitchen.

Apartment 4K is a two-bedroom unit with a 15-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 24-foot –long living room and a 7-sided kitchen.

Apartment 4G is a one-bedroom unit with a 19-foot-long living room.

A corner two-bedroom unit has a 7-foot-long entry foyer that opens into a 22-foot-long living room that leads to a 14-foot-long dining room next to the kitchen.

History

A September 10, 2000 “Streetscapes” column in The New York Times by Christopher Gray noted that a small triangular park had been finished at Castle Village on Cabrini Avenue north of 181^st Street in Upper Manhattan commemorating the developer.

The developer’s father, John, left Castelmezzano, Italy, near Naples, in the 1880s with his wife, Carolina, after an earthquake destroyed one of his building projects.  One of his sons Saverio, stayed in Italy, but Charles and Joseph came to the United States and the couple had more children, Michael, born about 1889, and Anthony, born about 1891.

Eventually, all the brothers joined the firm that became known as the Paterno Brothers Construction Company and according to Mr. Gray all the sons were still living with their mother is a row house at 557 West 183^rd Street.

In 1909, Charles Paterno building the “Paterno Castle,” which stood to the north of Castle Village.  “Period descriptions said it included rooms of various styles – including one in a Japanse motif – a mushroom motif, a swimming pool surrounded by bird cages and a 20-by-80-foot master bedroom,” according to Mr. Gray’s article, which added that Paterno expanded the site to seven acres.  In 1910, he continued, Charles built with Joseph, 435 and 440 Riverside Drive at 116^th Street and Joseph would later build 1220 Park Avenue, Michel would building 775 Park Avenue and Anthony built one at 1040 Fifth Avenue.

Charles Paterno, Mr. Gray continued, would building 300, 575 and 885 West End Avenue and 280, 285 and 290 Riverside Drive and in 1918 the full-block 270 Park Avenue and in 1924 he erected Hudson View Gardens across from his estate, on the block between Northern (now Cabrini) Boulevard and Pinehurst Avenue and a few years later he announced “a plan for a 90 story apartment house across the Hudson on the Palisades, but the plan was never carried out.”