View allAll Photos Tagged Camping..Don't
Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, we saw such amazing stars on the 3rd night at Baranco Camp.
Don't forget to favorite/comment/share etc :)
Big thanks in advance to all of you.
Cheers x
Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, we saw such amazing stars on the 3rd night at Baranco Camp.
Don't forget to favorite/comment/share etc :)
Big thanks in advance to all of you.
Cheers x
Don't Let It Rain - Shaman
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3wuOxSfQ-k
Haze in the sky, hiding the light
The clouds are here again
I wonder when the Sun will shine
And touch my skin again
I wanna walk on the outside with you
I long to dream once again
And fill every day with your life
Don't hide your scars
They're just a mark you'll live another day
Time heals the heart, it takes off the pain
And you will rise again
I wanna walk on the outside with you
Wishing to feel life again, fulfilling my days
The world goes around and round
I can finally believe it
If all I loved is gone
Then I finally believe it's true
So don't let it rain over you
We're drifting apart every day
We're losing the strength to find a way
But we carry on, yes we carry on
Until our time has come
And world goes around and round
I can finally believe it
If all I loved is gone
And I'm losing ground
The world goes around and round
I can finally believe it
If all I loved is gone
And I finally believe it's true
So don't let it rain
Don't let it rain
So don't let it rain over you
The land of Assynt (the land of discord) in the far North West Highlands of Scotland photographed at sunset from Castle Greyskull at the top of Suilven (The Pillar).
After a 4 hour slog from Glencanisp over rough tracks and peat bogs carrying a 55lb/25kg pack of camping and photography gear, you are faced with one of the steepest mountain climbs in Scotland, the Bealach Mor (great gully) of Suilven. Initially it looks unclimbable, but a faint badly eroded track zig-zags up into the mountain and, with the sound of Deer Stags bellowing during the rutting season echoing off the rock walls, you eventually reach the ridge at the top and are met with this fantastic sight. Wild mountain camps don't get much better than this.
Wise Words
Found in a souvenir shop near a provincial park, I thought it would be hilarious to wear while camping
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© All rights reserved
Every year a guy decorates his front and backyard with halloween decorations. People can stop and walk through the yard for free, he does ask for donations help a kid's camp.
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Last day camping
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[[ MM related shot]] Oly's Camping trip with Ho-Dad
After the pictures were taken and they had their moment, Trobar set up camp. Oly stood by offering no help put mumbling about they could have used magic. Trobar looked over his hard work " Nature gives us what we need son....you don't always have to use magic. Plus this is camping! Don't you want to know how to survive? " Oly sort of waved his comment off " No because in my future I will be in a cabin, in a soft robe, with warm slippers....and I wont have to do this " he shook his head. Trobar picked up the bag " Well get changed we are going on a hike " Together they prepared to brave the lands unknown
I was enjoying a nice golfing/camping weekend recently at Oak Mountain State Park in Alabama. I know that golfing and camping don't necessarily go hand-in-hand, but my friend suggested it and I love both activities so it sounded like a great plan. It was. Wonderful weather and nice golf courses made for a great weekend.
I woke up early one morning to find a lovely sunrise, so I broke out the camera and tripod (which goes with me everywhere) and was fortunate to catch the morning rays.
This particular blend took me quite some time to manipulate. It is only over three exposures, but I started tinkering with some photoshop tools that I was not experienced with to get the results I was looking for.
Explored July 31, 2010 #96
Camping: Don't shave, don't shower, don't care. Be really stinky and wear the same clothes every day.
It seems Alvin's buddy, Simon, will eat anything..except stinky socks. He wrinkled his nose and ran off in a huff.
This reminds me of a song....a counting song I sang in camp. Don't ask me why but it does.....
Green Grow the Rushes, Oh!
I'll sing you one Ho.
Green Grow the Rushes, Oh
What is your one Ho?
One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.
I'll sing you two Ho.
Green Grow the Rushes, Oh
What is your two Ho?
Two, two the lily white boys, clothed all in green ho.
One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.
I'll sing you three Ho.
Green Grow the Rushes, Oh
What is your three Ho?
Three, three the rivals (Boom! Boom!)
Two, two the lily white boys, clothed all in green ho.
One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.
Sorry.....I have been working overtime and have had so little time to comment!
I will play catch up today and this evening!
:~)
Have a wonderful Friday and a splendid weekend !
Specific goals thwarted by the winds.
Out to la Pointe the other morning with a specific goal of photographing the cliffs before the bird migration and nesting begins on the west facing cliffs which by then will be a strict "No-go".
However the winds prevented me to continue including reduced visibility, I'm hoping for another crack at it BUT I did come away with what I think is a rather stunning image worth sharing.
For those who may not be aware, much of what you see is now private property (it's been sold), though the new owner has been gracious enough to still allow walkers along the walking trail following the perimeter to continue enjoying the majestic views from this spot. There are few things they ask/expect... they include no vehicular traffic (including ATV'S etc), no overnight camping, don't litter amongst a few other simple requests which are posted on signs as one approaches the property. All that is asked is that the few requests be respected.
*I'm grateful to have had permission* to have access for this project before the nesting begins, the seabirds will soon be arriving as the weather warms, it'll be critical to avoid disturbing them and other wildlife that is common here.
I hope you enjoy this photo.
© Michel JS Soucy
Many citizens stepped forward to fight alongside me, and the rest of the Acolytes after my speech. Honestly, there's a lot more than I expected. We split up into various groups, to attack different facilities at the same time. Each Acolyte member leads a group, with our resident transportation expert Blink porting us there. My group goes to the internment camp in Washington. The generators there also provide the energy that keeps the power dampening collars and fields operational nationwide. So once I get rid of those, freeing the mutant prisoners contained here will be a breeze. With me, are Spyke and Marrow, two mutants I helped out recently.
"We better get going. Ready?" I ask, as Blink opens the portal for our group.
"Ready as I'll ever be!" Spyke cheers.
"Guess so." Marrow adds, creating bone weaponry, before all of our group walks through the portal.
Washington, DC
We feel the dampening effects instantaneously, the portal closing behind us seconds later. We're at a slight disadvantage now, but once those generators are down, it'll be a whole different game. This place reminds me of the camps my father would tell me about as a child. How he was imprisoned when he was my age. Treated as less than human. The thought of it makes me sick to my stomach. Places like this shouldn't exist. The layout remains quite similar, with row upon rows of buildings, with a chain linked fence surrounding the camp. Lots of MRD soldiers patrolling throughout the camp. Don't see the generators quite yet. We keep to the edge of the camp, to avoid the majority of guards. It isn't long before we see a fellow mutant, being kicked down into the dirt, after not following the soldiers orders. I'm quick to recognize that it's my friend Scanner. Sarah, what other cruel things have they done to you? I shudder, just thinking about it. As much as that makes my blood boil, I can't risk us being discovered. Especially since there's quite a few mutants in my group who have absolutely no training.
Unfortunately, one of the patrols looks our way, and starts running towards us. We run to the side of the next building, and wait. Marrow and Spyke draw their bone daggers, ready to strike. Sure enough, as the soldiers turn around the corner of the building, Spyke and Marrow attack. They're able to disarm the guards rather quickly, impaling the pair of them soon after. They grab their guns, and pass them to two of the others in our group. One of which is Domino. Even without her good luck, she's still a damn good shot.
Sure enough, as we make our way to the back of the camp, I spot the generators. As expected, they are guarded by legions of guards. It isn't long, especially with our colorful outfits, before they see us coming. They don't hesitate, and open fire. Domino is able to take a few of them out with headshots. One of the other mutants is hit in the knee, which results in her screaming out in pain. I rip off part of my cape, to help cover the wound for now. But I can't really do anything about the pain itself. I'm left to watch as she dies. I hate feeling like this. Worthless.. Couldn't do anything to save her Damnit!
"Your efforts are futile, mutant . Without your powers, you're nothing." A modulated, cybernetic voice warns, as a metallic silver figure emerges from the crowd of guards.
"Concentrate everything you've got on those generators." I whisper to Domino, and the other guy with the gun. They nod in response.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Three, Two, One!" I count down, and when I reach one, we proceed to open fire on the generators themselves, with us slowly making our way forward, using whatever debris we can as cover.
"No! Do something, you fools!" The cybernetic voice commands. With that, they start dashing towards us.
" Die mutie scum! For Master Mold!" They shout, almost like it's their battlecry. Spyke, and Marrow are able to dive out-of-the-way of the oncoming barrage of lasers, with Domino hitting the generators, and the terminals in front of them, with everything she's got. Spyke and Marrow both throw some of their bone daggers, which manage to pierce through the soldier's exposed skin. One after another, they fall to the ground, with both Marrow and Spyke retrieving their weaponry, as they can't make any more right now.
You won't ruin everything that I, Bolivar Trask, have built. Not again! Master Mold cautioned, firing off multiple blasts of energy towards us. The impact sends us flying in separate directions.
"That's not possible! Bolivar Trask is dead." I reply, my voice full of disbelief.
"Oh but it is. My body is long gone, yes. However, my consciousness lives on through Master Mold. A contingency I was hoping I wouldn't have to use, but you forced my hand by killing me. I was able to transfer my consciousness moments before my death. It gives me great pleasure, watching you filth suffer here. Soon enough, your kind will cease to exist.
"What nonsense are you spouting off about now?"
"While you've been busy here, my army marches upon your precious Genosha. Every Sentinel I've ever created. Your days are numbered." The voice continues to laugh, as the remaining soldiers guarding Master Mold, and the generators are taken down. Within moments, the generators are shut down, with my powers coming back to me.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." I say with a grin, as my eyes start to glow green.
View from Penrose Campsite over Porthleven and Rinsey, Cornwall.20/8/16.
Please DO NOT visit this site, we like it the way it is...... !!!!
Google Penrose Camping, don't...!
It's the end of the night and Joni stopped by on her way home to what used to be one of her favorite 24 hour Walmart stores. Her reason for stopping by was twofold: She wanted to buy some cosmetics, and more importantly, she was hoping to find Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his R.V. parked overnight in this Walmart's lot. At the time, Justice Thomas was justifiably under fire for even more shockingly unethical behavior in his capacity as a Supreme Court Justice. In an interview, Justice Thomas naturally denied any wrongdoing, while displaying an arrogant misunderstanding of the most basic ethical tenets of the legal profession. He is not only a moron, but he is a corrupt moron, who doesn't think twice about accepting extravagant gifts and favors from billionaires, who have had cases of direct and indirect personal financial interest on the Supreme Court's dockets over the years which he, at a bare minimum, should have recused himself from hearing and voting upon. Of course, it would have been nice if this dimwit had enough sense in the first place to not accept extravagant gifts from these "friends" of his. The concept of a "conflict of interest" has apparently been foreign to him throughout his career.
In a bizarre sidebar, apparently as a misguided attempt to make himself more palatable to the common man, Thomas revealed that he likes to drive around the country in his personal R.V. with his treasonous wife, Ginni. When he is on a road trip, Justice Thomas says he frequently parks his R.V. in Walmart parking lots overnight. I guess national and state parks and those R.V. camps don't bestow freebies upon Supreme Court Justices. In any event, much to her dismay, Joni discovered that not only does this Walmart now close early, but Justice Thomas and his R.V. were nowhere to be found. Joni's hope for a chance meeting were dashed. She would have liked the opportunity to knock on his door, and maybe his fat head, and lecture him on the subject of conflicts of interest, while urging him to do the right thing and resign.
UPDATE: August 6, 2023 - The Sunday New York Times today published a page 1 expose of Justice Clarence Thomas' relationship with a billionaire "friend" by the name of Anthony Welters, who essentially gifted Justice Thomas with a $267,230 luxury R.V. which was disguised as a "loan" dating back to 1999. The story puts a lie to Justice Thomas' tall tale about scrimping and saving for years to buy his R.V.. It also raises serious ethical questions relating to his failure to report the R.V. as a gift pursuant to Federal ethics laws, not to mention the IRS Tax Code, which requires even Supreme Court Justices and not just federal jurists in lower courts to disclose certain gifts, liabilities, and other financial dealings that could pose conflicts of interest.
Of course, Mr. Welters is not the only billionaire to bestow lucrative gifts upon Justice Thomas during his tenure as a Supreme Court Justice. In particular, Justice Thomas is very cozy with Harlan Crow, a wealthy real estate developer from Texas, who has bestowed numerous gifts and luxury vacations upon Justice Thomas over the years. One must ask why would someone would do such things for Justice Thomas? Assuredly, it would have nothing to do with Justice Thomas' status as a Supreme Court Justice who just happened to have cases involving companies in which Mr. Crow has financial and proprietary interests. In any event, Justice Thomas saw no conflict of interest and did not choose to disqualify himself from hearing and ultimately voting on those cases, as he should have done.
The man is a disgrace to the Supreme Court specifically, and the legal profession in general. He should be removed from the Supreme Court and prosecuted.
Bronxdale, Bronx
The United Worker's Cooperative Colony (often referred to as "The Coops" or the "Allerton Coops") in the Bronx is not only distinguished for its architectural merit, but is also historically significant as one of the most important of the non-profit cooperative housing complexes built in New York City during the 1920s. The two-square-block colony, erected in two construction campaigns (1926-27 and 1927-29), was built by the United Workers' Association, a group which was at the forefront of the cooperative housing movement.
Composed primarily of secular Jewish needle-trade workers with communist political leanings, the group sought to improve living conditions for its members and to create a vibrant community of socially and politically active individuals. The Association erected its buildings in an undeveloped region of the Bronx, adjacent to the open space of Bronx Park. The new apartment houses were designed to meet high standards, with apartment layouts, open space, and amenities rivaling and, in some instances, surpassing those provided in contemporary middle-class housing.
The Colony encouraged cooperative activity in all aspects of life and was therefore equipped with classrooms, a library, a gymnasium, and other facilities for social interaction. The first complex, built in 1926-27, is a fine example of traditional neo-Tudor design with unusual ornamentation reflective of the Colony's political and social ideals; it was designed by Springsteen & Goldhammer, an important firm involved in progressive housing projects in the Bronx. The second complex, built in 1927-29, was designed in an avant-garde architectural mode inspired by Northern European Expressionist architecture; it is a significant work by Herman Jessor, an architect who was to become the most prolific designer of non-profit cooperative buildings in New York City.
