Alfonso P. Villa

Count Alfonso Ireneo Pietro Villa de Villarampari was an Italian-American industrialist and investment banker.

Early life

Villa was born on 9 March 1875 in Villanova d'Asti in Northern Italy, which was then the Kingdom of Italy. He was a son of Carlo Francesco Villa
. Among his siblings were Faustino Villa, Adolfo Villa, Augusto Villa, Silvio Villa and Vittoria Villa, who married Italian General, Count Ambrogio Clerici, the former aide-de-camp to the King Victor Emmanuel III who was Undersecretary of State for War under General Antonino Di Giorgio.
In 1897, he received a degree from the University of Turin.

Villa served as president of A. P. Villa & Brothers Inc., silk importers based in Passaic, New Jersey. He was also the president and a director of its affiliates in Guangzhou, Japan, Lyon and Shanghai. He also served as a Manager of the Silk Association of America.
Villa later became a partner in the investment banking firm of Grayson M. P. Murphy & Co.. Villa served as a director of W. A. Harriman & Co., the Mechanics and Metals National Bank, the Park Union Foreign Banking Corporation, and the Manhattan Fire and Marine Insurance Company.
In 1910, Villa was decorated as a Chevalier of the Crown of Italy by the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III. In 1924, while in Italy during the summer, King Victor Emmanuel II conferred on him the title of Count, a former title of his family, which for years had been in abeyance, "in recognition of his services, in commerce, to Italy and America."

In New York City, the Villas lived at 18 East 72nd Street, the former home of banker Felix M. Warburg and Frieda Schiff Warburg. In 1924, they entertained their friend, Prince Gelasio Caetani, the retiring Italian Ambassador to the United States, at their home. Their neighbors included Louis C. Tiffany, Oliver Gould Jennings, W. Bayard Cutting and Lewis Cass Ledyard. They later moved to 760 Park Avenue.
After spending a number of years in Southampton, New York where they had a house, in April 1930, the Villas acquired Fairholme in Newport, Rhode Island, the former residence of John R. Drexels with 425 feet ocean of frontage situated on Ruggles Avenue at Ochre Point, just south of the Vanderbilt's property, The Breakers. The Villas entertained extensively in Newport. In 1942, the Villas sold Fairholme to Robert R. Young for $38,000. Alfonso Villa also owned a castle in Italy in his native town of Villanova d'Asti.