Anthony Campagna

Anthony (born Antonio) Campagna, Count of Castelmezzano (December 31, 1884 – May 8, 1969) His father was a builder.

He received his preliminary education in Potenza, later attended the University of Rome and graduated, with honors, from the law school at the University of Naples in 1906. He also developed 173-175 Riverside Drive which occupied the entire blockfront between 89th Street and 90th Street on the Upper West Side. The building, which was the residence of the late Senator William A. Clark and cost $7 million to build, was sold by Clark's widow and daughter, Huguette Clark, who moved to 907 Fifth Avenue. Campagana had the mansion torn down just 19 years after it was built in 1911. Campagna hired Warren & Wetmore and architect Rosario Candela to design the new building, along with Dorothy Draper, the prominent interior decorator. The building was completed in 1928 and the original apartments were priced from $130,000 to $325,000. The largest initial stockholder in the building was Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite who reportedly paid $450,000 for his 20-room apartment,

In 1935, as the executive head of Rialto Times Square Inc., he was responsible for tearing down the old Rialto Theatre, developed by Paramount Pictures and located at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. After Campagna demolished the theatre, he rebuilt it on a smaller scale and dedicated the rest of the building to shops and office space.

Philanthropy In addition, he was the founder of the Casa Italiana at Columbia University, which was originally opened as an outreach of the Italian government of Benito Mussolini. In 1926-27, he hired William M. Kendall of McKim, Mead & White to design the building in the Renaissance style, modeled after a 15th-century Roman palazzo, which was built by his firm.

Honors In 1929, he was conferred the order of Grand Officer of the Crown of Italy by Dr. Emanuele Grazzi, Consul General of Italy.

In 1930, he was bestowed with the title Count of Castelmezzano by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. He served as chairman on the Committee of Building and Sites in the 1940s, and directed a $100 million program to construct schools. He retired from the Board in 1949. Marie was also from Castelmezzano and was the daughter of his former employer at Paterno Brothers. John J. Campagna, who married Irene Winslow, the daughter of Dr. Paul Vergil Winslow, in 1937.

Campagna died in his sleep at the age of 84 on May 8, 1969, at his apartment in Delmonico's Hotel in New York City. He was interred at Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.

Residence Campagna and his wife lived in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, where Campagna purchased land from Percy Rivington Pyne and built the now landmark palatial residence at 640 West 249th Street, across the street from Wave Hill, the "oldest Riverdale mansion" and the former residence of Arturo Toscanini, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, The home, modeled after an Italian villa, was built in 1929 to 1930 and was designed by architect Dwight James Baum and landscape architect Ferruccio Vitale and his partner, Alfred Geiffert, Jr., who won the 1934 gold medal in landscape architecture from the Architectural League of New York for the property.

Descendants Through his son John, he was the grandfather of David Winslow Campagna (b. 1939), who married Jered A. McAllister in 1963.