Together the Colony's complexes housed over 700 families. These quality, cooperatively-owned residences, in which all members had an equal voice in management and were prohibited from selling apartments at a profit, represent the efforts of an idealistic group of primarily young Eastern European Jewish immigrants to provide affordable housing that would be an alternative to the tenements of the Lower East Side. Although financially the Colony failed, architecturally and socially it was a success.
The United Workers' Cooperative Association
The United Workers' Cooperative Colony was erected as a response to the appalling living conditions that many new immigrants experienced in New York. During the final decades of the nineteenth century and first decades of the twentieth century (before immigration was halted in 1924) approximately two million Eastern European Jews immigrated to the United States. Many of these people initially settled in the overcrowded and deteriorating tenements of New York's Lower East Side.
A large percentage of these Jewish immigrants were employed in the rapidly expanding garment industry where they toiled in sweatshops with abysmal working conditions or undertook piecework in their homes.
The intolerable living and working environments experienced by these immigrants led to the radicalization of a significant portion of the Jewish community. This was especially true of the immigrants who arrived between 1904 and 1914, including most of the founders of the United Workers' Cooperative Association. Many of these people had already become politicized in Europe, where discrimination under the czar, pogroms (notably between 1903 and 1906), and the suppression of the 1905 revolution in Russia had aroused political consciousness.
This radical inclination, coupled with the circumstances of life in America, placed Jewish immigrants in the forefront of radical political activism in this country, first in the Socialist Party, and, after its establishment in 1919, in the American Communist Party. As might be expected, much of this activity manifested itself in the labor movement, especially the organization of garment unions. The United Workers' Association was founded out of this development of a radical labor movement.
The genesis of the United Workers' Cooperative Association is somewhat obscure, but it appears that by the middle of the 1910s a group of young, politically active, left-wing, secular Jewish, Yiddish-speaking, immigrant garment workers had joined together to live in a cooperative environment. A major early venture was the leasing of a five-story apartment house at 1815 Madison Avenue on the comer of East 118th Street where the members had ten cooperative apartments, a cooperative restaurant, and a library.
In addition, the new organization purchased 250 acres overlooking the Hudson River near Beacon, New York, and in 1922 opened Camp Nitgedaeget (Yiddish for "Camp Don't Worry*) where members could spend time in the country ^ An advertisement published in 1930 recommended Camp Nitgedaeget as "the first proletarian camp for workers. The success of the small cooperative in Harlem and of the camp, as well as the pressing need for decent housing, prompted the United Workers' Association to venture into the construction of cooperative housing in 1925. This was a natural outgrowth of the organization's ideology. The idea of building a residential community where all residents would share equally in ownership and management and where there would be no profit motive, appealed to these communist-inspired workers.
The Neighborhood
In 1925, the United Workers' Association purchased land on Bronx Park East. The site was located near the eastern edge of what had been the Lorillard estate, most of which earlier had been incorporated into Bronx Park. At the time of this purchase, the immediate area was sparsely settled, but ripe for development. In reminiscing about her experiences, one original resident, Bella Halebsky, described the surroundings:
The very first time I visited this area, we saw absolutely a virgin neighborhood, unpopulated with the exception of Bronx Park East going south: about two blocks before Pelham Parkway there already existed a couple of private houses. There were no apartment houses. The elevated line was up, and the streets were already laid out, with the water lines in, and things like that.
Real estate development in the Bronx Park East area was inevitable following the 1917 opening of the elevated White Plains Line of the I.R.T. subway which ran only two blocks east of the park; World War I and the real estate depression that followed dampened development interest before the mid-1920s. The elevated White Plains Line (now part of the Nos. 2 and 5 lines) connected the North Central Bronx to the older Seventh Avenue and Lexington Avenue subway lines. The area was especially convenient for members of the United Workers' Association since the train provided easy commuting to the new garment factories near Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan where most members worked.
Non-Profit Cooperative Housing in America
Cooperative apartment houses began to appear in New York in the 1880s, at about the same time as multiple dwellings gained acceptance by affluent people.** These early cooperatives were profit-making ventures.
In a traditional profit-making cooperative the building is owned by a corporation in which each buyer purchases a number of shares and pays a monthly fee for the maintenance of the property. This fee is relative to the apartment's size and its location within the building. The shareholders vote for members of the cooperative's board of directors; the number of votes held by each shareholder is relative to the number of shares owned. When a cooperator chooses to sell, he or she is free to sell the shares at a profit, as long as the Board of the cooperative corporation approves the buyer.
The first cooperative apartment house in New York was the Rembrandt (Philip G. Hubert, architect), erected by Jared Flagg on West 57th Street in 1880-81. Flagg promoted the idea of "group ownership" in several later buildings and the idea was also appropriated by other builders. A second wave of cooperative development occurred in the early years of the twentieth century.
This included the construction of a series of cooperative duplex studio buildings intended for artists. The success of these duplex cooperatives led to the increasing popularity of cooperatives among the city's wealthiest residents. During the 1920s, the construction of cooperatives expanded into the middle-class housing market with such projects as the Queensboro Corporation's buildings in Jackson Heights, Queens, and developer Charles Patemo's Hudson View Gardens complex in Washington Heights.
These profit-making cooperative projects were among the finest housing in New York City, but none had an impact on the housing conditions of the vast majority of New York residents who could not afford to move into these new buildings or who were, for ethnic reasons, often denied residence in the restricted cooperatives.
Non-profit cooperatives were built exclusively by societies or associations composed of working people and were part of a larger movement in the United States that sought to organize cooperative ventures in all aspects of life.
Unlike traditional cooperatives, non-profit cooperatives were founded on a belief that all shareholders should be equal and that the members should be "home-seekers, not profit-seekers."
In a cooperative society, the association owns the building, with each resident allotted a single share, regardless of the price paid, or the size and location of an apartment. Thus, each shareholder has an equal voice in the running of the cooperative. If a cooperator wishes to sell his or her apartment, the society repurchases the unit at the same price originally paid (often with interest); no profit is made on the sale.
The Cooperative League of the United States of America summed up the aims of the non-profit cooperative movement in 1924 by stating that a cooperative housing association is "composed of people who unite to secure attractive homes; homes built and run, not for profit but for the service of the occupants."
The earliest housing cooperatives in the United States were organized by Finnish immigrants who settled in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn.
Early in the twentieth century, Finnish enclaves appeared in Harlem and in Brooklyn; by 1910, Brooklyn's "Finntown" is thought to have had a population of over 10,000." decent housing was difficult to find in Sunset Park so, in 1916, twenty Finnish families organized a non-profit housing society called the Finnish Home Building Association "Alku" is Finnish for beginning). Although a novel idea in America, the organization of such a society by Finns was a logical outgrowth of the popularity of cooperative ventures in Finland. The success of the small four-story building, located at 816 43rd Street, led to the construction of the adjacent Alku II and then to the appearance of over twenty-five other Finnish cooperatives.
The 1920s saw the establishment of many cooperative housing societies, as Jewish garment workers became involved in the movement. Almost all of their projects were erected in the northern parts of the Bronx, where land was relatively inexpensive, the extensive parkland provided open space for recreation, and the subway lines allowed rapid commutation to Manhattan's garment factories. Most of the cooperative societies purchased land adjacent to parks indicating just how important light, air, and recreational opportunity were to people who had lived on the Lower East Side and worked in sweatshops.
At the same time that the Communist-aligned United Workers' Association was erecting its first complex, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union (ACW), a large union closely allied with the Socialist Party, was planning its first cooperative housing on Van Cortlandt Park South (Springsteen & Goldhammer, architects). Amalgamated purchased the land in 1924 (prior to the United Workers' purchase) and erected a large five-story walk-up complex that opened in 1927.
With the addition of other buildings, Amalgamated Houses eventually became the largest cooperative housing society. In addition, the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and five other garment unions organized the Labor Home Building Corporation in 1925. With the backing of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., this organization began construction of the Thomas Garden Apartments (Andrew J. Thomas, architect) at 840 Grand Concourse opposite Franz Sigel Park (this section of the park is now the site of the Bronx County Building). In the following year ground was broken for the Yiddish Cooperative Heim Gesellschaft (better known as the Sholom Aleichem Houses; Springsteen & Goldhammer, architects) on Jerome Park, a complex erected by Jews who wished to preserve Yiddish culture.
Simultaneously, the Jewish National Workers Cooperative Home Association, an organization dedicated to furthering the Zionist cause, erected its first building (generally referred to as Farband Houses; Meisner & Uffner, architects) on Williamsbridge Road.
The Second Project (2846-2870 Bronx Park East)
In 1927 construction began on the second portion of the United Workers' Cooperative Colony, sited on the block immediately to the north of the original complex.
This project consists of two, five-story, U-shaped buildings, each with a large central landscaped courtyard looking out onto Bronx Park. These buildings cover even less land than the earlier complex, only forty-six percent of the site; the remainder of the site contains the courtyards, a wide landscaped passage between the structures, and light courts on the street elevations. The design of the new buildings was commissioned from Herman Jessor.
Herman Jessor (c.1895-1990) was bom in Russia and came to the United States as a youth. Like Springsteen and Goldhammer, for whom he worked in the 1920s, Jessor attended Cooper Union. Jessor not only worked for the United Workers' Association, but according to his obituary in the New York Times, was also hired by the Amalgamated Cooperative Houses in 1927.
He continued to design non-profit cooperatives after World War II and was responsible for such monumental cooperative projects as the ILGWU's Penn Station South buildings on West 23rd Street in Manhattan; Co-op City in the Bronx; and Starrett City in Brooklyn. In total, he is said to have "helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City."
The second complex differs from the first in both layout and style. Unlike the first buildings which were designed with a street wall along Bronx Park East that is pierced only by a modest entrance leading to the inner courtyard, the later buildings open onto Bronx Park East so that the gardens appear to be a continuation of the parkland. The private courtyard is separated from the street by a raised podium accessible from Bronx Park East by stairs. This maintains the privacy of the complex from the outside, but from within the court, accentuates the visual connection to the parkland by making the sidewalk and street unobtrusive. In order to continue the east-west axis introduced in the earlier buildings, the solid Barker Avenue street wall is pierced by arched tunnels.
Unlike the traditional neo-Tudor style of the original buildings, the second complex was designed in an avant-garde Expressionist mode reminiscent of the progressive housing complexes that had recently been erected in Northern Europe, especially in Amsterdam.^ Of special interest on the Bronx buildings is the use of brick to create texture and pattern, a hallmark of the Amsterdam School. Corbelled and faceted brick forms and soldier courses accentuate elements of the design, such as entrances, piers, and parapets at the roofline. It is probable that members of the United Workers' Association became aware of the progressive housing complexes erected by and for politically-active workers in Europe during the 1910s and 1920s and consciously chose the style as a reflection of their own similar progressive ideals; this complex appears to be the earliest appearance of expressionist design motifs in New York.
As in the earlier complex, light, air, and privacy were of utmost importance in the planning of the second project. All of the rooms in the 356 apartments overlook the courtyards, the street, or the landscaped passageway between the buildings; ground-floor apartments are raised above street level; and multiple entrances are provided.
The construction of these buildings was financed through a mortgage and a second bond issue. Financial problems had begun to occur as early as 1927 since the association's funds could not adequately cover the purchase of the highest quality goods and, ironically, the high cost of doing business only with union contractors. Following a foreclosure action in 1928, ownership, but not management, was transferred to the mortgage company.
In 1933, the mortgage company went bankrupt; the new mortgage holder allowed what was then known as the Workers Colony Corporation to continue management until 1943. In that year, the project was sold to a private landlord and a tenant association was formed to work with the new management.
The Cooperative Community
More than just a place to live, the United Workers Cooperative Colony was a community of like-minded people who organized a complex social network with a variety of activities that furthered the members' ideological aims. Spaces within the buildings, generally at the basement level, were set aside to accommodate the various social, educational, and cultural programs undertaken by the cooperators. Since the buildings are raised above ground level (to provide privacy to first floor apartments), these rooms have high ceilings and receive natural light.
Many of the activities were geared toward the children in the complex, with particular emphasis placed on training them as the future leaders of the masses. A 1934 issue of the cooperative's monthly Bulletin noted that one of its goals was "the education of our children in the Leninist spirit ... the bringing up of our children to be healthy, strong proletarian fighters."^ In the Schules children learned about progressive politics and about secular Jewish culture. Schule No. 1 was organized for children between the ages of six and twelve, while older children could attend the Mittel Schule.
At these schools pupils were taught to read and write Yiddish (most children already spoke Yiddish), the language of the Jewish people, as opposed to Hebrew which was considered to be a language of the elite. In the 1930s Schule No. 7, with over 250 students, was thought to be the largest secular Jewish school in the United States. Preschool age children were enrolled in a kindergarten and day nursery, open from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. so that working parents could leave their children in a safe environment.
The nursery teachers were bilingual, since in many families Yiddish was the first language.
The needs of the colony's children were also accommodated in a youth center with a director hired by the cultural committee of the Colony. The director organized discussions and special events, such as Negro History Week, and coordinated various clubs (photography, science, writing, weight lifting, baseball and other sports, fife and drum, etc.), each with its own basement room. Even in these clubs politics was not forgotten; Emie Rymer, who grew up in the complex, recounted: the "Roy Wrights" club, for example, was named after one of the Scottsboro Boys; the "Ella May Wiggins" girls took their name from a murdered leader of textile strikers in Gastonia, North Carolina; the Science Club's formal title was "The J.B.S. Haldane Scientific Society," honoring the British Biologist. Even the fife and drum corps claimed an illustrious name -The Haywood Maroons - after "Big Bill" Haywood, a long-time leader of the Western miners.
The cooperative also offered an extensive programs for adults, with at least one activity almost every evening. These included discussion groups, lectures, dance groups, theater groups, a chorus, a music school, a balalaika and mandolin orchestra, and the Russian Club (for the study of Russian politics). Many activities took place in the colony's assembly hall or its gymnasium. The cooperative also had an extensive library with books in English, Yiddish, and Russian for children and adults; it ran a health clinic with a doctor and a dentist; and organized a group of cooperative stores on Allerton Avenue.
