Cooperative Village
Encyclopedia
Housing cooperative
A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...
s on the Lower East Side
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The cooperatives are centered around Grand Street
Grand Street (Manhattan)
Grand Street is a street in Manhattan, New York City. It runs east-west parallel to and south of Delancey Street, from SoHo through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side to the East River....
in an area south of the entrance ramp to the Williamsburg Bridge
Williamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway...
and west of FDR Drive
Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive
The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive is a freeway-standard parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan...
. Combined, the four cooperatives have 4,500 apartments in twelve buildings.
The cooperatives were sponsored, organized and built by trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
and International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
, as well as the United Housing Foundation
United Housing Foundation
The United Housing Foundation is a real estate investment trust in New York that is best known for constructing Rochdale Village.- Purpose :...
, a development organization set up by the unions in 1951.
The cooperatives followed strict Rochdale Principles
Rochdale Principles
The Rochdale Principles are a set of ideals for the operation of cooperatives. They were first set out by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England, in 1844, and have formed the basis for the principles on which co-operatives around the world operate to this day. The...
, with one vote per member, irrespective of the nominal value of his share
Share (finance)
A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...
s. Resale of shares was restricted; members moving out of the apartments had to sell their shares back to the cooperative at the buying price, minus a flip tax
Flip tax
A flip tax is a fee paid by a seller or buyer on a housing co-op transaction typically in New York City. It is not a tax, and not deductible as a property tax...
. After the original financing structures governing the apartments were phased out, beginning in 1986, the shareholders of each cooperative decided in separate votes in 1997 and 2000, to abandon the limited equity rules and free the resale of shares, in some cases increasing the value of apartments fivefold. To keep the maintenance fees low for original tenants, many of them retirees, a high flip tax is charged, up to 17.5% of the gross sales price for "first sales" and up to 8.5% for "second sales". In a similar instance, the shareholders at the Penn South
Penn South
__notoc__Penn South is the common name for the Mutual Redevelopment Houses, a limited-equity housing cooperative development located between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and East 23rd and 29th Streets, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
sister cooperative in the Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
section of Manhattan voted to continue operating under limited equity rules.
Amalgamated Dwellings
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, was the second cooperative sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
, after the successful Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments
Amalgamated Housing Cooperative
Amalgamated Housing Cooperative, originally the Amalgamated Cooperative Apartment House, is a pioneering American limited-equity cooperative apartment complex originally built from 1927 to 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York....
in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
. The six-story Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
building with 236 apartments was designed by the architects Springsteen & Goldhammer and was completed in 1930 at the site of a former printing plant. The building covered one city block, with a protected garden in the center. The design was intended to provide direct sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
to all rooms, something that was missing from the typical Manhattan tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
s. The cooperative also had a library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
, an auditorium
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
, a nursery
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
, and a gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
. The apartments were priced at $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
500 a room, with monthly maintenance fees, including repayment of the mortgage, at $12.50 a room.
Hillman Housing Corporation
The Hillman Housing Corporation was the third cooperative sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. The cooperative, located on Grand Street between Kazan Plaza and Lewis Street on two sides of the Amalgamated Dwellings buildings, consists of three twelve-story buildings with 807 units. A garden links Hillman Houses to each other and to the Amalgamated Dwellings.Construction was begun in November 1947 and was completed by 1950 at a total cost of $9,100,000. The design is attributed to Springsteen & Goldhammer, with Herman J. Jessor
Herman Jessor
Herman J. Jessor was an American architect who helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City. He, along with Abraham Kazan, was a driving force of the cooperative housing movement in the United States....
responsible for much of the work. Four slum blocks with sixty-five tenement buildings were torn down to clear the site for the development. As banks were unwilling to provide loans to the cooperative, financing was provided by the Mutual Life Insurance Company
Mutual Life Insurance Company
Mutual Life Insurance Company may refer to:* Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company* Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company* The Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company* Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co...
.
The cooperative is named after Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman was an American labor leader. Head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, he was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor's support for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Party.-Early years:Sidney Hillman was...
, founder and first president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
. Each of the three Hillman houses is named after a cooperative or labor leader:
- Edward A. Filene, father of the credit unionCredit unionA credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its members...
movement - Meyer LondonMeyer LondonMeyer London was an American politician from New York City. He was one of only two members of the Socialist Party of America elected to the United States Congress.-Early years:...
