Frank Pagliaro Construction Records Collection
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Abstract
The Frank Pagliaro Construction Records Collection contains materials from 1914-1971 (bulk 1960-69) relating to the Pagliaro family concrete contractor and sub-contractor businesses. Materials include, but are not limited to progress photos, financial documents, correspondence, blueprints, artist renderings of sites, and promotional materials.
Biographical Note
Ignazio Pagliaro (c. 1876-1938) immigrated to the United States from Italy at the age of 14 and ran the concrete sub-contractor business known as Knickerbocker Inc. in partnership with its founder Luigi Gerbino (d. 1930s). Ignazio continued to run the business as a joint venture after Luigi's death, sometimes assuming the name of the deceased.
Ignazio's son, Frank Pagliaro Sr. (1900-1999), studied civil engineering at Cornell University in the early 1920s and inherited the family concrete sub-contracting business from his father after graduation. During Frank Sr.'s tenure the company grew from sub-contracting to general contracting. Knickerbocker Inc., functioned as the parent company of many incorporated businesses such as Knickerbocker Construction Co.; Knickerbocker Fireproofing & Concrete Co., Inc.; IP Co. (Ignazio Pagliari Co.); Contel Construction Co.; and various incorporated businesses named after the address of a management/construction site (e.g. Fifth Avenue & 46th Street Corp.). Knickerbocker Inc. is believed to be the largest family-owned North American concrete construction company of its time.
Knickerbocker Inc. was dissolved in the 1970s. The Pagliaro family has cited pressure from the Italian Mafia--widely known to control aspects of concrete/construction contracts at the time--as the primary reason for the company's demise.
Arrangement Note
The collection is ordered into 13 series.
The first 7 series are records related to specific construction sites and are arranged alphabetically by state, city, and project. The remaining series consist of general business records, architectural publications, and miscellaneous personal papers.
Breaks in box number continuity occur when oversized materials did not fit into the general organization (i.e. bound, matted, oversized materials).
Missing Title
- Series I: California Construction Sites
- Series II: Massachusetts Construction Sites
- Series III: New York Construction Sites
- Series IV: Pennsylvania Construction Sites
- Series V: Virginia Construction Sites
- Series VI: Washington D.C. Sites
- Series VII: Unidentified Sites
- Series VIII: Construction Corporations
- Series IX: Miscellaneous
- Series X: Frank Pagliaro Personal Effects
- Series XI: Louis (Luigi) Gerbino Personal Effects
- Series XII: Cornell University Exam Books
- Series XIII: Architect Publications
Scope and Contents
The Frank Pagliaro Construction Records Collection contains materials from 1914-1971 (bulk 1960-69) relating to the Pagliaro family concrete contractor and sub-contractor business.
Materials include progress photos, financial documents, correspondence, blueprints, artist renderings of sites, and promotional materials.
Records in the collection relate to projects in the United States with a focus on New York City sites. Highlights include the Chrysler Building, the United Nations Building, Shea Stadium, and the Huntington Hartford Gallery on Columbus Circle in New York City, and the Court House & Federal Office Building in San Francisco. While this collection contains extensive records on certain projects and companies, it does not represent a complete set of records for either. Most extensive are the progress photographs on the Court House & Federal Office Building in San Francisco and year-end expense ledgers detailing the annual cash expenditures of Knickerbocker Inc. from 1953-1957.
The collection also includes some personal effects of Frank Pagliaro and Ignazio Pagliaro. Noteworthy is a series of Frank's graded Cornell University College of Civil Engineering Exams dating from 1921-1924.
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Access
Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.
Portions of the collection that have been photocopied or microfilmed will be brought to the researcher in that format; microfilm can be made available through Interlibrary Loan.
Conditions Governing Use
Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.
Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Reproductions
Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to the Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024, email: rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Permission to reproduce or quote text from this collection in a publication must be requested from and granted in writing by the Library Director, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024.
Citation
This collection should be cited as: Frank Pagliaro Construction Records Collection, PR 282, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.
Location of Materials
Provenance
Gift of the Selz and Pagliaro families, 2010.
Permission to Reproduce
Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to the Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024. Permission to reproduce or quote text from this collection in a publication must be requested from and granted in writing by the Library Director, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024.