Description (2700-2774 Bronx Park East)
The first project at the United Workers' Cooperative Colony, erected on the block bounded by Bronx Park East on the west, Barker Avenue on the east, Allerton Avenue on the south, and Britton Street on the north, consists of four five-story and raised basement apartment houses designed in the neo-Tudor style. The walk-up buildings are arranged in two groups, each with a modified C-shaped footprint; their open sides face each other to create a large landscaped courtyard. Light courts punctuate the street fronts; two courts are cut into the long facades on Allerton Avenue and Britton Street and a single court is found on the east and west facade of each building.
On Bronx Park East and Barker Avenue, the buildings are separated by forty-five-foot-wide openings that lead to the multiple building entrances located within the courtyard. On Bronx Park East the courtyard is separated from the street by a low stair Ranked by stuccoed walls; on Barker Avenue, the courtyard entrance is at street level and is flanked by stuccoed walls.
The buildings are faced almost entirely in bumed brick (dark bricks that were given a bumed appearance in firing) laid in Flemish bond. On the street facades, the basement level is stuccoed and the upper walls are enlivened with Tudor-inspired stucco and wooden half-timber elements. All of the street facades are similar in their fenestration and detail. Each is anchored by low comer towers with corbelled brickwork and open parapets.
The light court openings are flanked, at the fourth and fifth stories, by pseudo-half-timbered gables, each of which incorporates two window bays (on Britton Street, only one side of each court has a gable); the slopes of the gables have slate siding. An ornamental chimney rises from the side of each gable. Additional half-timbering is found on the fifth story between the gables; these timbered bands are capped by parapets clad in vari-coiored slate. Within the light courts are modest towers and ornamental brick parapets. Some of the courts are ornamented with fields of stucco that rise from the second story to the fifth story.
All of the windows originally had multipane double-hung wood sash (two-over-two, six-over-six, or eight-over-eight, depending on the size of the window). As part of a rehabilitation project begun in 1986 the windows were replaced by aluminum sash with applied exterior muntin grids that reflect the configuration of the original sash. In the western light court facing Allerton Avenue is an entrance door that now leads into the building's management office; this apparently was the location of the original health clinic. Fire escapes are attached to the facades at various locations.
The courtyard facades are also faced with brick, but they are ornamented with fields of stucco and lack the half-timbered gables of the street facades. These stuccoed areas, with irregular brick borders, are generally two bays wide and rise the full height of the building. The roofline of the courtyard elevations is enlivened by corbelled parapets and chimneys. At their entrance passages, the courtyards are relatively narrow (forty-five feet wide), but the width of the court expands in the center, where it encompasses about half the width of the block.
The paths in the courtyard are aligned around lawns and flower beds, with a large built-up bed in the center; there are two stone constructions in the court that were originally part of fountains.
Arrayed around the courtyard are the building entrances, which occur individually and in pairs and take various forms.
For example, near the Bronx Park entry are shallow projecting rubblestone entries articulated by round-arched doorways flanked with small round-arched windows, all capped by gabled hoods with slate roofing; further within the courtyard are paired round-arched entrances, each with a gabled hood. The majority of the entrances are set within Tudor-arched limestone enframements, each capped by a drip lintel; these entries have either a single door or are wider and have paired doors (the original wooden doors have been replaced by steel doors that maintain the original configuration). The spandrels of some of these arched entries are unomamented, while others are carved with symbols reflecting the political or cultural ideals of the residents: entrance H has a curtain and comedy and tragedy masks (theater and culture); entrance J has a hammer, sickle, and compass (communism); entrance L has figs and palm leaves (Jewish culture); entrance WXY has smoking factories (the working class); and entrance Z has books, a globe, and a compass (learning).
The Second Project (2846-2870 Bronx Park East)
The second group of buildings erected as part of the United Workers' Cooperative Colony is located on the block bounded by Bronx Park East on the west, Barker Avenue on the east, Britton Street on the south, and Amow Avenue on the north. It consists of two five-story and raised basement, U-shaped, walk-up buildings designed in an Expressionist style derived from Northern European sources.
A wide landscaped passage, running between Bronx Park East and Barker Avenue, separates the two buildings. The outer facades, facing onto the streets and the passage, are articulated by a series of light courts - three on each of the long east-west elevations and two on the east elevation of each building. The two buildings are similar in design and plan. Large landscaped courtyards open onto Bronx Park East. These courtyards are set above the street level and are entered from stairs flanked by buttressed, stepped brick walls. The courtyards can also be entered from Barker Avenue via short steps leading to segmentally-arched tunnels with complex brick surrounds.
The buildings are clad in brick laid in patterns that accentuate the texture of the material, using an unusual bond formed by two rows of headers and a single row of stretchers alternating with headers that are pulled forward. Many of the bricks (including most of the headers) are burned. Additional texture is provided by soldier courses, corbelled parapets, and panels of patterned brick. The buildings have eccentric silhouettes formed with stepped parapets, complex pediments, piers, and corbelled towers.
Many of these roof forms have white terra-cotta coping, but others are capped by Spanish tile. Near the roofline are several small round openings covered with iron guards. Fire escapes are attached to the facades at various locations.
Single and paired windows are arranged in vertical and horizontal groups, many demarcated by brick patterns. The original multipane double-hung wood sash was replaced by multipane aluminum sash in conjunction with the rehabilitation project in 1986. Within each of the courtyards are separate entrances, many with complex brick surrounds. Each of these originally contained single or paired wood doors with eccentrically-shaped windows. They have been replaced by steel doors; several copy the original design. Within each courtyard is a large centra! lawn, with smaller lawns adjacent to the buildings. Straight sidewalks lead from the courtyard entrances to the apartment doors.
Later History
Although the cooperative failed financially early in the Depression, and became a rental complex in 1943, the community continued to function in much the same manner as it had in its early years. However, dramatic changes occurred in the outside world that had a profound affect on the colony. These included the success of the garment unions in gaining better working conditions and advances in wage, health, retirement, and other benefits, thus dampening some of the activist fervor of the members. The American entry into World War II and the colony's support of United States government in the fight to defeat Hitler (a number of colony residents were killed in the war), as well as the residents' increasing disillusionment with Stalin also affected the political outlook of colony residents.
During the immediate post-war era, when Senator Joseph McCarthy and others undertook Communist "witch hunts," all residents of the colony became suspect. This apparently led some residents to move and others to become less vocal in their advocacy of progressive politics. The most profound changes, however, came about because the children of the colony's original residents did not become leaders of the masses as had been anticipated and did not, in general, settle in the colony's buildings.
Education had always been encouraged in the colony, and most colony children went on to college and graduate school, entered the professions, and dispersed throughout the country; few became industrial workers. As the original residents moved out or died, as new apolitical residents moved in, and as times and issues changed, the political activism of the colony ebbed, although as late as the 1960s, the remaining residents were involved in the peace, civil rights, and other progressive political movements.
By the late 1970s almost all of the original residents were gone. The buildings were deteriorating, as a succession of landlords had neglected maintenance. In the mid-1980s, a new owner, Allerton Associates, purchased the complex and undertook an extensive rehabilitation project that included new systems, facade restoration, new windows, and other improvements to the physical character of the buildings.
- From the 1992 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
Allerton Avenue, Allerton, Bronx
The United Worker's Cooperative Colony (often referred to as "The Coops" or the "Allerton Coops") in the Bronx is not only distinguished for its architectural merit, but is also historically significant as one of the most important of the non-profit cooperative housing complexes built in New York City during the 1920s. The two-square-block colony, erected in two construction campaigns (1926-27 and 1927-29), was built by the United Workers' Association, a group which was at the forefront of the cooperative housing movement.
Composed primarily of secular Jewish needle-trade workers with communist political leanings, the group sought to improve living conditions for its members and to create a vibrant community of socially and politically active individuals. The Association erected its buildings in an undeveloped region of the Bronx, adjacent to the open space of Bronx Park. The new apartment houses were designed to meet high standards, with apartment layouts, open space, and amenities rivaling and, in some instances, surpassing those provided in contemporary middle-class housing.
The Colony encouraged cooperative activity in all aspects of life and was therefore equipped with classrooms, a library, a gymnasium, and other facilities for social interaction. The first complex, built in 1926-27, is a fine example of traditional neo-Tudor design with unusual ornamentation reflective of the Colony's political and social ideals; it was designed by Springsteen & Goldhammer, an important firm involved in progressive housing projects in the Bronx. The second complex, built in 1927-29, was designed in an avant-garde architectural mode inspired by Northern European Expressionist architecture; it is a significant work by Herman Jessor, an architect who was to become the most prolific designer of non-profit cooperative buildings in New York City.
Together the Colony's complexes housed over 700 families. These quality, cooperatively-owned residences, in which all members had an equal voice in management and were prohibited from selling apartments at a profit, represent the efforts of an idealistic group of primarily young Eastern European Jewish immigrants to provide affordable housing that would be an alternative to the tenements of the Lower East Side. Although financially the Colony failed, architecturally and socially it was a success.
The United Workers' Cooperative Association
The United Workers' Cooperative Colony was erected as a response to the appalling living conditions that many new immigrants experienced in New York. During the final decades of the nineteenth century and first decades of the twentieth century (before immigration was halted in 1924) approximately two million Eastern European Jews immigrated to the United States. Many of these people initially settled in the overcrowded and deteriorating tenements of New York's Lower East Side.
A large percentage of these Jewish immigrants were employed in the rapidly expanding garment industry where they toiled in sweatshops with abysmal working conditions or undertook piecework in their homes.
The intolerable living and working environments experienced by these immigrants led to the radicalization of a significant portion of the Jewish community. This was especially true of the immigrants who arrived between 1904 and 1914, including most of the founders of the United Workers' Cooperative Association. Many of these people had already become politicized in Europe, where discrimination under the czar, pogroms (notably between 1903 and 1906), and the suppression of the 1905 revolution in Russia had aroused political consciousness.
This radical inclination, coupled with the circumstances of life in America, placed Jewish immigrants in the forefront of radical political activism in this country, first in the Socialist Party, and, after its establishment in 1919, in the American Communist Party. As might be expected, much of this activity manifested itself in the labor movement, especially the organization of garment unions. The United Workers' Association was founded out of this development of a radical labor movement.
The genesis of the United Workers' Cooperative Association is somewhat obscure, but it appears that by the middle of the 1910s a group of young, politically active, left-wing, secular Jewish, Yiddish-speaking, immigrant garment workers had joined together to live in a cooperative environment. A major early venture was the leasing of a five-story apartment house at 1815 Madison Avenue on the comer of East 118th Street where the members had ten cooperative apartments, a cooperative restaurant, and a library.
In addition, the new organization purchased 250 acres overlooking the Hudson River near Beacon, New York, and in 1922 opened Camp Nitgedaeget (Yiddish for "Camp Don't Worry*) where members could spend time in the country ^ An advertisement published in 1930 recommended Camp Nitgedaeget as "the first proletarian camp for workers. The success of the small cooperative in Harlem and of the camp, as well as the pressing need for decent housing, prompted the United Workers' Association to venture into the construction of cooperative housing in 1925. This was a natural outgrowth of the organization's ideology. The idea of building a residential community where all residents would share equally in ownership and management and where there would be no profit motive, appealed to these communist-inspired workers.
The Neighborhood
In 1925, the United Workers' Association purchased land on Bronx Park East. The site was located near the eastern edge of what had been the Lorillard estate, most of which earlier had been incorporated into Bronx Park. At the time of this purchase, the immediate area was sparsely settled, but ripe for development. In reminiscing about her experiences, one original resident, Bella Halebsky, described the surroundings:
The very first time I visited this area, we saw absolutely a virgin neighborhood, unpopulated with the exception of Bronx Park East going south: about two blocks before Pelham Parkway there already existed a couple of private houses. There were no apartment houses. The elevated line was up, and the streets were already laid out, with the water lines in, and things like that.
Real estate development in the Bronx Park East area was inevitable following the 1917 opening of the elevated White Plains Line of the I.R.T. subway which ran only two blocks east of the park; World War I and the real estate depression that followed dampened development interest before the mid-1920s. The elevated White Plains Line (now part of the Nos. 2 and 5 lines) connected the North Central Bronx to the older Seventh Avenue and Lexington Avenue subway lines. The area was especially convenient for members of the United Workers' Association since the train provided easy commuting to the new garment factories near Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan where most members worked.
Non-Profit Cooperative Housing in America
Cooperative apartment houses began to appear in New York in the 1880s, at about the same time as multiple dwellings gained acceptance by affluent people.** These early cooperatives were profit-making ventures.
In a traditional profit-making cooperative the building is owned by a corporation in which each buyer purchases a number of shares and pays a monthly fee for the maintenance of the property. This fee is relative to the apartment's size and its location within the building. The shareholders vote for members of the cooperative's board of directors; the number of votes held by each shareholder is relative to the number of shares owned. When a cooperator chooses to sell, he or she is free to sell the shares at a profit, as long as the Board of the cooperative corporation approves the buyer.
The first cooperative apartment house in New York was the Rembrandt (Philip G. Hubert, architect), erected by Jared Flagg on West 57th Street in 1880-81. Flagg promoted the idea of "group ownership" in several later buildings and the idea was also appropriated by other builders. A second wave of cooperative development occurred in the early years of the twentieth century.
This included the construction of a series of cooperative duplex studio buildings intended for artists. The success of these duplex cooperatives led to the increasing popularity of cooperatives among the city's wealthiest residents. During the 1920s, the construction of cooperatives expanded into the middle-class housing market with such projects as the Queensboro Corporation's buildings in Jackson Heights, Queens, and developer Charles Patemo's Hudson View Gardens complex in Washington Heights.
These profit-making cooperative projects were among the finest housing in New York City, but none had an impact on the housing conditions of the vast majority of New York residents who could not afford to move into these new buildings or who were, for ethnic reasons, often denied residence in the restricted cooperatives.
Non-profit cooperatives were built exclusively by societies or associations composed of working people and were part of a larger movement in the United States that sought to organize cooperative ventures in all aspects of life.
Unlike traditional cooperatives, non-profit cooperatives were founded on a belief that all shareholders should be equal and that the members should be "home-seekers, not profit-seekers."