, socialist member of the 64th United States Congress64th United States CongressThe Sixty-fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1915 to March 4, 1917, during the third and fourth... - Louis D. BrandeisLouis BrandeisLouis Dembitz Brandeis ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents who raised him in a secular mode...
, U.S. Supreme Court JusticeAssociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United StatesAssociate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
East River Housing Corporation
Project
A project in business and science is typically defined as a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim. Projects can be further defined as temporary rather than permanent social systems that are constituted by teams...
of the newly formed United Housing Foundation
United Housing Foundation
The United Housing Foundation is a real estate investment trust in New York that is best known for constructing Rochdale Village.- Purpose :...
and was financially sponsored by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
. A mortgage loan was insured by the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency. Construction work was begun in November 1953 and completed in 1956. The cooperative has 1,672 apartments in four 20- and 21-story towers on an open lot facing the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
.
The project was designed by George W. Springsteen and his new associate, Herman J. Jessor
Herman Jessor
Herman J. Jessor was an American architect who helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City. He, along with Abraham Kazan, was a driving force of the cooperative housing movement in the United States....
, who would go on to design many other UHF projects, including Co-op City
Co-op City, Bronx
Co-op City , located in the Baychester section of the Borough of the Bronx in northeast New York City, is one of the largest cooperative housing developments in the world. Situated at the intersection of Interstate 95 and the Hutchinson River Parkway, the community is part of Bronx Community Board 10...
. The buildings followed the "towers in a park" concept introduced to the U.S. in the late 1930s by the Castle Village
Castle Village
Castle Village is a cooperative apartment complex located in the Hudson Heights neighborhood of the Washington Heights area of New York City. The buildings are among the many resident-owned apartment buildings in Hudson Heights...
towers in Hudson Heights in upper Manhattan. The Castle Village layout, with cross-shaped towers placed diagonally to the cardinal directions optimized to give each apartment a maximum view, was used by most post-war social and affordable housing
Affordable housing
Affordable housing is a term used to describe dwelling units whose total housing costs are deemed "affordable" to those that have a median income. Although the term is often applied to rental housing that is within the financial means of those in the lower income ranges of a geographical area, the...
in New York City. Springsteen's derivation, used already at Hillman Houses, connects three of these towers side by side. The East River towers also share the reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
construction and red brick facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
with Castle Village. At the time of construction the 21 story towers were the highest reinforced concrete buildings in the U.S.
Each of the four East River houses is named after a labor leader:
- Morris HillquitMorris HillquitMorris Hillquit was a founder and leader of the Socialist Party of America and prominent labor lawyer in New York City's Lower East Side during the early 20th century.-Early years:...
, a co-founder of the Socialist Party of AmericaSocialist Party of AmericaThe Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization... - Morris SigmanMorris SigmanMorris Sigman was president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union from 1923 to 1928.-Early life:Born in Russia, Morris Sigman spent his youth working as a lumberjack before moving to London in 1902. In 1903, Sigman emigrated to New York City and began work as a presser in the cloak...
, president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) - The Erlich-Alter Building, named after Henryk Erlich and Victor AlterVictor AlterVictor Alter was a Jewish socialist activist and publicist of the Bund, and a member of the executive committee of the Second International.-Life:...
, leaders of the Polish Bund - Benjamin SchlesingerBenjamin SchlesingerBenjamin Schlesinger was the President of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union from 1903–1907, for a second term from 1914–1923, and for a third and final term from 1928 until his death in 1932...
, three-time president of the ILGWU
Seward Park Housing Corporation
Seward Park Housing Corporation is located in the triangle between Grand Street and East BroadwayEast Broadway (Manhattan)
East Broadway is a two-way east-west street in the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Broadway begins at Chatham Square and runs eastward under the Manhattan Bridge, continues past Seward Park and the eastern end of Canal Street, and ends...
, and abuts the New York City public park
Seward Park (Manhattan)
Seward Park is a public park and playground in the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, north of East Broadway, east of Essex Street...
that shares its name. The buildings, attributed to Herman Jessor as architect, share the general design of the East River Houses, with four towers facing the Lower East Side. Each of the twelve semi-attached towers has seven or eight apartments on each floor around a central stairwell and corridor.
