United Workers Cooperatives

United Workers Cooperatives, also known as Allerton Coops, is a historic apartment building complex located at 2700–2870 Bronx Park East in Allerton, Bronx, New York City. The complex includes three contributing buildings and five contributing structures. The Tudor Revival style buildings were built during two construction campaigns, 1926–1927 and 1927–1929 by the United Workers' Association. The buildings feature half timbered gables, horizontal half-timbered bands topped with sloping slate roofs, corbelled and crenellated towers, and picturesque chimneys.[2]

United Workers Cooperatives
NYC Landmark No. LP-1795
Location2700-2870 Bronx Park East, Bronx, NY 10467
Coordinates40°51′59″N 73°52′11″W
Area5.4 acres (2.2 ha)
Built1926 (1926)
ArchitectSpringsteen & Goldhammer; Jessor, Herman J.
Architectural styleTudor Revival
NRHP reference No.86002518[1]
NYCL No.LP-1795
Significant dates
Added to NRHPSeptember 11, 1986
Designated NHLJuly 17, 1991
Designated NYCLJune 2, 1992

The complex was built by the United Workers' Association (part of the Industrial Workers of the World or "IWW"), and was an important early example of cooperative housing for working-class people. Most of the Association members were secular Jews with Communist political leanings who were engaged in the needle trades. The association sought to improve the living standards of its members, many of whom lived in squalid conditions in the tenements of the Lower East Side. It bought a plot of land in an undeveloped section of the Bronx, near the open space of Bronx Park, and envisioned a community of socially and politically engaged residents who would each have an equal say in the running of the complex, regardless of the size of their apartments or the prices that they paid for them. The complex had classrooms, a library, and other amenities and activities that were uncommon in other cooperative complexes that were built for profit. Though considered a social success, the complex failed financially in the Great Depression and was converted to rental housing in 1943. After decades of neglect by a succession of landlords, the complex was purchased and renovated by a new owner in the mid-1980s.[3]

The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991.[1] It was designated a New York City landmark in 1992.[3]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Merrill Hesch (July 1986). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: United Workers Cooperatives". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2011-01-12. See also: "Accompanying eight photos".
  3. "United Workers' Cooperative Colony (designation report)" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
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