In a cooperative society, the association owns the building, with each resident allotted a single share, regardless of the price paid, or the size and location of an apartment. Thus, each shareholder has an equal voice in the running of the cooperative. If a cooperator wishes to sell his or her apartment, the society repurchases the unit at the same price originally paid (often with interest); no profit is made on the sale.
The Cooperative League of the United States of America summed up the aims of the non-profit cooperative movement in 1924 by stating that a cooperative housing association is "composed of people who unite to secure attractive homes; homes built and run, not for profit but for the service of the occupants."
The earliest housing cooperatives in the United States were organized by Finnish immigrants who settled in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn.
Early in the twentieth century, Finnish enclaves appeared in Harlem and in Brooklyn; by 1910, Brooklyn's "Finntown" is thought to have had a population of over 10,000." decent housing was difficult to find in Sunset Park so, in 1916, twenty Finnish families organized a non-profit housing society called the Finnish Home Building Association "Alku" is Finnish for beginning). Although a novel idea in America, the organization of such a society by Finns was a logical outgrowth of the popularity of cooperative ventures in Finland. The success of the small four-story building, located at 816 43rd Street, led to the construction of the adjacent Alku II and then to the appearance of over twenty-five other Finnish cooperatives.
The 1920s saw the establishment of many cooperative housing societies, as Jewish garment workers became involved in the movement. Almost all of their projects were erected in the northern parts of the Bronx, where land was relatively inexpensive, the extensive parkland provided open space for recreation, and the subway
lines allowed rapid commutation to Manhattan's garment factories. Most of the cooperative societies purchased land adjacent to parks indicating just how important light, air, and recreational opportunity were to people who had lived on the Lower East Side and worked in sweatshops.
At the same time that the Communist-aligned United Workers' Association was erecting its first complex, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union (ACW), a large union closely allied with the Socialist Party, was planning its first cooperative housing on Van Cortlandt Park South (Springsteen & Goldhammer, architects). Amalgamated purchased the land in 1924 (prior to the United Workers' purchase) and erected a large five-story walk-up complex that opened in 1927.
With the addition of other buildings, Amalgamated Houses eventually became the largest cooperative housing society. In addition, the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and five other garment unions organized the Labor Home Building Corporation in 1925. With the backing of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., this organization began construction of the Thomas Garden Apartments (Andrew J. Thomas, architect) at 840 Grand Concourse opposite Franz Sigel Park (this section of the park is now the site of the Bronx County Building). In the following year ground was broken for the Yiddish Cooperative Heim Gesellschaft (better known as the Sholom Aleichem Houses; Springsteen & Goldhammer, architects) on Jerome Park, a complex erected by Jews who wished to preserve Yiddish culture. Simultaneously, the Jewish National Workers Cooperative Home Association, an organization dedicated to furthering the Zionist cause, erected its first building (generally referred to as Farband Houses; Meisner & Uffner, architects) on Williamsbridge Road.
The Second Project (2846-2870 Bronx Park East)
In 1927 construction began on the second portion of the United Workers' Cooperative Colony, sited on the block immediately to the north of the original complex.
This project consists of two, five-story, U-shaped buildings, each with a large central landscaped courtyard looking out onto Bronx Park. These buildings cover even less land than the earlier complex, only forty-six percent of the site; the remainder of the site contains the courtyards, a wide landscaped passage between the structures, and light courts on the street elevations. The design of the new buildings was commissioned from Herman Jessor.
Herman Jessor (c.1895-1990) was bom in Russia and came to the United States as a youth. Like Springsteen and Goldhammer, for whom he worked in the 1920s, Jessor attended Cooper Union. Jessor not only worked for the United Workers' Association, but according to his obituary in the New York Times, was also hired by the Amalgamated Cooperative Houses in 1927.
He continued to design non-profit cooperatives after World War II and was responsible for such monumental cooperative projects as the ILGWU's Penn Station South buildings on West 23rd Street in Manhattan; Co-op City in the Bronx; and Starrett City in Brooklyn. In total, he is said to have "helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City."
The second complex differs from the first in both layout and style. Unlike the first buildings which were designed with a street wall along Bronx Park East that is pierced only by a modest entrance leading to the inner courtyard, the later buildings open onto Bronx Park East so that the gardens appear to be a continuation of the parkland. The private courtyard is separated from the street by a raised podium accessible from Bronx Park East by stairs. This maintains the privacy of the complex from the outside, but from within the court, accentuates the visual connection to the parkland by making the sidewalk and street unobtrusive. In order to continue the east-west axis introduced in the earlier buildings, the solid Barker Avenue street wall is pierced by arched tunnels.
Unlike the traditional neo-Tudor style of the original buildings, the second complex was designed in an avant-garde Expressionist mode reminiscent of the progressive housing complexes that had recently been erected in Northern Europe, especially in Amsterdam.^ Of special interest on the Bronx buildings is the use of brick to create texture and pattern, a hallmark of the Amsterdam School. Corbelled and faceted brick forms and soldier courses accentuate elements of the design, such as entrances, piers, and parapets at the roofline. It is probable that members of the United Workers' Association became aware of the progressive housing complexes erected by and for politically-active workers in Europe during the 1910s and 1920s and consciously chose the style as a reflection of their own similar progressive ideals; this complex appears to be the earliest appearance of expressionist design motifs in New York.
As in the earlier complex, light, air, and privacy were of utmost importance in the planning of the second project. All of the rooms in the 356 apartments overlook the courtyards, the street, or the landscaped passageway between the buildings; ground-floor apartments are raised above street level; and multiple entrances are provided.
The construction of these buildings was financed through a mortgage and a second bond issue. Financial problems had begun to occur as early as 1927 since the association's funds could not adequately cover the purchase of the highest quality goods and, ironically, the high cost of doing business only with union contractors. Following a foreclosure action in 1928, ownership, but not management, was transferred to the mortgage company.
In 1933, the mortgage company went bankrupt; the new mortgage holder allowed what was then known as the Workers Colony Corporation to continue management until 1943. In that year, the project was sold to a private landlord and a tenant association was formed to work with the new management.
The Cooperative Community
More than just a place to live, the United Workers Cooperative Colony was a community of like-minded people who organized a complex social network with a variety of activities that furthered the members' ideological aims. Spaces within the buildings, generally at the basement level, were set aside to accommodate the various social, educational, and cultural programs undertaken by the cooperators. Since the buildings are raised above ground level (to provide privacy to first floor apartments), these rooms have high ceilings and receive natural light.
Many of the activities were geared toward the children in the complex, with particular emphasis placed on training them as the future leaders of the masses. A 1934 issue of the cooperative's monthly Bulletin noted that one of its goals was "the education of our children in the Leninist spirit ... the bringing up of our children to be healthy, strong proletarian fighters."^ In the Schules children learned about progressive politics and about secular Jewish culture. Schule No. 1 was organized for children between the ages of six and twelve, while older children could attend the Mittel Schule.
At these schools pupils were taught to read and write Yiddish (most children already spoke Yiddish), the language of the Jewish people, as opposed to Hebrew which was considered to be a language of the elite. In the 1930s Schule No. 7, with over 250 students, was thought to be the largest secular Jewish school in the United States. Preschool age children were enrolled in a kindergarten and day nursery, open from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. so that working parents could leave their children in a safe environment.
The nursery teachers were bilingual, since in many families Yiddish was the first language.
The needs of the colony's children were also accommodated in a youth center with a director hired by the cultural committee of the Colony. The director organized discussions and special events, such as Negro History Week, and coordinated various clubs (photography, science, writing, weight lifting, baseball and other sports, fife and drum, etc.), each with its own basement room. Even in these clubs politics was not forgotten; Emie Rymer, who grew up in the complex, recounted: the "Roy Wrights" club, for example, was named after one of the Scottsboro Boys; the "Ella May Wiggins" girls took their name from a murdered leader of textile strikers in Gastonia, North Carolina; the Science Club's formal title was "The J.B.S. Haldane Scientific Society," honoring the British Biologist. Even the fife and drum corps claimed an illustrious name -The Haywood Maroons - after "Big Bill" Haywood, a long-time leader of the Western miners.
The cooperative also offered an extensive programs for adults, with at least one activity almost every evening. These included discussion groups, lectures, dance groups, theater groups, a chorus, a music school, a balalaika and mandolin orchestra, and the Russian Club (for the study of Russian politics). Many activities took place in the colony's assembly hall or its gymnasium. The cooperative also had an extensive library with books in English, Yiddish, and Russian for children and adults; it ran a health clinic with a doctor and a dentist; and organized a group of cooperative stores on Allerton Avenue.
Description (2700-2774 Bronx Park East)
The first project at the United Workers' Cooperative Colony, erected on the block bounded by Bronx Park East on the west, Barker Avenue on the east, Allerton Avenue on the south, and Britton Street on the north, consists of four five-story and raised basement apartment houses designed in the neo-Tudor style. The walk-up buildings are arranged in two groups, each with a modified C-shaped footprint; their open sides face each other to create a large landscaped courtyard. Light courts punctuate the street fronts; two courts are cut into the long facades on Allerton Avenue and Britton Street and a single court is found on the east and west facade of each building.
On Bronx Park East and Barker Avenue, the buildings are separated by forty-five-foot-wide openings that lead to the multiple building entrances located within the courtyard. On Bronx Park East the courtyard is separated from the street by a low stair Ranked by stuccoed walls; on Barker Avenue, the courtyard entrance is at street level and is flanked by stuccoed walls.
The buildings are faced almost entirely in bumed brick (dark bricks that were given a bumed appearance in firing) laid in Flemish bond. On the street facades, the basement level is stuccoed and the upper walls are enlivened with Tudor-inspired stucco and wooden half-timber elements. All of the street facades are similar in their fenestration and detail. Each is anchored by low comer towers with corbelled brickwork and open parapets.
The light court openings are flanked, at the fourth and fifth stories, by pseudo-half-timbered gables, each of which incorporates two window bays (on Britton Street, only one side of each court has a gable); the slopes of the gables have slate siding. An ornamental chimney rises from the side of each gable. Additional half-timbering is found on the fifth story between the gables; these timbered bands are capped by parapets clad in vari-coiored slate. Within the light courts are modest towers and ornamental brick parapets. Some of the courts are ornamented with fields of stucco that rise from the second story to the fifth story.
All of the windows originally had multipane double-hung wood sash (two-over-two, six-over-six, or eight-over-eight, depending on the size of the window). As part of a rehabilitation project begun in 1986 the windows were replaced by aluminum sash with applied exterior muntin grids that reflect the configuration of the original sash. In the western light court facing Allerton Avenue is an entrance door that now leads into the building's management office; this apparently was the location of the original health clinic. Fire escapes are attached to the facades at various locations.
The courtyard facades are also faced with brick, but they are ornamented with fields of stucco and lack the half-timbered gables of the street facades. These stuccoed areas, with irregular brick borders, are generally two bays wide and rise the full height of the building. The roofline of the courtyard elevations is enlivened by corbelled parapets and chimneys. At their entrance passages, the courtyards are relatively narrow (forty-five feet wide), but the width of the court expands in the center, where it encompasses about half the width of the block.
The paths in the courtyard are aligned around lawns and flower beds, with a large built-up bed in the center; there are two stone constructions in the court that were originally part of fountains.
Arrayed around the courtyard are the building entrances, which occur individually and in pairs and take various forms. For example, near the Bronx Park entry are shallow projecting rubblestone entries articulated by round-arched doorways flanked with small round-arched windows, all capped by gabled hoods with slate roofing; further within the courtyard are paired round-arched entrances, each with a gabled hood. The majority of the entrances are set within Tudor-arched limestone enframements, each capped by a drip lintel; these entries have either a single door or are wider and have paired doors (the original wooden doors have been replaced by steel doors that maintain the original configuration). The spandrels of some of these arched entries are unomamented, while others are carved with symbols reflecting the political or cultural ideals of the residents: entrance H has a curtain and comedy and tragedy masks (theater and culture); entrance J has a hammer, sickle, and compass (communism); entrance L has figs and palm leaves (Jewish culture); entrance WXY has smoking factories (the working class); and entrance Z has books, a globe, and a compass (learning).
The Second Project (2846-2870 Bronx Park East)
The second group of buildings erected as part of the United Workers' Cooperative Colony is located on the block bounded by Bronx Park East on the west, Barker Avenue on the east, Britton Street on the south, and Amow Avenue on the north. It consists of two five-story and raised basement, U-shaped, walk-up buildings designed in an Expressionist style derived from Northern European sources.
A wide landscaped passage, running between Bronx Park East and Barker Avenue, separates the two buildings. The outer facades, facing onto the streets and the passage, are articulated by a series of light courts - three on each of the long east-west elevations and two on the east elevation of each building. The two buildings are similar in design and plan. Large landscaped courtyards open onto Bronx Park East. These courtyards are set above the street level and are entered from stairs flanked by buttressed, stepped brick walls. The courtyards can also be entered from Barker Avenue via short steps leading to segmentally-arched tunnels with complex brick surrounds.
The buildings are clad in brick laid in patterns that accentuate the texture of the material, using an unusual bond formed by two rows of headers and a single row of stretchers alternating with headers that are pulled forward. Many of the bricks (including most of the headers) are burned. Additional texture is provided by soldier courses, corbelled parapets, and panels of patterned brick. The buildings have eccentric silhouettes formed with stepped parapets, complex pediments, piers, and corbelled towers.
Many of these roof forms have white terra-cotta coping, but others are capped by Spanish tile. Near the roofline are several small round openings covered with iron guards. Fire escapes are attached to the facades at various locations.
Single and paired windows are arranged in vertical and horizontal groups, many demarcated by brick patterns. The original multipane double-hung wood sash was replaced by multipane aluminum sash in conjunction with the rehabilitation project in 1986. Within each of the courtyards are separate entrances, many with complex brick surrounds. Each of these originally contained single or paired wood doors with eccentrically-shaped windows. They have been replaced by steel doors; several copy the original design. Within each courtyard is a large centra! lawn, with smaller lawns adjacent to the buildings. Straight sidewalks lead from the courtyard entrances to the apartment doors.