Construction work was begun in 1957 and finished in 1959 at a total cost of $23,258,392.75.A mortgage loan from Bowery Savings Bank
Bowery Savings Bank
The Bowery Savings Bank of New York City was chartered in May 1834 and is now part of Capital One Bank.-History:Opened in 1834 on the Bowery in NYC. By 1980 it had over 35 branches located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. When bank deregulation was enacted the bank...
and pension fund
Pension fund
A pension fund is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.Pension funds are important shareholders of listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold...
s of the United Hatters, Cap & Millinery Workers, International Union as well as Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America covered $18 million, with about 25% of the costs paid as equity by the 1,728 cooperative members.
The buildings are known for their murals by Hugo Gellert
Hugo Gellert
Hugo Gellert was a Hungarian-American illustrator and muralist. A committed radical, much of Gellert's work is agitational in nature and distinctive in style, considered by some art critics as among the best political work of the first half of the 20th Century.-Early years:Hugo Gellert was born...
in a socialist realist
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
style. Each of the murals depicts a "progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
" hero with an associated quote:
- Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Declaration of IndependenceUnited States Declaration of IndependenceThe Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
) - Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
: "In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free." (1862 Annual Message to CongressState of the Union AddressThe State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...
) - Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
: "Freedom of Speech • Freedom to Worship • Freedom from Want • Freedom from Fear" (1941 State of the Union AddressFour FreedomsThe Four Freedoms were goals articulated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech , he proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy:# Freedom of speech and expression# Freedom of worship#...
) - Albert EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
: "A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move towards higher levels." (1946 telegram on behalf of the Emergency Committee of Atomic ScientistsEmergency Committee of Atomic ScientistsThe Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists was founded by Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd in 1946. Its aims were to warn the public of the dangers associated with the development of nuclear weapons, promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and ultimately work towards world peace, which was...
See also
- Amalgamated Housing CooperativeAmalgamated Housing CooperativeAmalgamated Housing Cooperative, originally the Amalgamated Cooperative Apartment House, is a pioneering American limited-equity cooperative apartment complex originally built from 1927 to 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York....
- Mitchell-Lama Housing Program
- Southbridge TowersSouthbridge TowersSouthbridge Towers is a limited equity housing cooperative built under the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program and completed in 1969. The complex is located in Lower Manhattan in New York City south of the entrance ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge and is bound by Pearl Street, Frankfort Street, Gold Street,...
- SPURA
- Penn SouthPenn South__notoc__Penn South is the common name for the Mutual Redevelopment Houses, a limited-equity housing cooperative development located between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and East 23rd and 29th Streets, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
- Co-op City, BronxCo-op City, BronxCo-op City , located in the Baychester section of the Borough of the Bronx in northeast New York City, is one of the largest cooperative housing developments in the world. Situated at the intersection of Interstate 95 and the Hutchinson River Parkway, the community is part of Bronx Community Board 10...
External links
Housing cooperative
A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...
s on the Lower East Side
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The cooperatives are centered around Grand Street
Grand Street (Manhattan)
Grand Street is a street in Manhattan, New York City. It runs east-west parallel to and south of Delancey Street, from SoHo through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side to the East River....
in an area south of the entrance ramp to the Williamsburg Bridge
Williamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway...
and west of FDR Drive
Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive
The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive is a freeway-standard parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan...
. Combined, the four cooperatives have 4,500 apartments in twelve buildings.
The cooperatives were sponsored, organized and built by trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
and International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
, as well as the United Housing Foundation
United Housing Foundation
The United Housing Foundation is a real estate investment trust in New York that is best known for constructing Rochdale Village.- Purpose :...
, a development organization set up by the unions in 1951.
The cooperatives followed strict Rochdale Principles
Rochdale Principles
The Rochdale Principles are a set of ideals for the operation of cooperatives. They were first set out by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England, in 1844, and have formed the basis for the principles on which co-operatives around the world operate to this day. The...
, with one vote per member, irrespective of the nominal value of his share
Share (finance)
A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...
s. Resale of shares was restricted; members moving out of the apartments had to sell their shares back to the cooperative at the buying price, minus a flip tax
Flip tax
A flip tax is a fee paid by a seller or buyer on a housing co-op transaction typically in New York City. It is not a tax, and not deductible as a property tax...
. After the original financing structures governing the apartments were phased out, beginning in 1986, the shareholders of each cooperative decided in separate votes in 1997 and 2000, to abandon the limited equity rules and free the resale of shares, in some cases increasing the value of apartments fivefold. To keep the maintenance fees low for original tenants, many of them retirees, a high flip tax is charged, up to 17.5% of the gross sales price for "first sales" and up to 8.5% for "second sales". In a similar instance, the shareholders at the Penn South
Penn South
__notoc__Penn South is the common name for the Mutual Redevelopment Houses, a limited-equity housing cooperative development located between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and East 23rd and 29th Streets, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
sister cooperative in the Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
section of Manhattan voted to continue operating under limited equity rules.
