THE Amalgamated Houses, seen here on Van Cortlandt Park South and Hillman Avenue, was the first union-sponsored housing cooperative in the United States, sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union under the leadership of Sidney Hillman (for whom Noble Norman Avenue was renamed in 1950) and created by Abraham E. Kazan, “the founder of cooperative housing in the USA.” The first buildings between Sedgwick Avenue and Van Cortlandt Park South went under construction in 1927 and the latest additions were completed in 1970.
The structures were built inexpensively and with no frills, but they produced an attractive and comfortable environment for families and community interaction. Plus they had style. Similar to housing projects of today, they were a series of interconnecting high-rise buildings, organized around communal public space. But back then, the developer and the architect made an effort when it came to design. The public spaces were green spaces with paths, shaped gardens, and fountains. The buildings were designed in a Tudor style with large windows.
The houses are a remnant of a period (prior to a time when full knowledge of the butcheries of Joseph Stalin had become fully known and the totalitarian governments that had featured socialism were duly reviled) when Socialism and Communism were considered viable alternatives to the purely capitalist system espoused in the USA:
Forgotten Fan Lex Robie:
I am fascinated by the history of radical thought and utopian ideals in this country. So much of our country’s best aspects were developed by people who refused to let their dreams die. Worker’s rights, woman’s rights and civil rights were won because a radical started the fight. What may have seem like an impossible idea could come true. A worker could be paid a living wage. A woman could vote. A black man could go where he wanted. Our current struggle: a gay’s right to marriage.
Radicals may be self-righteous and downright frustrating, but they are necessary for a society to progress forward. My new friend’s family and their neighbors fought for higher wages and better working conditions. They fought against eviction and slumlords. They fought for a better world, because they had already seen the worst and knew there was only one-way for them: up. And they wanted it not only for themselves, but also for everyone else.
However their major contribution to society was the idea of cooperative apartment building. While it has transformed over the years in two very divergent directions: the modern coop and the city owned housing project, the spirit still remains in union constructed housing, where community and affordability are the key factors.
Amalgamated is one of 3 housing cooperatives in the northern Bronx created in the 1920s, along with the Sholem Aleichem Cooperative on Giles Place (we visited it on the tour) and the United Workers Cooperative Colony (Allerton Coops) which still displays the hammer and sickle symbol over some of its doorways.
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12/18/21
22 comments
Something tells me that the apartments are no longer exclusively for union members,I bet there
are very few members left there,if any.Which means that the buildings have most likely gone
“capitalist” which is highly ironic considering what they were originaly intent for.
It’s still a cooperative providing affordable housing for working class families. Residents don’t own their apartments, but rather, shares of the company. It’s a true community with 9 buildings.
It hasn’t “gone capitalist,” if I understand what you mean by that.
The Amalgamated was built by the union but it was built for all workers, who, union or not, lived in squalid conditions. It was not exclusively for union members. To this day the concept remains the same as when the Amalgamated was conceived: you pay a fee upfront…the community investment…and very reasonable rent. When you move out, you get your investment back without interest, because your investment was pooled with all the other cooperators (as we’re called) and used to maintain, and improve the buildings.
The claim that unions are anti-capitalist is actually a myth. What they really want is just reforms that will give them better wages, benefits, and working conditions. Although there were some unions that were against capitalism, they were a small number to that. If anything, it was those who were anti-union who tried to link them to communism even though most of those claims were found to be false.
Its not for uniom workers only anymore although the income requirements and preferential treatment of union workers may attract them.
I grew up in the Amalgamated. My grandfather was a union member so my mother grew up there too. It was a wonderful community with its own grocery, children’s summer camp, music school, community theater. When my mother married she was eligible for an apartment. Many years later the buildings were forced to open to the general public instead of just union members and their families.
Chris, my mother moved into the original building in 1958 and died in the building pictured above in 2019. There are several descendants of the original cooperators still living in the Amalgamted
I don’t live there anymore (haven’t in well, 50 years), but I would guess, Chris, that you are wrong and that is still co-op housing.
While they are no longer mainly occupied by union members, it are still a not-for-profit, middle income housing cooperative. There is a years-long waiting list for apartments, which are allocated by the cooperative. When owners “cooperators” leave the community, they get their original investment back. The apartments never go on the open market.
Back in the mid 1960s, we used to pass a few pre-war apartment buildings on Dickinson Av between Sedgwick Av and Van Cortlandt Park S that my parents told me were Amalgamated Houses on a regular basis. I remember them being torn down around 1965 and the high rises that are there now being built.
This is not Kingsbridge, this is Van Cortlandt Village.
They knew about Stalin’s crimes against humanity, but just like today, they looked the other way because the radical Left is doing, “God’s Work”.
The first critics of the Bolshevik revolution were anarchists, and the fiercest critics of Stalinism were democratic socialists. The history of the radical left is far more complicated than your bumper sticker bs.
Two comments , from my Sister……. the correct original/prior name of Hillman Avenue was NORMAN AVENUE (NOT Noble). Also, the community today has not gone Capitalist, and many of the residents are union members
Why there is much to be reviled:
https://dnnmuseum.ru/en/history-of-house/
The Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. did a better job when it built Parkchester, Peter Cooper Village & Stuyvesant Town (mostly because they used federal tax incentives to build attractive communities without a
without a social agenda).
The “social agenda” of the Amalgamated Houses was to provide quality, affordable housing for working families, and it has succeeded not only in meeting those goals, but also in continuing to meet those goals as a a cooperative while others have gone private. Are the communities you listed still cooperatives?
Merry Christmas, Sheila. “Let’s go, Brandon!”
Happy Holidays right back atcha, RedStater. Workers of the World Unite!
Actually Chris, you’re half right. The apartments are no longer just for union members. But they are still very much a co-operative, and still very affordable and still governed by the residents. They are in great shape and have a long waiting list
Ill take a 2 bedroom pls
Contact the office and fill out an application. No kidding.
My moms windows are in the pic Never forgotten.