Later History
Although the cooperative failed financially early in the Depression, and became a rental complex in 1943, the community continued to function in much the same manner as it had in its early years. However, dramatic changes occurred in the outside world that had a profound affect on the colony. These included the success of the garment unions in gaining better working conditions and advances in wage, health, retirement, and other benefits, thus dampening some of the activist fervor of the members. The American entry into World War II and the colony's support of United States government in the fight to defeat Hitler (a number of colony residents were killed in the war), as well as the residents' increasing disillusionment with Stalin also affected the political outlook of colony residents.
During the immediate post-war era, when Senator Joseph McCarthy and others undertook Communist "witch hunts," all residents of the colony became suspect. This apparently led some residents to move and others to become less vocal in their advocacy of progressive politics. The most profound changes, however, came about because the children of the colony's original residents did not become leaders of the masses as had been anticipated and did not, in general, settle in the colony's buildings.
Education had always been encouraged in the colony, and most colony children went on to college and graduate school, entered the professions, and dispersed throughout the country; few became industrial workers. As the original residents moved out or died, as new apolitical residents moved in, and as times and issues changed, the political activism of the colony ebbed, although as late as the 1960s, the remaining residents were involved in the peace, civil rights, and other progressive political movements.
By the late 1970s almost all of the original residents were gone. The buildings were deteriorating, as a succession of landlords had neglected maintenance. In the mid-1980s, a new owner, Allerton Associates, purchased the complex and undertook an extensive rehabilitation project that included new systems, facade restoration, new windows, and other improvements to the physical character of the buildings.
- From the 1992 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
A city or county animal shelter is nothing more than an extermination camp. Don't let this oxi-moron of a word fool you. Please Adopt before you Shop.
Were chilling with my good friend in a restourant, drinking some mojito, talking about future..u know me= )
photo of her tomorrow.
And! I'm leaving tomorrow with friends to the lovely old city Lviv to hang out with american interns from camp.
Don't know which lens to choose: 18-55 or 50? help!
WARNING! New adress of blog!
Bronxdale, Bronx
The United Worker's Cooperative Colony (often referred to as "The Coops" or the "Allerton Coops") in the Bronx is not only distinguished for its architectural merit, but is also historically significant as one of the most important of the non-profit cooperative housing complexes built in New York City during the 1920s. The two-square-block colony, erected in two construction campaigns (1926-27 and 1927-29), was built by the United Workers' Association, a group which was at the forefront of the cooperative housing movement.
Composed primarily of secular Jewish needle-trade workers with communist political leanings, the group sought to improve living conditions for its members and to create a vibrant community of socially and politically active individuals. The Association erected its buildings in an undeveloped region of the Bronx, adjacent to the open space of Bronx Park. The new apartment houses were designed to meet high standards, with apartment layouts, open space, and amenities rivaling and, in some instances, surpassing those provided in contemporary middle-class housing.
The Colony encouraged cooperative activity in all aspects of life and was therefore equipped with classrooms, a library, a gymnasium, and other facilities for social interaction. The first complex, built in 1926-27, is a fine example of traditional neo-Tudor design with unusual ornamentation reflective of the Colony's political and social ideals; it was designed by Springsteen & Goldhammer, an important firm involved in progressive housing projects in the Bronx. The second complex, built in 1927-29, was designed in an avant-garde architectural mode inspired by Northern European Expressionist architecture; it is a significant work by Herman Jessor, an architect who was to become the most prolific designer of non-profit cooperative buildings in New York City.
Together the Colony's complexes housed over 700 families. These quality, cooperatively-owned residences, in which all members had an equal voice in management and were prohibited from selling apartments at a profit, represent the efforts of an idealistic group of primarily young Eastern European Jewish immigrants to provide affordable housing that would be an alternative to the tenements of the Lower East Side. Although financially the Colony failed, architecturally and socially it was a success.
The United Workers' Cooperative Association
The United Workers' Cooperative Colony was erected as a response to the appalling living conditions that many new immigrants experienced in New York. During the final decades of the nineteenth century and first decades of the twentieth century (before immigration was halted in 1924) approximately two million Eastern European Jews immigrated to the United States. Many of these people initially settled in the overcrowded and deteriorating tenements of New York's Lower East Side.
A large percentage of these Jewish immigrants were employed in the rapidly expanding garment industry where they toiled in sweatshops with abysmal working conditions or undertook piecework in their homes.
The intolerable living and working environments experienced by these immigrants led to the radicalization of a significant portion of the Jewish community. This was especially true of the immigrants who arrived between 1904 and 1914, including most of the founders of the United Workers' Cooperative Association. Many of these people had already become politicized in Europe, where discrimination under the czar, pogroms (notably between 1903 and 1906), and the suppression of the 1905 revolution in Russia had aroused political consciousness.
This radical inclination, coupled with the circumstances of life in America, placed Jewish immigrants in the forefront of radical political activism in this country, first in the Socialist Party, and, after its establishment in 1919, in the American Communist Party. As might be expected, much of this activity manifested itself in the labor movement, especially the organization of garment unions. The United Workers' Association was founded out of this development of a radical labor movement.
The genesis of the United Workers' Cooperative Association is somewhat obscure, but it appears that by the middle of the 1910s a group of young, politically active, left-wing, secular Jewish, Yiddish-speaking, immigrant garment workers had joined together to live in a cooperative environment. A major early venture was the leasing of a five-story apartment house at 1815 Madison Avenue on the comer of East 118th Street where the members had ten cooperative apartments, a cooperative restaurant, and a library.
In addition, the new organization purchased 250 acres overlooking the Hudson River near Beacon, New York, and in 1922 opened Camp Nitgedaeget (Yiddish for "Camp Don't Worry*) where members could spend time in the country ^ An advertisement published in 1930 recommended Camp Nitgedaeget as "the first proletarian camp for workers. The success of the small cooperative in Harlem and of the camp, as well as the pressing need for decent housing, prompted the United Workers' Association to venture into the construction of cooperative housing in 1925. This was a natural outgrowth of the organization's ideology. The idea of building a residential community where all residents would share equally in ownership and management and where there would be no profit motive, appealed to these communist-inspired workers.
The Neighborhood
In 1925, the United Workers' Association purchased land on Bronx Park East. The site was located near the eastern edge of what had been the Lorillard estate, most of which earlier had been incorporated into Bronx Park. At the time of this purchase, the immediate area was sparsely settled, but ripe for development. In reminiscing about her experiences, one original resident, Bella Halebsky, described the surroundings:
The very first time I visited this area, we saw absolutely a virgin neighborhood, unpopulated with the exception of Bronx Park East going south: about two blocks before Pelham Parkway there already existed a couple of private houses. There were no apartment houses. The elevated line was up, and the streets were already laid out, with the water lines in, and things like that.
Real estate development in the Bronx Park East area was inevitable following the 1917 opening of the elevated White Plains Line of the I.R.T. subway which ran only two blocks east of the park; World War I and the real estate depression that followed dampened development interest before the mid-1920s. The elevated White Plains Line (now part of the Nos. 2 and 5 lines) connected the North Central Bronx to the older Seventh Avenue and Lexington Avenue subway lines. The area was especially convenient for members of the United Workers' Association since the train provided easy commuting to the new garment factories near Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan where most members worked.
Non-Profit Cooperative Housing in America
Cooperative apartment houses began to appear in New York in the 1880s, at about the same time as multiple dwellings gained acceptance by affluent people.** These early cooperatives were profit-making ventures.
In a traditional profit-making cooperative the building is owned by a corporation in which each buyer purchases a number of shares and pays a monthly fee for the maintenance of the property. This fee is relative to the apartment's size and its location within the building. The shareholders vote for members of the cooperative's board of directors; the number of votes held by each shareholder is relative to the number of shares owned. When a cooperator chooses to sell, he or she is free to sell the shares at a profit, as long as the Board of the cooperative corporation approves the buyer.
The first cooperative apartment house in New York was the Rembrandt (Philip G. Hubert, architect), erected by Jared Flagg on West 57th Street in 1880-81. Flagg promoted the idea of "group ownership" in several later buildings and the idea was also appropriated by other builders. A second wave of cooperative development occurred in the early years of the twentieth century.
This included the construction of a series of cooperative duplex studio buildings intended for artists. The success of these duplex cooperatives led to the increasing popularity of cooperatives among the city's wealthiest residents. During the 1920s, the construction of cooperatives expanded into the middle-class housing market with such projects as the Queensboro Corporation's buildings in Jackson Heights, Queens, and developer Charles Patemo's Hudson View Gardens complex in Washington Heights.
These profit-making cooperative projects were among the finest housing in New York City, but none had an impact on the housing conditions of the vast majority of New York residents who could not afford to move into these new buildings or who were, for ethnic reasons, often denied residence in the restricted cooperatives.
Non-profit cooperatives were built exclusively by societies or associations composed of working people and were part of a larger movement in the United States that sought to organize cooperative ventures in all aspects of life.
Unlike traditional cooperatives, non-profit cooperatives were founded on a belief that all shareholders should be equal and that the members should be "home-seekers, not profit-seekers."
In a cooperative society, the association owns the building, with each resident allotted a single share, regardless of the price paid, or the size and location of an apartment. Thus, each shareholder has an equal voice in the running of the cooperative. If a cooperator wishes to sell his or her apartment, the society repurchases the unit at the same price originally paid (often with interest); no profit is made on the sale.
The Cooperative League of the United States of America summed up the aims of the non-profit cooperative movement in 1924 by stating that a cooperative housing association is "composed of people who unite to secure attractive homes; homes built and run, not for profit but for the service of the occupants."
The earliest housing cooperatives in the United States were organized by Finnish immigrants who settled in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn.
Early in the twentieth century, Finnish enclaves appeared in Harlem and in Brooklyn; by 1910, Brooklyn's "Finntown" is thought to have had a population of over 10,000." decent housing was difficult to find in Sunset Park so, in 1916, twenty Finnish families organized a non-profit housing society called the Finnish Home Building Association "Alku" is Finnish for beginning). Although a novel idea in America, the organization of such a society by Finns was a logical outgrowth of the popularity of cooperative ventures in Finland. The success of the small four-story building, located at 816 43rd Street, led to the construction of the adjacent Alku II and then to the appearance of over twenty-five other Finnish cooperatives.
The 1920s saw the establishment of many cooperative housing societies, as Jewish garment workers became involved in the movement. Almost all of their projects were erected in the northern parts of the Bronx, where land was relatively inexpensive, the extensive parkland provided open space for recreation, and the subway lines allowed rapid commutation to Manhattan's garment factories. Most of the cooperative societies purchased land adjacent to parks indicating just how important light, air, and recreational opportunity were to people who had lived on the Lower East Side and worked in sweatshops.
At the same time that the Communist-aligned United Workers' Association was erecting its first complex, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union (ACW), a large union closely allied with the Socialist Party, was planning its first cooperative housing on Van Cortlandt Park South (Springsteen & Goldhammer, architects). Amalgamated purchased the land in 1924 (prior to the United Workers' purchase) and erected a large five-story walk-up complex that opened in 1927.
With the addition of other buildings, Amalgamated Houses eventually became the largest cooperative housing society. In addition, the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and five other garment unions organized the Labor Home Building Corporation in 1925. With the backing of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., this organization began construction of the Thomas Garden Apartments (Andrew J. Thomas, architect) at 840 Grand Concourse opposite Franz Sigel Park (this section of the park is now the site of the Bronx County Building). In the following year ground was broken for the Yiddish Cooperative Heim Gesellschaft (better known as the Sholom Aleichem Houses; Springsteen & Goldhammer, architects) on Jerome Park, a complex erected by Jews who wished to preserve Yiddish culture.
Simultaneously, the Jewish National Workers Cooperative Home Association, an organization dedicated to furthering the Zionist cause, erected its first building (generally referred to as Farband Houses; Meisner & Uffner, architects) on Williamsbridge Road.
The Second Project (2846-2870 Bronx Park East)
In 1927 construction began on the second portion of the United Workers' Cooperative Colony, sited on the block immediately to the north of the original complex.
This project consists of two, five-story, U-shaped buildings, each with a large central landscaped courtyard looking out onto Bronx Park. These buildings cover even less land than the earlier complex, only forty-six percent of the site; the remainder of the site contains the courtyards, a wide landscaped passage between the structures, and light courts on the street elevations. The design of the new buildings was commissioned from Herman Jessor.
Herman Jessor (c.1895-1990) was bom in Russia and came to the United States as a youth. Like Springsteen and Goldhammer, for whom he worked in the 1920s, Jessor attended Cooper Union. Jessor not only worked for the United Workers' Association, but according to his obituary in the New York Times, was also hired by the Amalgamated Cooperative Houses in 1927.
He continued to design non-profit cooperatives after World War II and was responsible for such monumental cooperative projects as the ILGWU's Penn Station South buildings on West 23rd Street in Manhattan; Co-op City in the Bronx; and Starrett City in Brooklyn. In total, he is said to have "helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City."
The second complex differs from the first in both layout and style. Unlike the first buildings which were designed with a street wall along Bronx Park East that is pierced only by a modest entrance leading to the inner courtyard, the later buildings open onto Bronx Park East so that the gardens appear to be a continuation of the parkland. The private courtyard is separated from the street by a raised podium accessible from Bronx Park East by stairs. This maintains the privacy of the complex from the outside, but from within the court, accentuates the visual connection to the parkland by making the sidewalk and street unobtrusive. In order to continue the east-west axis introduced in the earlier buildings, the solid Barker Avenue street wall is pierced by arched tunnels.
Unlike the traditional neo-Tudor style of the original buildings, the second complex was designed in an avant-garde Expressionist mode reminiscent of the progressive housing complexes that had recently been erected in Northern Europe, especially in Amsterdam.^ Of special interest on the Bronx buildings is the use of brick to create texture and pattern, a hallmark of the Amsterdam School. Corbelled and faceted brick forms and soldier courses accentuate elements of the design, such as entrances, piers, and parapets at the roofline. It is probable that members of the United Workers' Association became aware of the progressive housing complexes erected by and for politically-active workers in Europe during the 1910s and 1920s and consciously chose the style as a reflection of their own similar progressive ideals; this complex appears to be the earliest appearance of expressionist design motifs in New York.