Amalgamated Dwellings
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, was the second cooperative sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
, after the successful Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments
Amalgamated Housing Cooperative
Amalgamated Housing Cooperative, originally the Amalgamated Cooperative Apartment House, is a pioneering American limited-equity cooperative apartment complex originally built from 1927 to 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York....
in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
. The six-story Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
building with 236 apartments was designed by the architects Springsteen & Goldhammer and was completed in 1930 at the site of a former printing plant. The building covered one city block, with a protected garden in the center. The design was intended to provide direct sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
to all rooms, something that was missing from the typical Manhattan tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
s. The cooperative also had a library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
, an auditorium
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
, a nursery
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
, and a gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
. The apartments were priced at $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
500 a room, with monthly maintenance fees, including repayment of the mortgage, at $12.50 a room.
Hillman Housing Corporation
The Hillman Housing Corporation was the third cooperative sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. The cooperative, located on Grand Street between Kazan Plaza and Lewis Street on two sides of the Amalgamated Dwellings buildings, consists of three twelve-story buildings with 807 units. A garden links Hillman Houses to each other and to the Amalgamated Dwellings.Construction was begun in November 1947 and was completed by 1950 at a total cost of $9,100,000. The design is attributed to Springsteen & Goldhammer, with Herman J. Jessor
Herman Jessor
Herman J. Jessor was an American architect who helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City. He, along with Abraham Kazan, was a driving force of the cooperative housing movement in the United States....
responsible for much of the work. Four slum blocks with sixty-five tenement buildings were torn down to clear the site for the development. As banks were unwilling to provide loans to the cooperative, financing was provided by the Mutual Life Insurance Company
Mutual Life Insurance Company
Mutual Life Insurance Company may refer to:* Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company* Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company* The Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company* Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co...
.
The cooperative is named after Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman was an American labor leader. Head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, he was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor's support for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Party.-Early years:Sidney Hillman was...
, founder and first president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
. Each of the three Hillman houses is named after a cooperative or labor leader:
- Edward A. Filene, father of the credit unionCredit unionA credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its members...
movement - Meyer LondonMeyer LondonMeyer London was an American politician from New York City. He was one of only two members of the Socialist Party of America elected to the United States Congress.-Early years:...
, socialist member of the 64th United States Congress64th United States CongressThe Sixty-fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1915 to March 4, 1917, during the third and fourth... - Louis D. BrandeisLouis BrandeisLouis Dembitz Brandeis ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents who raised him in a secular mode...
, U.S. Supreme Court JusticeAssociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United StatesAssociate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
East River Housing Corporation
Project
A project in business and science is typically defined as a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim. Projects can be further defined as temporary rather than permanent social systems that are constituted by teams...
of the newly formed United Housing Foundation
United Housing Foundation
The United Housing Foundation is a real estate investment trust in New York that is best known for constructing Rochdale Village.- Purpose :...
and was financially sponsored by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
. A mortgage loan was insured by the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency. Construction work was begun in November 1953 and completed in 1956. The cooperative has 1,672 apartments in four 20- and 21-story towers on an open lot facing the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
.
The project was designed by George W. Springsteen and his new associate, Herman J. Jessor
Herman Jessor
Herman J. Jessor was an American architect who helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City. He, along with Abraham Kazan, was a driving force of the cooperative housing movement in the United States....
, who would go on to design many other UHF projects, including Co-op City
Co-op City, Bronx
Co-op City , located in the Baychester section of the Borough of the Bronx in northeast New York City, is one of the largest cooperative housing developments in the world. Situated at the intersection of Interstate 95 and the Hutchinson River Parkway, the community is part of Bronx Community Board 10...
. The buildings followed the "towers in a park" concept introduced to the U.S. in the late 1930s by the Castle Village
Castle Village
Castle Village is a cooperative apartment complex located in the Hudson Heights neighborhood of the Washington Heights area of New York City. The buildings are among the many resident-owned apartment buildings in Hudson Heights...
towers in Hudson Heights in upper Manhattan. The Castle Village layout, with cross-shaped towers placed diagonally to the cardinal directions optimized to give each apartment a maximum view, was used by most post-war social and affordable housing
Affordable housing
Affordable housing is a term used to describe dwelling units whose total housing costs are deemed "affordable" to those that have a median income. Although the term is often applied to rental housing that is within the financial means of those in the lower income ranges of a geographical area, the...
in New York City. Springsteen's derivation, used already at Hillman Houses, connects three of these towers side by side. The East River towers also share the reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
construction and red brick facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
with Castle Village. At the time of construction the 21 story towers were the highest reinforced concrete buildings in the U.S.
