History of Amalgamated Discussed at Vladeck Hall

In 2009, a student originally from Boston, Emma Jacobs, 
finished her Senior Thesis at Columbia University. Her 65 
page thesis had the title "Amalgamated Housing to First 
Houses: Re-defining Home in America"*. In it, Ms Jacobs 
examined the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative as an 
experiment to fuse a community's idealistic vision of 
collective effort with a practical answer to the 
overwhelming need of working people in NYC for quality 
housing they could afford.

On Jan 22, 2012, Emma Jacobs came to Vladeck Hall to make 
a presentation about the cooperative community she had 
studied. Ms Jacobs spoke for about 40 minutes, followed 
by another 40 minutes of lively discussion and debate 
involving many members of the audience.

In her presentation, Ms Jacobs stressed three main themes. 
First, for the pioneers the Amalgamated Housing 
Cooperative was more than just a decent place to live at 
an affordable rent. It was also an effort to live 
cooperatively, sharing not only the ownership of the 
buildings and grounds but also many aspects of life and 
culture. Second, for the organizers, even from the 
beginning, Amalgamated was meant as a model for a hoped 
for housing cooperative movement. And third, not everyone 
at Amalgamated felt the same about the co-op. Some valued 
cooperatism above all else. Some mainly appreciated the 
location, low rent and solid buildings.

To illustrate her findings, Ms Jacobs looked mainly at 
the life and work of Abraham Kazan, the driving force 
toward the founding and development of the Amalgamated 
and many other housing cooperatives. She told us that 
Kazan did not originally intend to build housing. In the 
environment of unionism and socialism of the Lower East 
Side in the early 20th Century, Kazan's first political 
cause was cooperation. Before housing became his main 
focus, Kazan had been involved organizing a string of 
cooperatives, including a co-op grocery, a co-op hat 
store and even a sort of co-op to sell Matzo at Passover 
one year. But decent housing was the driving main 
problem facing Lower East Side people. Kazan and those 
around him became fixed on that problem. So did New York 
Governor Al Smith. When Smith could not get the wealthy 
elite to take up the housing problem, he turned to the 
legislature. The result was the NYS Housing Act of 1926.

Kazan and his friends used that law to get the Amalgamated 
started. Groundbreaking for the first buildings took place 
on Thanksgiving Day, 1926. The occasion was festive. Kazan 
told the crowd it was the happiest day of his life. By 
Nov 1, 1927 the first families began to move in. Ms Jacobs 
told us that she heard some of the original pioneers still 
live here, like Bea Simpson. At which point Bea called out 
from the audience, "That's my building". From that point 
on, Bea and a few others in the audience added a fact or a
story as Ms Jacobs continued her presentation.

About Kazan, Ms Jacobs told us, he helped get Amalgamated 
through the Great Depression by his detailed management 
of the finances. He was a stickler for getting the details 
correct. However, Kazan told his oral history interviewer, 
that meetings were generally . . . like a discussion in the 
family. In 1937, Kazan wanted to begin construction of 
Building 8. Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing 
Workers of America (ACWA) thought it was too risky 
financially. Kazan voiced his disagreement forcefully. "It 
is one thing to work for an organization that lives and 
expects to grow. It is quite a different thing to become 
the janitor and chief of a limited group." For Kazan, 
growth of the cooperative was the highest principle.

Kazan's projects included Amalgamated Dwellings in 1930 
with 236 units. Later, they grew to projects like Rochdale 
Village in Queens with 6000 units and the 15,000 unit 
Co-op City. These projects were not without controversy. 
They were tainted by the criticism that urban renewal 
broke up existing communities.

Ms Jacobs had read through many back issues of the 
Community News. She was struck by how often Education 
Director Herman Liebman pleaded for people to participate 
more and be more cooperative, some times in amusing ways. 
"Please don't hold the elevator door waiting for your hubby.
It's not the cooperative thing to do." But the serious 
question Liebman raised was did the lack of participation 
reflect a partial failure of the co-op? There was a lot of 
variation how people ended up at Amalgamated. If the main 
attraction was decent apartments at affordable rent could 
the cooperative experiment succeed? Liebman threatened to 
resign if money were seriously cut from cooperative 
education which he thought was the glue of a cooperative.