As in the earlier complex, light, air, and privacy were of utmost importance in the planning of the second project. All of the rooms in the 356 apartments overlook the courtyards, the street, or the landscaped passageway between the buildings; ground-floor apartments are raised above street level; and multiple entrances are provided.
The construction of these buildings was financed through a mortgage and a second bond issue. Financial problems had begun to occur as early as 1927 since the association's funds could not adequately cover the purchase of the highest quality goods and, ironically, the high cost of doing business only with union contractors. Following a foreclosure action in 1928, ownership, but not management, was transferred to the mortgage company.
In 1933, the mortgage company went bankrupt; the new mortgage holder allowed what was then known as the Workers Colony Corporation to continue management until 1943. In that year, the project was sold to a private landlord and a tenant association was formed to work with the new management.
The Cooperative Community
More than just a place to live, the United Workers Cooperative Colony was a community of like-minded people who organized a complex social network with a variety of activities that furthered the members' ideological aims. Spaces within the buildings, generally at the basement level, were set aside to accommodate the various social, educational, and cultural programs undertaken by the cooperators. Since the buildings are raised above ground level (to provide privacy to first floor apartments), these rooms have high ceilings and receive natural light.
Many of the activities were geared toward the children in the complex, with particular emphasis placed on training them as the future leaders of the masses. A 1934 issue of the cooperative's monthly Bulletin noted that one of its goals was "the education of our children in the Leninist spirit ... the bringing up of our children to be healthy, strong proletarian fighters."^ In the Schules children learned about progressive politics and about secular Jewish culture. Schule No. 1 was organized for children between the ages of six and twelve, while older children could attend the Mittel Schule.
At these schools pupils were taught to read and write Yiddish (most children already spoke Yiddish), the language of the Jewish people, as opposed to Hebrew which was considered to be a language of the elite. In the 1930s Schule No. 7, with over 250 students, was thought to be the largest secular Jewish school in the United States. Preschool age children were enrolled in a kindergarten and day nursery, open from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. so that working parents could leave their children in a safe environment.
The nursery teachers were bilingual, since in many families Yiddish was the first language.
The needs of the colony's children were also accommodated in a youth center with a director hired by the cultural committee of the Colony. The director organized discussions and special events, such as Negro History Week, and coordinated various clubs (photography, science, writing, weight lifting, baseball and other sports, fife and drum, etc.), each with its own basement room. Even in these clubs politics was not forgotten; Emie Rymer, who grew up in the complex, recounted: the "Roy Wrights" club, for example, was named after one of the Scottsboro Boys; the "Ella May Wiggins" girls took their name from a murdered leader of textile strikers in Gastonia, North Carolina; the Science Club's formal title was "The J.B.S. Haldane Scientific Society," honoring the British Biologist. Even the fife and drum corps claimed an illustrious name -The Haywood Maroons - after "Big Bill" Haywood, a long-time leader of the Western miners.
The cooperative also offered an extensive programs for adults, with at least one activity almost every evening. These included discussion groups, lectures, dance groups, theater groups, a chorus, a music school, a balalaika and mandolin orchestra, and the Russian Club (for the study of Russian politics). Many activities took place in the colony's assembly hall or its gymnasium. The cooperative also had an extensive library with books in English, Yiddish, and Russian for children and adults; it ran a health clinic with a doctor and a dentist; and organized a group of cooperative stores on Allerton Avenue.
Description (2700-2774 Bronx Park East)
The first project at the United Workers' Cooperative Colony, erected on the block bounded by Bronx Park East on the west, Barker Avenue on the east, Allerton Avenue on the south, and Britton Street on the north, consists of four five-story and raised basement apartment houses designed in the neo-Tudor style. The walk-up buildings are arranged in two groups, each with a modified C-shaped footprint; their open sides face each other to create a large landscaped courtyard. Light courts punctuate the street fronts; two courts are cut into the long facades on Allerton Avenue and Britton Street and a single court is found on the east and west facade of each building.
On Bronx Park East and Barker Avenue, the buildings are separated by forty-five-foot-wide openings that lead to the multiple building entrances located within the courtyard. On Bronx Park East the courtyard is separated from the street by a low stair Ranked by stuccoed walls; on Barker Avenue, the courtyard entrance is at street level and is flanked by stuccoed walls.
The buildings are faced almost entirely in bumed brick (dark bricks that were given a bumed appearance in firing) laid in Flemish bond. On the street facades, the basement level is stuccoed and the upper walls are enlivened with Tudor-inspired stucco and wooden half-timber elements. All of the street facades are similar in their fenestration and detail. Each is anchored by low comer towers with corbelled brickwork and open parapets.
The light court openings are flanked, at the fourth and fifth stories, by pseudo-half-timbered gables, each of which incorporates two window bays (on Britton Street, only one side of each court has a gable); the slopes of the gables have slate siding. An ornamental chimney rises from the side of each gable. Additional half-timbering is found on the fifth story between the gables; these timbered bands are capped by parapets clad in vari-coiored slate. Within the light courts are modest towers and ornamental brick parapets. Some of the courts are ornamented with fields of stucco that rise from the second story to the fifth story.
All of the windows originally had multipane double-hung wood sash (two-over-two, six-over-six, or eight-over-eight, depending on the size of the window). As part of a rehabilitation project begun in 1986 the windows were replaced by aluminum sash with applied exterior muntin grids that reflect the configuration of the original sash. In the western light court facing Allerton Avenue is an entrance door that now leads into the building's management office; this apparently was the location of the original health clinic. Fire escapes are attached to the facades at various locations.
The courtyard facades are also faced with brick, but they are ornamented with fields of stucco and lack the half-timbered gables of the street facades. These stuccoed areas, with irregular brick borders, are generally two bays wide and rise the full height of the building. The roofline of the courtyard elevations is enlivened by corbelled parapets and chimneys. At their entrance passages, the courtyards are relatively narrow (forty-five feet wide), but the width of the court expands in the center, where it encompasses about half the width of the block.
The paths in the courtyard are aligned around lawns and flower beds, with a large built-up bed in the center; there are two stone constructions in the court that were originally part of fountains.
Arrayed around the courtyard are the building entrances, which occur individually and in pairs and take various forms.
For example, near the Bronx Park entry are shallow projecting rubblestone entries articulated by round-arched doorways flanked with small round-arched windows, all capped by gabled hoods with slate roofing; further within the courtyard are paired round-arched entrances, each with a gabled hood. The majority of the entrances are set within Tudor-arched limestone enframements, each capped by a drip lintel; these entries have either a single door or are wider and have paired doors (the original wooden doors have been replaced by steel doors that maintain the original configuration). The spandrels of some of these arched entries are unomamented, while others are carved with symbols reflecting the political or cultural ideals of the residents: entrance H has a curtain and comedy and tragedy masks (theater and culture); entrance J has a hammer, sickle, and compass (communism); entrance L has figs and palm leaves (Jewish culture); entrance WXY has smoking factories (the working class); and entrance Z has books, a globe, and a compass (learning).
The Second Project (2846-2870 Bronx Park East)
The second group of buildings erected as part of the United Workers' Cooperative Colony is located on the block bounded by Bronx Park East on the west, Barker Avenue on the east, Britton Street on the south, and Amow Avenue on the north. It consists of two five-story and raised basement, U-shaped, walk-up buildings designed in an Expressionist style derived from Northern European sources.
A wide landscaped passage, running between Bronx Park East and Barker Avenue, separates the two buildings. The outer facades, facing onto the streets and the passage, are articulated by a series of light courts - three on each of the long east-west elevations and two on the east elevation of each building. The two buildings are similar in design and plan. Large landscaped courtyards open onto Bronx Park East. These courtyards are set above the street level and are entered from stairs flanked by buttressed, stepped brick walls. The courtyards can also be entered from Barker Avenue via short steps leading to segmentally-arched tunnels with complex brick surrounds.
The buildings are clad in brick laid in patterns that accentuate the texture of the material, using an unusual bond formed by two rows of headers and a single row of stretchers alternating with headers that are pulled forward. Many of the bricks (including most of the headers) are burned. Additional texture is provided by soldier courses, corbelled parapets, and panels of patterned brick. The buildings have eccentric silhouettes formed with stepped parapets, complex pediments, piers, and corbelled towers.
Many of these roof forms have white terra-cotta coping, but others are capped by Spanish tile. Near the roofline are several small round openings covered with iron guards. Fire escapes are attached to the facades at various locations.
Single and paired windows are arranged in vertical and horizontal groups, many demarcated by brick patterns. The original multipane double-hung wood sash was replaced by multipane aluminum sash in conjunction with the rehabilitation project in 1986. Within each of the courtyards are separate entrances, many with complex brick surrounds. Each of these originally contained single or paired wood doors with eccentrically-shaped windows. They have been replaced by steel doors; several copy the original design. Within each courtyard is a large centra! lawn, with smaller lawns adjacent to the buildings. Straight sidewalks lead from the courtyard entrances to the apartment doors.
Later History
Although the cooperative failed financially early in the Depression, and became a rental complex in 1943, the community continued to function in much the same manner as it had in its early years. However, dramatic changes occurred in the outside world that had a profound affect on the colony. These included the success of the garment unions in gaining better working conditions and advances in wage, health, retirement, and other benefits, thus dampening some of the activist fervor of the members. The American entry into World War II and the colony's support of United States government in the fight to defeat Hitler (a number of colony residents were killed in the war), as well as the residents' increasing disillusionment with Stalin also affected the political outlook of colony residents.
During the immediate post-war era, when Senator Joseph McCarthy and others undertook Communist "witch hunts," all residents of the colony became suspect. This apparently led some residents to move and others to become less vocal in their advocacy of progressive politics. The most profound changes, however, came about because the children of the colony's original residents did not become leaders of the masses as had been anticipated and did not, in general, settle in the colony's buildings.
Education had always been encouraged in the colony, and most colony children went on to college and graduate school, entered the professions, and dispersed throughout the country; few became industrial workers. As the original residents moved out or died, as new apolitical residents moved in, and as times and issues changed, the political activism of the colony ebbed, although as late as the 1960s, the remaining residents were involved in the peace, civil rights, and other progressive political movements.
By the late 1970s almost all of the original residents were gone. The buildings were deteriorating, as a succession of landlords had neglected maintenance. In the mid-1980s, a new owner, Allerton Associates, purchased the complex and undertook an extensive rehabilitation project that included new systems, facade restoration, new windows, and other improvements to the physical character of the buildings.
- From the 1992 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
Venturing outside of the bustling clinic, I follow the children with playful looks on their faces as they scurry down the dirt roads.
Reaching the end of Yansoon Street, I stop in my tracks. Silence. Oh, the serenity of silence. So silent that you wouldn't even notice the three youngsters who are frozen in action. Monkeying around but careful not to get caught.
The children of Zaatari Camp don't wait for playgrounds to be built. They create them.
Zaatari Camp | Mafraq | Jordan
*Photographed with parental consent
Here are the removable portions of the rack. They are very easily removed by removing the inserted clevis pins; and then lifting strait up/off the permanent rack. The removable rack tube inserts over the permanent rack where smaller diameter tubes have been welded inside the main tube. As such the clevis pins hold no weight, and merely just keep the rack locked in place. They are superfluous for travel in this regard. When removed I can stack all components within each other and store underneath the camper while camping. Don't want to look like Sanford and Son...
Apartments, Baker Avenue, Allerton, Bronx
The United Worker's Cooperative Colony (often referred to as "The Coops" or the "Allerton Coops") in the Bronx is not only distinguished for its architectural merit, but is also historically significant as one of the most important of the non-profit cooperative housing complexes built in New York City during the 1920s. The two-square-block colony, erected in two construction campaigns (1926-27 and 1927-29), was built by the United Workers' Association, a group which was at the forefront of the cooperative housing movement.
Composed primarily of secular Jewish needle-trade workers with communist political leanings, the group sought to improve living conditions for its members and to create a vibrant community of socially and politically active individuals. The Association erected its buildings in an undeveloped region of the Bronx, adjacent to the open space of Bronx Park. The new apartment houses were designed to meet high standards, with apartment layouts, open space, and amenities rivaling and, in some instances, surpassing those provided in contemporary middle-class housing.
The Colony encouraged cooperative activity in all aspects of life and was therefore equipped with classrooms, a library, a gymnasium, and other facilities for social interaction. The first complex, built in 1926-27, is a fine example of traditional neo-Tudor design with unusual ornamentation reflective of the Colony's political and social ideals; it was designed by Springsteen & Goldhammer, an important firm involved in progressive housing projects in the Bronx. The second complex, built in 1927-29, was designed in an avant-garde architectural mode inspired by Northern European Expressionist architecture; it is a significant work by Herman Jessor, an architect who was to become the most prolific designer of non-profit cooperative buildings in New York City.
Together the Colony's complexes housed over 700 families. These quality, cooperatively-owned residences, in which all members had an equal voice in management and were prohibited from selling apartments at a profit, represent the efforts of an idealistic group of primarily young Eastern European Jewish immigrants to provide affordable housing that would be an alternative to the tenements of the Lower East Side. Although financially the Colony failed, architecturally and socially it was a success.
The United Workers' Cooperative Association
The United Workers' Cooperative Colony was erected as a response to the appalling living conditions that many new immigrants experienced in New York. During the final decades of the nineteenth century and first decades of the twentieth century (before immigration was halted in 1924) approximately two million Eastern European Jews immigrated to the United States. Many of these people initially settled in the overcrowded and deteriorating tenements of New York's Lower East Side.
A large percentage of these Jewish immigrants were employed in the rapidly expanding garment industry where they toiled in sweatshops with abysmal working conditions or undertook piecework in their homes.
The intolerable living and working environments experienced by these immigrants led to the radicalization of a significant portion of the Jewish community. This was especially true of the immigrants who arrived between 1904 and 1914, including most of the founders of the United Workers' Cooperative Association. Many of these people had already become politicized in Europe, where discrimination under the czar, pogroms (notably between 1903 and 1906), and the suppression of the 1905 revolution in Russia had aroused political consciousness.
This radical inclination, coupled with the circumstances of life in America, placed Jewish immigrants in the forefront of radical political activism in this country, first in the Socialist Party, and, after its establishment in 1919, in the American Communist Party. As might be expected, much of this activity manifested itself in the labor movement, especially the organization of garment unions. The United Workers' Association was founded out of this development of a radical labor movement.
