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Session 41                Co-op History Club                  March 24, 2013
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[Historically, the Amalgamated, Shalom Aleichem and another Bronx co-op, the 
Allerton Coops all started about the same time, the mid 1920s. The following 
story of the early days of the Coops  is taken from the three sources listed 
at the bottom.]
 
The first and largest of the cooperatives was the United Worker’s Cooperative 
Colony (often referred to as “The Coops” or the “Allerton Coops”) in the Bronx. 
It is not only distinguished for its architectural merit, but is also 
historically significant as one of the most important of the non-profit 
cooperative housing complexes built in New York City during the 1920s. The 
two-square-block colony, erected in two construction campaigns (1926-27 and 
1927-29), was built by the United Workers’ Association, a group which was at 
the forefront of the cooperative housing movement. Composed primarily of 
secular Jewish needle-trade workers with communist political leanings, the 
group sought to improve living conditions for its members and to create a 
vibrant community of socially and politically active individuals. The 
Association erected its buildings in an undeveloped region of the Bronx, 
adjacent to the open space of Bronx Park. The new apartment houses were 
designed to meet high standards, with apartment layouts, open space, and 
amenities rivaling and, in some instances, surpassing those provided in 
contemporary middle-class housing. The Colony encouraged cooperative activity 
in all aspects of life and was therefore equipped with classrooms, a library, 
a gymnasium, and other facilities for social interaction. The first complex, 
built in 1926-27, is a fine example of traditional neo-Tudor design with 
unusual ornamentation reflective of the Colony’s political and social ideals; 
it was designed by Springsteen & Goldhammer, an important firm involved in 
progressive housing projects in the Bronx. The second complex, built in 
1927-29, was designed in an avant-garde architectural mode inspired by 
Northern European Expressionist architecture; it is a significant work by 
Herman Jessor, an architect who was to become the most prolific designer of 
non-profit cooperative buildings in New York City. Together the Colony’s 
complexes housed over 700 families. These quality, cooperatively-owned 
residences, in which all members had an equal voice in management and were 
prohibited from selling apartments at a profit, represent the efforts of an 
idealistic group of primarily young Eastern European Jewish immigrants to 
provide affordable housing that would be an alternative to the tenements of 
the Lower East Side. Although financially the Colony failed, architecturally 
and socially it was a success.(1)

The United Workers was founded in 1913, when a group of Jewish workers leased 
a small tenement on East 13th Street and initiated a housing cooperative, 
which included a cooperative kitchen and a cultural program with readings, 
discussions, and invited lecturers and entertainers. The political stance of 
the leadership appears at that time to have been Zionist and territorialist in 
relation to the Jewish homeland issue. Over the next years, the group grew 
larger and leaned politically toward communism, especially after the Russian 
Revolution. After some years, they rented a larger apartment building in 
Harlem. A cooperative cafeteria was opened on Second Avenue, which included a 
library, and publication of a magazine was initiated. In 1924 a summer retreat, 
Camp Nigedaiget (“No Worries”) was founded at Beacon, New York, on a large 
tract of land bordering the Hudson River. Finally, in 1925, plans were begun 
for the new Bronx housing complex, which was completed over the next several 
years with a total of 697 apartments. The project included cooperative stores, 
a restaurant, a day-care center, and a library of books on political thought 
in English, Yiddish, and Russian.

In general, the monthly cost in the cooperatives was said to represent a 
savings of 25 percent over the private market. Additional savings were accrued 
through other cooperative enterprises. For example, the Coops, the Shalom 
Aleichem Houses, and the Amalgamated all had cooperative stores which offered 
groceries and filled other daily needs at reduced cost. In the case of the 
Coops and the Amalgamated, these were large enterprises, with extensive 
separate buildings. All of the projects provided day care and education 
programs for young children, giving an economic advantage to parents, who 
could each work. Beginning in 1929, the Amalgamated as well as the Workers 
Cooperative Colony developed a summer camp for children. The summer camps 
included adults and provided families with the possibility of a holiday which 
might normally have been out of the question for their economic strata.(2) 

Most of the idea of The Coops took shape during getaways to Camp Nitgedeiget, 
Yiddish for, loosely, “Don’t Worry Be Happy”, a kind of carefree and spirited 
camp that the workers owned in upstate Beacon, New York.