Ms Jacobs ended her presentation with the observation that 
just as at the beginning of the Amalgamated, today there is 
again a housing crisis. The subprime mortgage collapse means 
private home ownership has proven it is not always the 
answer to low and moderate income people's housing needs. 
The Amalgamated is a unique example of how a similar housing 
problem was addressed in the past. Whether it can serve as a 
model for the bigger housing crisis in America today she 
could not say.

The presentation was followed by a discussion and question 
period. Some pioneers led it off with memories and 
description of the First Building and its wonderful court 
yard. There were 24 separate entrances. The women organized 
themselves into a club that took trips together. The 
children were left home with the husbands. They were 
feminists before feminism. "It was wonderful and it is still 
wonderful." Attention was called by some in the audience to 
the Sholem Aleichem Houses a little south of Amalgamated 
which were built at the same time as the First Building with 
a very similar architecture and court yard.

The questions asked and discussed included, "Why were the 
elevators on odd or even floors?", "Why was the First 
Building torn down and did it cause a brouhaha?", "Why did 
the Mutual Housing separate from Amalgamated and Park 
Reservoir?", "Why isn't Sholem Aleichem Houses a cooperative 
any more?"

Ms Jacobs was asked from her study of the Amalgamated 
Cooperative what did she think the lessons are for today. She 
answered that even though poor and average people cannot 
necessarily afford to own their own homes today, the 
Amalgamated is a model of how communities can develop 
alternative models that fit their needs. Going against the 
norm can work. How is America going to house its people? The 
Amalgamated could be one of the models to be looked at.

The final question by the moderator brought on a very active 
discussion. "Is it possible to bring back the cooperative 
spirit?" The first answer was, that spirit is still here. 
Others thought the original union spirit is not here any 
more. Also, originally, Amalgamated was mostly homogeneous. 
Now, many cooperators speak different languages. Someone said 
such people don't understand cooperatism.

The JCAC Education Director, answered. Yes, it was 
predominantly Jewish from similar backgrounds. Now Amalgamated 
is a multi-cultural cooperative. That makes a big difference. 
But, that does not mean that those folks don't want what the 
pioneers wanted. A cooperator added that there is a long 
tradition of cooperatism in Latin America which many people 
from there bring to this co-op. It is a serious mistake to 
assume foreign born people do not have a cooperative spirit.

Emma Jacobs pointed to the Naturally Occurring Residential 
Community organization as a source of continuing a sense of 
belonging here.

Some audience members saw a new pressure for cooperation. The 
middle class is fading, commented one person. That should 
drive people to look for housing like Amalgamated. The 
weakening economy should force people into a cooperative 
spirit. The Mutual Cooperative is an example, said another. 
It needs to find itself again because the housing market is 
no longer the force for success. All cooperatives have to 
deal with maybe converting to gas or being more green. That 
could knit our cooperatives back together. Privatization, 
another person said, is the common threat to cooperative 
living. The Occupy Wall Street Movement was pointed to as 
spreading a similar spirit to the cooperative spirit.

One Amalgamated cooperator commented that being a limited 
dividend project helps us to think in an unselfish way. We 
cannot look for a profit from our investment. Instead we 
leave for the next generation what we inherited from the 
past one. Another cooperator saw the long waiting list as 
an indication that the cooperative is still attractive to 
many people.

Before people broke into informal conversations, the 
moderator thanked Emma Jacobs for taking the time to share 
her study and giving us the basis for the lively 
discussion. He thanked all the people who attended and 
closed the meeting.

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*Emma Jacobs Thesis and another piece she wrote can be seen 
on the Co-op History Club web page at: 
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/amalgamated/history/   
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