Casa Italiana

1161 Amsterdam Avenue | Morningside Heights | built 1927

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1920

    Students form the Circolo Italiano and President Butler proposes an Italian House

    Italian-American students had run a club at Columbia College since 1914. In 1920 twenty-five of them organized as the Circolo Italiano under student chairman Peter Riccio, and began raising money for a library of Italian culture and a place to keep it. President Nicholas Murray Butler suggested an Italian House, like the existing Maison Française.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1926

    August 5

    Butler lays the cornerstone as Paterno Brothers builds Casa Italiana

    Fundraising was led by Judge John Freschi, and the contractors Joseph and Michael Paterno and Anthony Campagna offered to build the house. Columbia gave the site, McKim, Mead & White charged only its costs, and many Italian-descended workmen donated part of their labor. President Butler set the cornerstone on August 5, 1926, with the Italian ambassador and consul general present.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1927

    October 12

    Casa Italiana is dedicated on Columbus Day with Guglielmo Marconi representing Italy

    The dedication took place on October 12, 1927. Italy sent Senator Guglielmo Marconi as its representative. Speeches came from Butler, Freschi, Joseph Paterno and Professor Dino Bigongiari. The Italian government had donated furnishings, and the royal family gave two oil paintings.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1927

    William Kendall of McKim, Mead & White adapts a Renaissance palazzo for Amsterdam Avenue

    The commission designated the building after a public hearing on March 14, 1978. One witness spoke in favor, none opposed, and Columbia stated its support. The report describes a neo-Italian Renaissance institutional building, designed as a center for Italian studies by McKim, Mead & White.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1978

    March 28

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates Casa Italiana as a landmark

    The commission designated the building after a public hearing on March 14, 1978. One witness spoke in favor, none opposed, and Columbia stated its support. The report calls it a neo-Italian Renaissance institution designed to harmonize with McKim, Mead & White's earlier campus buildings. It was also added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1991

    The Italian Republic buys Casa Italiana and leases it back to Columbia for 500 years

    Italy paid $17.5 million for the property in 1991. The Italian department moved to Hamilton Hall, and the building became home to the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, a research center half of whose guarantors are named by the Italian government. Buttrick White & Burtis restored it in 1996 and finished the east facade in brick.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 49 buildings with stories in Morningside Heights