The genesis of the United Workers' Cooperative Association is somewhat obscure, but it appears that by the middle of the 1910s a group of young, politically active, left-wing, secular Jewish, Yiddish-speaking, immigrant garment workers had joined together to live in a cooperative environment. A major early venture was the leasing of a five-story apartment house at 1815 Madison Avenue on the comer of East 118th Street where the members had ten cooperative apartments, a cooperative restaurant, and a library.
In addition, the new organization purchased 250 acres overlooking the Hudson River near Beacon, New York, and in 1922 opened Camp Nitgedaeget (Yiddish for "Camp Don't Worry*) where members could spend time in the country ^ An advertisement published in 1930 recommended Camp Nitgedaeget as "the first proletarian camp for workers. The success of the small cooperative in Harlem and of the camp, as well as the pressing need for decent housing, prompted the United Workers' Association to venture into the construction of cooperative housing in 1925. This was a natural outgrowth of the organization's ideology. The idea of building a residential community where all residents would share equally in ownership and management and where there would be no profit motive, appealed to these communist-inspired workers.
The Neighborhood
In 1925, the United Workers' Association purchased land on Bronx Park East. The site was located near the eastern edge of what had been the Lorillard estate, most of which earlier had been incorporated into Bronx Park. At the time of this purchase, the immediate area was sparsely settled, but ripe for development. In reminiscing about her experiences, one original resident, Bella Halebsky, described the surroundings:
The very first time I visited this area, we saw absolutely a virgin neighborhood, unpopulated with the exception of Bronx Park East going south: about two blocks before Pelham Parkway there already existed a couple of private houses. There were no apartment houses. The elevated line was up, and the streets were already laid out, with the water lines in, and things like that.
Real estate development in the Bronx Park East area was inevitable following the 1917 opening of the elevated White Plains Line of the I.R.T. subway which ran only two blocks east of the park; World War I and the real estate depression that followed dampened development interest before the mid-1920s. The elevated White Plains Line (now part of the Nos. 2 and 5 lines) connected the North Central Bronx to the older Seventh Avenue and Lexington Avenue subway lines. The area was especially convenient for members of the United Workers' Association since the train provided easy commuting to the new garment factories near Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan where most members worked.
Non-Profit Cooperative Housing in America
Cooperative apartment houses began to appear in New York in the 1880s, at about the same time as multiple dwellings gained acceptance by affluent people.** These early cooperatives were profit-making ventures.
In a traditional profit-making cooperative the building is owned by a corporation in which each buyer purchases a number of shares and pays a monthly fee for the maintenance of the property. This fee is relative to the apartment's size and its location within the building. The shareholders vote for members of the cooperative's board of directors; the number of votes held by each shareholder is relative to the number of shares owned. When a cooperator chooses to sell, he or she is free to sell the shares at a profit, as long as the Board of the cooperative corporation approves the buyer.
The first cooperative apartment house in New York was the Rembrandt (Philip G. Hubert, architect), erected by Jared Flagg on West 57th Street in 1880-81. Flagg promoted the idea of "group ownership" in several later buildings and the idea was also appropriated by other builders. A second wave of cooperative development occurred in the early years of the twentieth century.
This included the construction of a series of cooperative duplex studio buildings intended for artists. The success of these duplex cooperatives led to the increasing popularity of cooperatives among the city's wealthiest residents. During the 1920s, the construction of cooperatives expanded into the middle-class housing market with such projects as the Queensboro Corporation's buildings in Jackson Heights, Queens, and developer Charles Patemo's Hudson View Gardens complex in Washington Heights.
These profit-making cooperative projects were among the finest housing in New York City, but none had an impact on the housing conditions of the vast majority of New York residents who could not afford to move into these new buildings or who were, for ethnic reasons, often denied residence in the restricted cooperatives.
Non-profit cooperatives were built exclusively by societies or associations composed of working people and were part of a larger movement in the United States that sought to organize cooperative ventures in all aspects of life.
Unlike traditional cooperatives, non-profit cooperatives were founded on a belief that all shareholders should be equal and that the members should be "home-seekers, not profit-seekers."
In a cooperative society, the association owns the building, with each resident allotted a single share, regardless of the price paid, or the size and location of an apartment. Thus, each shareholder has an equal voice in the running of the cooperative. If a cooperator wishes to sell his or her apartment, the society repurchases the unit at the same price originally paid (often with interest); no profit is made on the sale.
The Cooperative League of the United States of America summed up the aims of the non-profit cooperative movement in 1924 by stating that a cooperative housing association is "composed of people who unite to secure attractive homes; homes built and run, not for profit but for the service of the occupants."
The earliest housing cooperatives in the United States were organized by Finnish immigrants who settled in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn.
Early in the twentieth century, Finnish enclaves appeared in Harlem and in Brooklyn; by 1910, Brooklyn's "Finntown" is thought to have had a population of over 10,000." decent housing was difficult to find in Sunset Park so, in 1916, twenty Finnish families organized a non-profit housing society called the Finnish Home Building Association "Alku" is Finnish for beginning). Although a novel idea in America, the organization of such a society by Finns was a logical outgrowth of the popularity of cooperative ventures in Finland. The success of the small four-story building, located at 816 43rd Street, led to the construction of the adjacent Alku II and then to the appearance of over twenty-five other Finnish cooperatives.
The 1920s saw the establishment of many cooperative housing societies, as Jewish garment workers became involved in the movement. Almost all of their projects were erected in the northern parts of the Bronx, where land was relatively inexpensive, the extensive parkland provided open space for recreation, and the subway
lines allowed rapid commutation to Manhattan's garment factories. Most of the cooperative societies purchased land adjacent to parks indicating just how important light, air, and recreational opportunity were to people who had lived on the Lower East Side and worked in sweatshops.
At the same time that the Communist-aligned United Workers' Association was erecting its first complex, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union (ACW), a large union closely allied with the Socialist Party, was planning its first cooperative housing on Van Cortlandt Park South (Springsteen & Goldhammer, architects). Amalgamated purchased the land in 1924 (prior to the United Workers' purchase) and erected a large five-story walk-up complex that opened in 1927.
With the addition of other buildings, Amalgamated Houses eventually became the largest cooperative housing society. In addition, the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and five other garment unions organized the Labor Home Building Corporation in 1925. With the backing of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., this organization began construction of the Thomas Garden Apartments (Andrew J. Thomas, architect) at 840 Grand Concourse opposite Franz Sigel Park (this section of the park is now the site of the Bronx County Building). In the following year ground was broken for the Yiddish Cooperative Heim Gesellschaft (better known as the Sholom Aleichem Houses; Springsteen & Goldhammer, architects) on Jerome Park, a complex erected by Jews who wished to preserve Yiddish culture. Simultaneously, the Jewish National Workers Cooperative Home Association, an organization dedicated to furthering the Zionist cause, erected its first building (generally referred to as Farband Houses; Meisner & Uffner, architects) on Williamsbridge Road.
The Second Project (2846-2870 Bronx Park East)
In 1927 construction began on the second portion of the United Workers' Cooperative Colony, sited on the block immediately to the north of the original complex.
This project consists of two, five-story, U-shaped buildings, each with a large central landscaped courtyard looking out onto Bronx Park. These buildings cover even less land than the earlier complex, only forty-six percent of the site; the remainder of the site contains the courtyards, a wide landscaped passage between the structures, and light courts on the street elevations. The design of the new buildings was commissioned from Herman Jessor.
Herman Jessor (c.1895-1990) was bom in Russia and came to the United States as a youth. Like Springsteen and Goldhammer, for whom he worked in the 1920s, Jessor attended Cooper Union. Jessor not only worked for the United Workers' Association, but according to his obituary in the New York Times, was also hired by the Amalgamated Cooperative Houses in 1927.
He continued to design non-profit cooperatives after World War II and was responsible for such monumental cooperative projects as the ILGWU's Penn Station South buildings on West 23rd Street in Manhattan; Co-op City in the Bronx; and Starrett City in Brooklyn. In total, he is said to have "helped build more than 40,000 units of cooperative housing in New York City."
The second complex differs from the first in both layout and style. Unlike the first buildings which were designed with a street wall along Bronx Park East that is pierced only by a modest entrance leading to the inner courtyard, the later buildings open onto Bronx Park East so that the gardens appear to be a continuation of the parkland. The private courtyard is separated from the street by a raised podium accessible from Bronx Park East by stairs. This maintains the privacy of the complex from the outside, but from within the court, accentuates the visual connection to the parkland by making the sidewalk and street unobtrusive. In order to continue the east-west axis introduced in the earlier buildings, the solid Barker Avenue street wall is pierced by arched tunnels.
Unlike the traditional neo-Tudor style of the original buildings, the second complex was designed in an avant-garde Expressionist mode reminiscent of the progressive housing complexes that had recently been erected in Northern Europe, especially in Amsterdam.^ Of special interest on the Bronx buildings is the use of brick to create texture and pattern, a hallmark of the Amsterdam School. Corbelled and faceted brick forms and soldier courses accentuate elements of the design, such as entrances, piers, and parapets at the roofline. It is probable that members of the United Workers' Association became aware of the progressive housing complexes erected by and for politically-active workers in Europe during the 1910s and 1920s and consciously chose the style as a reflection of their own similar progressive ideals; this complex appears to be the earliest appearance of expressionist design motifs in New York.
As in the earlier complex, light, air, and privacy were of utmost importance in the planning of the second project. All of the rooms in the 356 apartments overlook the courtyards, the street, or the landscaped passageway between the buildings; ground-floor apartments are raised above street level; and multiple entrances are provided.
The construction of these buildings was financed through a mortgage and a second bond issue. Financial problems had begun to occur as early as 1927 since the association's funds could not adequately cover the purchase of the highest quality goods and, ironically, the high cost of doing business only with union contractors. Following a foreclosure action in 1928, ownership, but not management, was transferred to the mortgage company.
In 1933, the mortgage company went bankrupt; the new mortgage holder allowed what was then known as the Workers Colony Corporation to continue management until 1943. In that year, the project was sold to a private landlord and a tenant association was formed to work with the new management.
The Cooperative Community
More than just a place to live, the United Workers Cooperative Colony was a community of like-minded people who organized a complex social network with a variety of activities that furthered the members' ideological aims. Spaces within the buildings, generally at the basement level, were set aside to accommodate the various social, educational, and cultural programs undertaken by the cooperators. Since the buildings are raised above ground level (to provide privacy to first floor apartments), these rooms have high ceilings and receive natural light.
Many of the activities were geared toward the children in the complex, with particular emphasis placed on training them as the future leaders of the masses. A 1934 issue of the cooperative's monthly Bulletin noted that one of its goals was "the education of our children in the Leninist spirit ... the bringing up of our children to be healthy, strong proletarian fighters."^ In the Schules children learned about progressive politics and about secular Jewish culture. Schule No. 1 was organized for children between the ages of six and twelve, while older children could attend the Mittel Schule.
At these schools pupils were taught to read and write Yiddish (most children already spoke Yiddish), the language of the Jewish people, as opposed to Hebrew which was considered to be a language of the elite. In the 1930s Schule No. 7, with over 250 students, was thought to be the largest secular Jewish school in the United States. Preschool age children were enrolled in a kindergarten and day nursery, open from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. so that working parents could leave their children in a safe environment.
The nursery teachers were bilingual, since in many families Yiddish was the first language.
The needs of the colony's children were also accommodated in a youth center with a director hired by the cultural committee of the Colony. The director organized discussions and special events, such as Negro History Week, and coordinated various clubs (photography, science, writing, weight lifting, baseball and other sports, fife and drum, etc.), each with its own basement room. Even in these clubs politics was not forgotten; Emie Rymer, who grew up in the complex, recounted: the "Roy Wrights" club, for example, was named after one of the Scottsboro Boys; the "Ella May Wiggins" girls took their name from a murdered leader of textile strikers in Gastonia, North Carolina; the Science Club's formal title was "The J.B.S. Haldane Scientific Society," honoring the British Biologist. Even the fife and drum corps claimed an illustrious name -The Haywood Maroons - after "Big Bill" Haywood, a long-time leader of the Western miners.
The cooperative also offered an extensive programs for adults, with at least one activity almost every evening. These included discussion groups, lectures, dance groups, theater groups, a chorus, a music school, a balalaika and mandolin orchestra, and the Russian Club (for the study of Russian politics). Many activities took place in the colony's assembly hall or its gymnasium. The cooperative also had an extensive library with books in English, Yiddish, and Russian for children and adults; it ran a health clinic with a doctor and a dentist; and organized a group of cooperative stores on Allerton Avenue.
Description (2700-2774 Bronx Park East)
The first project at the United Workers' Cooperative Colony, erected on the block bounded by Bronx Park East on the west, Barker Avenue on the east, Allerton Avenue on the south, and Britton Street on the north, consists of four five-story and raised basement apartment houses designed in the neo-Tudor style. The walk-up buildings are arranged in two groups, each with a modified C-shaped footprint; their open sides face each other to create a large landscaped courtyard. Light courts punctuate the street fronts; two courts are cut into the long facades on Allerton Avenue and Britton Street and a single court is found on the east and west facade of each building.
On Bronx Park East and Barker Avenue, the buildings are separated by forty-five-foot-wide openings that lead to the multiple building entrances located within the courtyard. On Bronx Park East the courtyard is separated from the street by a low stair Ranked by stuccoed walls; on Barker Avenue, the courtyard entrance is at street level and is flanked by stuccoed walls.
The buildings are faced almost entirely in bumed brick (dark bricks that were given a bumed appearance in firing) laid in Flemish bond. On the street facades, the basement level is stuccoed and the upper walls are enlivened with Tudor-inspired stucco and wooden half-timber elements. All of the street facades are similar in their fenestration and detail. Each is anchored by low comer towers with corbelled brickwork and open parapets.
The light court openings are flanked, at the fourth and fifth stories, by pseudo-half-timbered gables, each of which incorporates two window bays (on Britton Street, only one side of each court has a gable); the slopes of the gables have slate siding. An ornamental chimney rises from the side of each gable. Additional half-timbering is found on the fifth story between the gables; these timbered bands are capped by parapets clad in vari-coiored slate. Within the light courts are modest towers and ornamental brick parapets. Some of the courts are ornamented with fields of stucco that rise from the second story to the fifth story.