Each of the four East River houses is named after a labor leader:
- Morris HillquitMorris HillquitMorris Hillquit was a founder and leader of the Socialist Party of America and prominent labor lawyer in New York City's Lower East Side during the early 20th century.-Early years:...
, a co-founder of the Socialist Party of AmericaSocialist Party of AmericaThe Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization... - Morris SigmanMorris SigmanMorris Sigman was president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union from 1923 to 1928.-Early life:Born in Russia, Morris Sigman spent his youth working as a lumberjack before moving to London in 1902. In 1903, Sigman emigrated to New York City and began work as a presser in the cloak...
, president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) - The Erlich-Alter Building, named after Henryk Erlich and Victor AlterVictor AlterVictor Alter was a Jewish socialist activist and publicist of the Bund, and a member of the executive committee of the Second International.-Life:...
, leaders of the Polish Bund - Benjamin SchlesingerBenjamin SchlesingerBenjamin Schlesinger was the President of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union from 1903–1907, for a second term from 1914–1923, and for a third and final term from 1928 until his death in 1932...
, three-time president of the ILGWU
Seward Park Housing Corporation
Seward Park Housing Corporation is located in the triangle between Grand Street and East BroadwayEast Broadway (Manhattan)
East Broadway is a two-way east-west street in the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Broadway begins at Chatham Square and runs eastward under the Manhattan Bridge, continues past Seward Park and the eastern end of Canal Street, and ends...
, and abuts the New York City public park
Seward Park (Manhattan)
Seward Park is a public park and playground in the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, north of East Broadway, east of Essex Street...
that shares its name. The buildings, attributed to Herman Jessor as architect, share the general design of the East River Houses, with four towers facing the Lower East Side. Each of the twelve semi-attached towers has seven or eight apartments on each floor around a central stairwell and corridor.
Construction work was begun in 1957 and finished in 1959 at a total cost of $23,258,392.75.A mortgage loan from Bowery Savings Bank
Bowery Savings Bank
The Bowery Savings Bank of New York City was chartered in May 1834 and is now part of Capital One Bank.-History:Opened in 1834 on the Bowery in NYC. By 1980 it had over 35 branches located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. When bank deregulation was enacted the bank...
and pension fund
Pension fund
A pension fund is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.Pension funds are important shareholders of listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold...
s of the United Hatters, Cap & Millinery Workers, International Union as well as Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America covered $18 million, with about 25% of the costs paid as equity by the 1,728 cooperative members.
The buildings are known for their murals by Hugo Gellert
Hugo Gellert
Hugo Gellert was a Hungarian-American illustrator and muralist. A committed radical, much of Gellert's work is agitational in nature and distinctive in style, considered by some art critics as among the best political work of the first half of the 20th Century.-Early years:Hugo Gellert was born...
in a socialist realist
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
style. Each of the murals depicts a "progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
" hero with an associated quote:
- Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Declaration of IndependenceUnited States Declaration of IndependenceThe Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
) - Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
: "In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free." (1862 Annual Message to CongressState of the Union AddressThe State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...
) - Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
: "Freedom of Speech • Freedom to Worship • Freedom from Want • Freedom from Fear" (1941 State of the Union AddressFour FreedomsThe Four Freedoms were goals articulated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech , he proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy:# Freedom of speech and expression# Freedom of worship#...
) - Albert EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
: "A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move towards higher levels." (1946 telegram on behalf of the Emergency Committee of Atomic ScientistsEmergency Committee of Atomic ScientistsThe Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists was founded by Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd in 1946. Its aims were to warn the public of the dangers associated with the development of nuclear weapons, promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and ultimately work towards world peace, which was...
See also
- Amalgamated Housing CooperativeAmalgamated Housing CooperativeAmalgamated Housing Cooperative, originally the Amalgamated Cooperative Apartment House, is a pioneering American limited-equity cooperative apartment complex originally built from 1927 to 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York....