The workers would pool their life savings to buy shares ($250 per room) in 
the cooperative that would be their dream home.  They wanted light, lots of 
light, a window in every room and trees and gardens. An architect would 
design all of that for them, including a hammer, sickle and compass on the 
mantle above the doorway of building “J”.  (It is still there.)

The original founders of the Coops would come up to the Bronx by subway.  
Land in the Bronx was cheap and wide open. The archival photo of the patch 
of land they bought made me gasp — so hard to visualize a busy street like 
Allerton Avenue so open and overgrown with weeds.

When the workers moved into the Coops it fulfilled their dreams of being 
in beautiful surroundings and they lived a very communal life there. The 
basement was the hub of social activity with club rooms for youth 
gatherings, a library and reading room, day care center,  a communal 
cafeteria, rooms where the musicians could jam and  “shules” where 
lessons were taught in Yiddish after school.

And no matter what, they could never be kicked out. The Coops had a 
policy that no one would lose their apartment for not being able to meet 
rent payments. All of their board meetings were held in Yiddish. And they 
argued and fought bitterly all the time. On politics: Stalin’s pact with 
Hitler, Khrushchev’s revelation of Stalin’s mass murders.They would find 
their communist ideologies continually challenged, creating chasms in the 
Coops that would never be resolved.
    
But they were incredibly aware of injustices to people around them and 
jumped into protest and strike. When tenants in the building next door 
were being evicted, Coops residents joined in the efforts to block the 
police from pulling the tenants from their apartment with the women 
acting as human barricades. . . .  

Religion was not important to them. May Day, International Workers’ Day 
was very important to them. Jewish holidays were not. And for some, 
neither was marriage. Coops resident Amy Galstuck Swerdlow said that her 
parents never married, believing that a marriage certificate was 
meaningless. . . .


The people in the Coops, including the children, were well aware of the 
injustices toward Black Americans. They knew of the lynchings of black 
men in the South and were in solidarity with the Scottsboro Boys, nine 
black boys accused of raping two white women while travelling on a 
freight train in 1931. In fact, William Patterson, an attorney who 
represented the boys was a member of the American Communist party and 
a frequent visitor to the Coops. . . .

In the 1930s they encouraged a small number of Black families to move 
into the Coops.  This was quite revolutionary at the time, as Blacks 
and Whites did not live in the same building in New York, nor anywhere 
else in America in the 30s, 40s nor 50s.  (Parkchester, for example, 
would not become integrated until the 1970s.) . . .  Coops residents 
took buses up to Peekskill, New York to hear Paul Robeson sing. . . . 
The outdoor concert was met by the locals shouting anti-semitic and 
anti-black rants and stone throwing. . . The riot that ensue[d is 
even retold today] . . . by the residents who were there. . . .

In 1943, they were confronted with a critical decision about the future
 of the Coops. They had taken out a $2 million mortgage and now found 
themselves unable to pay. . . . (The Coops was greatly underfunded from 
the beginning. ) Each resident would be required to pay $1 more per 
room. If they voted yes to the increase, they would maintain ownership 
of the Coops. If they voted nay, then they would lose ownership forever.

This was a hotly debated issue. . . .

The rationale for the decision they finally make is quite fascinating. 
Perhaps they recognized the Coops as an experiment that had run its 
course. Or maybe they felt they had seen their dream come to fruition, 
but recognized that it required a different level of cultivation than 
they were equipped to commit to. [The majority voted 'No' to the rent 
increase  arguing that they owed it the other renters in NYC to keep 
their rent low as an example for others to aim for.]

The parallels between what they faced and what we today face couldn’t 
be more clear:

A nation in financial crises. Home foreclosures. An overstuffed 
mortgage that can no longer be carried. A look toward FDR’s New Deal 
for answers and influence. A shortage of affordable housing for the 
working poor. Urban housing for low income families with trees, 
greenery and parks.

Sixty-six years [in 2009] later, all of these issues remain 
headlines in our nation’s papers.
And are critical issues right here in the Bronx.
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Sources:

(1) NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, 
http://www.bldgdb.com/allerton-coops
(2) A History of Housing in New York City by Richard Plunz, 1990
(3) "Finding Utopia in the Bronx" 
http://bronxbohemian.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/finding-utopia-in-the-bronx/, 
April 27, 2009