The Paterno family monogrammed most of the apartment houses they built with treasured Manhattan architects Gaetan Ajello and Rosario Candela. Why? Let’s explore that question as we take a virtual tour around the Upper West Side and Upper East Side visiting the nearly 40 Paterno family structures that are adorned with various letters of the alphabet.
On the tour, we will discover the first Paterno building to showcase a monogram. As the tour continues, we will learn what effect brotherly competition had on the use of multiple monograms per building and which family member was the only one to employ un-matching monograms. Later, we will uncover which family members combined their initials to make a completely cryptic monogram and who thought it would be a good idea to stick his face on his building instead of a monogram.