- Mitchell-Lama Housing Program
- Southbridge TowersSouthbridge TowersSouthbridge Towers is a limited equity housing cooperative built under the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program and completed in 1969. The complex is located in Lower Manhattan in New York City south of the entrance ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge and is bound by Pearl Street, Frankfort Street, Gold Street,...
- SPURA
- Penn SouthPenn South__notoc__Penn South is the common name for the Mutual Redevelopment Houses, a limited-equity housing cooperative development located between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and East 23rd and 29th Streets, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
- Co-op City, BronxCo-op City, BronxCo-op City , located in the Baychester section of the Borough of the Bronx in northeast New York City, is one of the largest cooperative housing developments in the world. Situated at the intersection of Interstate 95 and the Hutchinson River Parkway, the community is part of Bronx Community Board 10...
External links
Housing cooperative
A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...
s on the Lower East Side
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The cooperatives are centered around Grand Street
Grand Street (Manhattan)
Grand Street is a street in Manhattan, New York City. It runs east-west parallel to and south of Delancey Street, from SoHo through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side to the East River....
in an area south of the entrance ramp to the Williamsburg Bridge
Williamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway...
and west of FDR Drive
Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive
The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive is a freeway-standard parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan...
. Combined, the four cooperatives have 4,500 apartments in twelve buildings.
The cooperatives were sponsored, organized and built by trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
and International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
, as well as the United Housing Foundation
United Housing Foundation
The United Housing Foundation is a real estate investment trust in New York that is best known for constructing Rochdale Village.- Purpose :...
, a development organization set up by the unions in 1951.
The cooperatives followed strict Rochdale Principles
Rochdale Principles
The Rochdale Principles are a set of ideals for the operation of cooperatives. They were first set out by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England, in 1844, and have formed the basis for the principles on which co-operatives around the world operate to this day. The...
, with one vote per member, irrespective of the nominal value of his share
Share (finance)
A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...
s. Resale of shares was restricted; members moving out of the apartments had to sell their shares back to the cooperative at the buying price, minus a flip tax
Flip tax
A flip tax is a fee paid by a seller or buyer on a housing co-op transaction typically in New York City. It is not a tax, and not deductible as a property tax...
. After the original financing structures governing the apartments were phased out, beginning in 1986, the shareholders of each cooperative decided in separate votes in 1997 and 2000, to abandon the limited equity rules and free the resale of shares, in some cases increasing the value of apartments fivefold. To keep the maintenance fees low for original tenants, many of them retirees, a high flip tax is charged, up to 17.5% of the gross sales price for "first sales" and up to 8.5% for "second sales". In a similar instance, the shareholders at the Penn South
Penn South
__notoc__Penn South is the common name for the Mutual Redevelopment Houses, a limited-equity housing cooperative development located between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and East 23rd and 29th Streets, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
sister cooperative in the Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
section of Manhattan voted to continue operating under limited equity rules.
Amalgamated Dwellings
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, was the second cooperative sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
, after the successful Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments
Amalgamated Housing Cooperative
Amalgamated Housing Cooperative, originally the Amalgamated Cooperative Apartment House, is a pioneering American limited-equity cooperative apartment complex originally built from 1927 to 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York....
in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
. The six-story Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
building with 236 apartments was designed by the architects Springsteen & Goldhammer and was completed in 1930 at the site of a former printing plant. The building covered one city block, with a protected garden in the center. The design was intended to provide direct sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
to all rooms, something that was missing from the typical Manhattan tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
s. The cooperative also had a library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
, an auditorium
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
, a nursery
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
, and a gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
. The apartments were priced at $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
500 a room, with monthly maintenance fees, including repayment of the mortgage, at $12.50 a room.
Hillman Housing Corporation
The Hillman Housing Corporation was the third cooperative sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. The cooperative, located on Grand Street between Kazan Plaza and Lewis Street on two sides of the Amalgamated Dwellings buildings, consists of three twelve-story buildings with 807 units. A garden links Hillman Houses to each other and to the Amalgamated Dwellings.Construction was begun in November 1947 and was completed by 1950 at a total cost of $9,100,000. The design is attributed to Springsteen & Goldhammer, with Herman J. Jessor
Herman Jessor
Herman J. Jessor was an American architect who helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City. He, along with Abraham Kazan, was a driving force of the cooperative housing movement in the United States....
responsible for much of the work. Four slum blocks with sixty-five tenement buildings were torn down to clear the site for the development. As banks were unwilling to provide loans to the cooperative, financing was provided by the Mutual Life Insurance Company
Mutual Life Insurance Company
Mutual Life Insurance Company may refer to:* Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company* Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company* The Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company* Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co...
