How Mont Cenis became Mont Cenis
 

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Roman Catholic "Eglise de Notre Dame" was planned for the corner of 114th Street and Morningside Drive. Its building was completed in 1910 and stands there today. At that time in Manhattan, it was fashionable to give names to apartment houses and buildings.

The Paterno Company was one of the developers in the neighborhood, and erected 50 and 54 Morningside Drive in 1906-07. A building named "Saint Gotthard" had just been completed nearby. "Saint Gotthard" was a misspelled French version of the original German and Italian names for a pass between central Switzerland and the Paternos' native Italy. They may have thought that French names would "give class' to their buildings, so they named 50 and 54 "La Touraine" and "Mont Cenis." The actual Route du col du Mont Cenis leads from southeastern France into northwestern Italy: it includes the first tunnel cut through the Alps.

Probably not involved in the naming were Schwartz and Gross, the architects of 50 and 54 Morningside Drive, as well as a nearby building at 403 West 115th Street.

Some of the history appears in Thomas E. Norton and Jerry D. Patterson, Living it Up: A Guide to the Named Apartment Houses of New York (New York: Atheneum, 1984.)

from the "Bugle Gazette," June 1998

by Gilberte Vinsintejan and William Glaser