.
The cooperative is named after Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman was an American labor leader. Head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, he was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor's support for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Party.-Early years:Sidney Hillman was...
, founder and first president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
. Each of the three Hillman houses is named after a cooperative or labor leader:
- Edward A. Filene, father of the credit unionCredit unionA credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its members...
movement - Meyer LondonMeyer LondonMeyer London was an American politician from New York City. He was one of only two members of the Socialist Party of America elected to the United States Congress.-Early years:...
, socialist member of the 64th United States Congress64th United States CongressThe Sixty-fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1915 to March 4, 1917, during the third and fourth... - Louis D. BrandeisLouis BrandeisLouis Dembitz Brandeis ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents who raised him in a secular mode...
, U.S. Supreme Court JusticeAssociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United StatesAssociate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
East River Housing Corporation
Project
A project in business and science is typically defined as a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim. Projects can be further defined as temporary rather than permanent social systems that are constituted by teams...
of the newly formed United Housing Foundation
United Housing Foundation
The United Housing Foundation is a real estate investment trust in New York that is best known for constructing Rochdale Village.- Purpose :...
and was financially sponsored by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
. A mortgage loan was insured by the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency. Construction work was begun in November 1953 and completed in 1956. The cooperative has 1,672 apartments in four 20- and 21-story towers on an open lot facing the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
.
The project was designed by George W. Springsteen and his new associate, Herman J. Jessor
Herman Jessor
Herman J. Jessor was an American architect who helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City. He, along with Abraham Kazan, was a driving force of the cooperative housing movement in the United States....
, who would go on to design many other UHF projects, including Co-op City
Co-op City, Bronx
Co-op City , located in the Baychester section of the Borough of the Bronx in northeast New York City, is one of the largest cooperative housing developments in the world. Situated at the intersection of Interstate 95 and the Hutchinson River Parkway, the community is part of Bronx Community Board 10...
. The buildings followed the "towers in a park" concept introduced to the U.S. in the late 1930s by the Castle Village
Castle Village
Castle Village is a cooperative apartment complex located in the Hudson Heights neighborhood of the Washington Heights area of New York City. The buildings are among the many resident-owned apartment buildings in Hudson Heights...
towers in Hudson Heights in upper Manhattan. The Castle Village layout, with cross-shaped towers placed diagonally to the cardinal directions optimized to give each apartment a maximum view, was used by most post-war social and affordable housing
Affordable housing
Affordable housing is a term used to describe dwelling units whose total housing costs are deemed "affordable" to those that have a median income. Although the term is often applied to rental housing that is within the financial means of those in the lower income ranges of a geographical area, the...
in New York City. Springsteen's derivation, used already at Hillman Houses, connects three of these towers side by side. The East River towers also share the reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
construction and red brick facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
with Castle Village. At the time of construction the 21 story towers were the highest reinforced concrete buildings in the U.S.
Each of the four East River houses is named after a labor leader:
- Morris HillquitMorris HillquitMorris Hillquit was a founder and leader of the Socialist Party of America and prominent labor lawyer in New York City's Lower East Side during the early 20th century.-Early years:...
, a co-founder of the Socialist Party of AmericaSocialist Party of AmericaThe Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization... - Morris SigmanMorris SigmanMorris Sigman was president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union from 1923 to 1928.-Early life:Born in Russia, Morris Sigman spent his youth working as a lumberjack before moving to London in 1902. In 1903, Sigman emigrated to New York City and began work as a presser in the cloak...
, president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) - The Erlich-Alter Building, named after Henryk Erlich and Victor AlterVictor AlterVictor Alter was a Jewish socialist activist and publicist of the Bund, and a member of the executive committee of the Second International.-Life:...
, leaders of the Polish Bund - Benjamin SchlesingerBenjamin SchlesingerBenjamin Schlesinger was the President of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union from 1903–1907, for a second term from 1914–1923, and for a third and final term from 1928 until his death in 1932...
, three-time president of the ILGWU
Seward Park Housing Corporation
Seward Park Housing Corporation is located in the triangle between Grand Street and East BroadwayEast Broadway (Manhattan)
East Broadway is a two-way east-west street in the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Broadway begins at Chatham Square and runs eastward under the Manhattan Bridge, continues past Seward Park and the eastern end of Canal Street, and ends...
, and abuts the New York City public park
Seward Park (Manhattan)
Seward Park is a public park and playground in the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, north of East Broadway, east of Essex Street...
that shares its name. The buildings, attributed to Herman Jessor as architect, share the general design of the East River Houses, with four towers facing the Lower East Side. Each of the twelve semi-attached towers has seven or eight apartments on each floor around a central stairwell and corridor.
Construction work was begun in 1957 and finished in 1959 at a total cost of $23,258,392.75.A mortgage loan from Bowery Savings Bank
Bowery Savings Bank
The Bowery Savings Bank of New York City was chartered in May 1834 and is now part of Capital One Bank.-History:Opened in 1834 on the Bowery in NYC. By 1980 it had over 35 branches located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. When bank deregulation was enacted the bank...
and pension fund
Pension fund
A pension fund is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.Pension funds are important shareholders of listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold...
s of the United Hatters, Cap & Millinery Workers, International Union as well as Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America covered $18 million, with about 25% of the costs paid as equity by the 1,728 cooperative members.
The buildings are known for their murals by Hugo Gellert
Hugo Gellert
Hugo Gellert was a Hungarian-American illustrator and muralist. A committed radical, much of Gellert's work is agitational in nature and distinctive in style, considered by some art critics as among the best political work of the first half of the 20th Century.-Early years:Hugo Gellert was born...
in a socialist realist
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
style. Each of the murals depicts a "progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
" hero with an associated quote:
- Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Declaration of IndependenceUnited States Declaration of IndependenceThe Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
) - Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
: "In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free." (1862 Annual Message to CongressState of the Union AddressThe State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...
) - Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
: "Freedom of Speech • Freedom to Worship • Freedom from Want • Freedom from Fear" (1941 State of the Union AddressFour FreedomsThe Four Freedoms were goals articulated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech , he proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy:# Freedom of speech and expression# Freedom of worship#...
) - Albert EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
: "A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move towards higher levels." (1946 telegram on behalf of the Emergency Committee of Atomic ScientistsEmergency Committee of Atomic ScientistsThe Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists was founded by Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd in 1946. Its aims were to warn the public of the dangers associated with the development of nuclear weapons, promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and ultimately work towards world peace, which was...
See also
- Amalgamated Housing CooperativeAmalgamated Housing CooperativeAmalgamated Housing Cooperative, originally the Amalgamated Cooperative Apartment House, is a pioneering American limited-equity cooperative apartment complex originally built from 1927 to 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York....
- Mitchell-Lama Housing Program
- Southbridge TowersSouthbridge TowersSouthbridge Towers is a limited equity housing cooperative built under the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program and completed in 1969. The complex is located in Lower Manhattan in New York City south of the entrance ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge and is bound by Pearl Street, Frankfort Street, Gold Street,...
- SPURA
- Penn SouthPenn South__notoc__Penn South is the common name for the Mutual Redevelopment Houses, a limited-equity housing cooperative development located between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and East 23rd and 29th Streets, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
- Co-op City, BronxCo-op City, BronxCo-op City , located in the Baychester section of the Borough of the Bronx in northeast New York City, is one of the largest cooperative housing developments in the world. Situated at the intersection of Interstate 95 and the Hutchinson River Parkway, the community is part of Bronx Community Board 10...
Official sites
- Cooperative Village - management umbrella for:
- Seward Park Housing Corporation
- SPBuzz -- Shareholder-run news & discussion site for Seward Park Shareholders
History
- History of Co-op Village
- Cooperative Housing on the Lower East Side: a brief history
- Labor and housing in New York City
- Amalgamated Housing: The History of a Pioneer Cooperative 1927
- The Original Story of the Seward Park Cooperative (1961) by Abraham E. Kazan
- Report on ILGWU Cooperative Village (1957 report on the building of what is now East River Housing Corporation)
- Co-op City: cooperative Housing in the New york Region
- Streetscapes/Amalgamated Dwellings; Built in 1931 by Idealism, Threatened Now by Reality - The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, July 3, 1994 - Hugo Gellert's Seward Park Murals
- Buildings by Herman Jessor at Emporis Buildings
Privatization
- Free Market Comes to the Lower East Side - The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, July 15, 2000 - For Low-Cost Co-op, a Pricing Quandary: A Co-op Agonizes Over Price Ceilings - The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, February 3, 2002
News
- East River's Summer of Discontent - Grand Street News, August 2006