All of the windows originally had multipane double-hung wood sash (two-over-two, six-over-six, or eight-over-eight, depending on the size of the window). As part of a rehabilitation project begun in 1986 the windows were replaced by aluminum sash with applied exterior muntin grids that reflect the configuration of the original sash. In the western light court facing Allerton Avenue is an entrance door that now leads into the building's management office; this apparently was the location of the original health clinic. Fire escapes are attached to the facades at various locations.
The courtyard facades are also faced with brick, but they are ornamented with fields of stucco and lack the half-timbered gables of the street facades. These stuccoed areas, with irregular brick borders, are generally two bays wide and rise the full height of the building. The roofline of the courtyard elevations is enlivened by corbelled parapets and chimneys. At their entrance passages, the courtyards are relatively narrow (forty-five feet wide), but the width of the court expands in the center, where it encompasses about half the width of the block.
The paths in the courtyard are aligned around lawns and flower beds, with a large built-up bed in the center; there are two stone constructions in the court that were originally part of fountains.
Arrayed around the courtyard are the building entrances, which occur individually and in pairs and take various forms. For example, near the Bronx Park entry are shallow projecting rubblestone entries articulated by round-arched doorways flanked with small round-arched windows, all capped by gabled hoods with slate roofing; further within the courtyard are paired round-arched entrances, each with a gabled hood. The majority of the entrances are set within Tudor-arched limestone enframements, each capped by a drip lintel; these entries have either a single door or are wider and have paired doors (the original wooden doors have been replaced by steel doors that maintain the original configuration). The spandrels of some of these arched entries are unomamented, while others are carved with symbols reflecting the political or cultural ideals of the residents: entrance H has a curtain and comedy and tragedy masks (theater and culture); entrance J has a hammer, sickle, and compass (communism); entrance L has figs and palm leaves (Jewish culture); entrance WXY has smoking factories (the working class); and entrance Z has books, a globe, and a compass (learning).
The Second Project (2846-2870 Bronx Park East)
The second group of buildings erected as part of the United Workers' Cooperative Colony is located on the block bounded by Bronx Park East on the west, Barker Avenue on the east, Britton Street on the south, and Amow Avenue on the north. It consists of two five-story and raised basement, U-shaped, walk-up buildings designed in an Expressionist style derived from Northern European sources.
A wide landscaped passage, running between Bronx Park East and Barker Avenue, separates the two buildings. The outer facades, facing onto the streets and the passage, are articulated by a series of light courts - three on each of the long east-west elevations and two on the east elevation of each building. The two buildings are similar in design and plan. Large landscaped courtyards open onto Bronx Park East. These courtyards are set above the street level and are entered from stairs flanked by buttressed, stepped brick walls. The courtyards can also be entered from Barker Avenue via short steps leading to segmentally-arched tunnels with complex brick surrounds.
The buildings are clad in brick laid in patterns that accentuate the texture of the material, using an unusual bond formed by two rows of headers and a single row of stretchers alternating with headers that are pulled forward. Many of the bricks (including most of the headers) are burned. Additional texture is provided by soldier courses, corbelled parapets, and panels of patterned brick. The buildings have eccentric silhouettes formed with stepped parapets, complex pediments, piers, and corbelled towers.
Many of these roof forms have white terra-cotta coping, but others are capped by Spanish tile. Near the roofline are several small round openings covered with iron guards. Fire escapes are attached to the facades at various locations.
Single and paired windows are arranged in vertical and horizontal groups, many demarcated by brick patterns. The original multipane double-hung wood sash was replaced by multipane aluminum sash in conjunction with the rehabilitation project in 1986. Within each of the courtyards are separate entrances, many with complex brick surrounds. Each of these originally contained single or paired wood doors with eccentrically-shaped windows. They have been replaced by steel doors; several copy the original design. Within each courtyard is a large centra! lawn, with smaller lawns adjacent to the buildings. Straight sidewalks lead from the courtyard entrances to the apartment doors.
Later History
Although the cooperative failed financially early in the Depression, and became a rental complex in 1943, the community continued to function in much the same manner as it had in its early years. However, dramatic changes occurred in the outside world that had a profound affect on the colony. These included the success of the garment unions in gaining better working conditions and advances in wage, health, retirement, and other benefits, thus dampening some of the activist fervor of the members. The American entry into World War II and the colony's support of United States government in the fight to defeat Hitler (a number of colony residents were killed in the war), as well as the residents' increasing disillusionment with Stalin also affected the political outlook of colony residents.
During the immediate post-war era, when Senator Joseph McCarthy and others undertook Communist "witch hunts," all residents of the colony became suspect. This apparently led some residents to move and others to become less vocal in their advocacy of progressive politics. The most profound changes, however, came about because the children of the colony's original residents did not become leaders of the masses as had been anticipated and did not, in general, settle in the colony's buildings.
Education had always been encouraged in the colony, and most colony children went on to college and graduate school, entered the professions, and dispersed throughout the country; few became industrial workers. As the original residents moved out or died, as new apolitical residents moved in, and as times and issues changed, the political activism of the colony ebbed, although as late as the 1960s, the remaining residents were involved in the peace, civil rights, and other progressive political movements.
By the late 1970s almost all of the original residents were gone. The buildings were deteriorating, as a succession of landlords had neglected maintenance. In the mid-1980s, a new owner, Allerton Associates, purchased the complex and undertook an extensive rehabilitation project that included new systems, facade restoration, new windows, and other improvements to the physical character of the buildings.
- From the 1992 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
More from camping. Don't they look grubby? This is several days sans-showering!
I swear, I am trying to post more regularly, but we've been so terribly busy at the office that I've been distracted. Must post! Also, I should probably renew my pro account, already.
So, you say you've never been to camp before? And you think you know the camp routine cold, but the director won't let you have the job?
Or you want to run the waterfront, but you can't even swim in cold water?
If you fit any of the above descriptions, this book is for you!
It will make veteran campers out of new ones, cool campers out of veterans.
It will make all campers laugh!
Here's a sample of what's inside:
• How to look like a cool camper
• 10 kids you'll find at every camp
• 9 counselors you won't be able to avoid
• A complete letter-writing-guide – how to mystify you parents and impress your friends
Are you really ready for summer camp? Don't worry. After reading this book, you'll be ready for anything!
Illustrations by Jerry Zimmerman
United Workers Cooperative Colony (1926–27)
Architect: Springsteen & Goldhammer
2700–58 Bronx Park East
Allerton, Bronx
The project was established as a non-profit trade union cooperative by the United Workers’ Association. Union members were mostly involved in the needle trades. Most were non-religious Jews and many were Communists. (Jewish holidays and traditional ceremonies were not celebrated.) There were a sprinkling of non-Jewish and black or inter-racial families. Residents were called "coopniks". The complex housed 339 families in the first section and 328 in the second. The raised basements featured classrooms, recreational facilities, a restaurant, a day-care center and a library. Shops in the neighborhood were sponsored by the organization. When completed, it was the largest cooperative housing complex in the U.S. Unlike private ownership cooperatives, in the Coops, tenants bought a single share in the cooperative. When they moved, the coop bought back the share at the same price originally paid. There was no profit to be made in selling apartments. By 1943, the Coop was bankrupt and became a rental property.
The United Workers' Association was founded in East Harlem in 1918. They first established a cooperative apartment building at 1815 Madison Ave. In 1922, they opened Camp Nitgedaeget ("Camp Don't Worry" in Yiddish) in Beacon, New York. Advertised as "the first proletarian camp for workers", it was the largest cooperative camp in America. Out of the organization grew the United Workers' Cooperative Association, founded in 1925. They bought property to the east of the New York Botanical Gardens. At the time, the East Bronx was being developed by speculators eager to entice upwardly mobile workers from the slums of Manhattan. Unfortunately, the onset of the Great Depression brought the cooperative movement to a grinding halt.
“The Coops” [pronounced coops, not co-ops] were the subject of the Independent Lens film AT HOME IN UTOPIA (2009).
© Matthew X. Kiernan
NYBAI14-4006
Hannah at the going-away party for the day camp. Don't be fooled by the jello-y substance in this cup; I was told it was BRAINS!
The name says it all. This 6-campsite camp is appealing for hunters – especially when they see the beautiful gathering shelter!
Not a hunter? Sportsman Camp may still be for you. You can explore the forest roads on your ATV or just enjoy the quiet of nature back at camp. Don’t let it’s previous name, Sweat Creek, scare you off! Last we checked it smelled like roses.
Discover Pass funds help keep this, and over 130 DNR recreation sites, open to the public. Your $30 Discover Pass not only gives you access to DNR-managed state land, but also to State Park and Washington Fish and Wildlife managed sites. Get your Discover Pass today at www.discoverpass.wa.gov
Photos by: DNR/Diana Lofflin
June 23, 2012
The name says it all. This 6-campsite camp is appealing for hunters – especially when they see the beautiful gathering shelter!
Not a hunter? Sportsman Camp may still be for you. You can explore the forest roads on your ATV or just enjoy the quiet of nature back at camp. Don’t let it’s previous name, Sweat Creek, scare you off! Last we checked it smelled like roses.
Discover Pass funds help keep this, and over 130 DNR recreation sites, open to the public. Your $30 Discover Pass not only gives you access to DNR-managed state land, but also to State Park and Washington Fish and Wildlife managed sites. Get your Discover Pass today at www.discoverpass.wa.gov
Photos by: DNR/Diana Lofflin
June 23, 2012
In the mid to late 1970s I was employed as a Residential Social Worker at a long-stay children and young person home in a south London borough. During my stay there I took many hundreds of photos of the youngsters in my care and of the activities in which we were involved.
Cooking at camp; don't know what modern regulations and risk assessment would make of this situation, frying at ground level, canvas just above the cooker, bare knees almost touching the stove, boy trapped behind the stove, it goes on - they were carefree days!
You can read some of my experiences whilst working at the home on my Wordpress blog:
opobs.wordpress.com/category/the-london-years/
This image is the copyright of © Michael John Stokes; Any users, found to replicate, reproduce, circulate, distribute, download, manipulate or otherwise use my images without my written consent will be in breach of copyright laws. Please contact me at mjs@opobs.co.uk for permission to use any of my photographs.
PLEASE NOTE: Before adding any of my photographs to your 'Favorites", please check out my policy on this issue on my profile.
United Workers Cooperative Colony (1927–29)
Architect: Herman Jessor with Stefan S. Sajo
2812–70 Bronx Park East
Allerton, Bronx
The project was established as a non-profit trade union cooperative by the United Workers’ Association. Union members were mostly involved in the needle trades. Most were non-religious Jews and many were Communists. (Jewish holidays and traditional ceremonies were not celebrated.) There were a sprinkling of non-Jewish and black or inter-racial families. Residents were called "coopniks". The complex housed 339 families in the first section and 328 in the second. The raised basements featured classrooms, recreational facilities, a restaurant, a day-care center and a library. Shops in the neighborhood were sponsored by the organization. When completed, it was the largest cooperative housing complex in the U.S. Unlike private ownership cooperatives, in the Coops, tenants bought a single share in the cooperative. When they moved, the coop bought back the share at the same price originally paid. There was no profit to be made in selling apartments. By 1943, the Coop was bankrupt and became a rental property.
The United Workers' Association was founded in East Harlem in 1918. They first established a cooperative apartment building at 1815 Madison Ave. In 1922, they opened Camp Nitgedaeget ("Camp Don't Worry" in Yiddish) in Beacon, New York. Advertised as "the first proletarian camp for workers", it was the largest cooperative camp in America. Out of the organization grew the United Workers' Cooperative Association, founded in 1925. They bought property to the east of the New York Botanical Gardens. At the time, the East Bronx was being developed by speculators eager to entice upwardly mobile workers from the slums of Manhattan. Unfortunately, the onset of the Great Depression brought the cooperative movement to a grinding halt.
“The Coops” [pronounced coops, not co-ops] were the subject of the Independent Lens film AT HOME IN UTOPIA (2009).
© Matthew X. Kiernan
NYBAI14-4002
April/May Hiking Trip.
Day 2. Monday, April 29th.
Tallulah Gorge State Park, GA.
My photos.
The Shortline bike trail was the best part of this day. We rode it twice. FINALLY got some quiet time in the woods. This place is SO noisy from the highway, but the Shortline was cool, quiet and pleasant.
This day was a huge disappointment. the place has a ton of rules and a schedule for water releases. We planned our entire trip around hiking the gorge using their schedule. We get their early Monday morning (only 100 passes per day allowed) and were told they're decided to extend the water release. WTF?! This is actually the 2nd time this happened to us. The first was on another trip and we detoured 200+ miles to hike the gorge, but it started sprinkling when we arrived and they closed it. And the girl at the campground was rude that day, so we didn’t even camp. Don't think we'll go back here again.
United Workers Cooperative Colony (1926–27)
Architect: Springsteen & Goldhammer
2700–58 Bronx Park East
Allerton, Bronx
The project was established as a non-profit trade union cooperative by the United Workers’ Association. Union members were mostly involved in the needle trades. Most were non-religious Jews and many were Communists. (Jewish holidays and traditional ceremonies were not celebrated.) There were a sprinkling of non-Jewish and black or inter-racial families. Residents were called "coopniks". The complex housed 339 families in the first section and 328 in the second. The raised basements featured classrooms, recreational facilities, a restaurant, a day-care center and a library. Shops in the neighborhood were sponsored by the organization. When completed, it was the largest cooperative housing complex in the U.S. Unlike private ownership cooperatives, in the Coops, tenants bought a single share in the cooperative. When they moved, the coop bought back the share at the same price originally paid. There was no profit to be made in selling apartments. By 1943, the Coop was bankrupt and became a rental property.
The United Workers' Association was founded in East Harlem in 1918. They first established a cooperative apartment building at 1815 Madison Ave. In 1922, they opened Camp Nitgedaeget ("Camp Don't Worry" in Yiddish) in Beacon, New York. Advertised as "the first proletarian camp for workers", it was the largest cooperative camp in America. Out of the organization grew the United Workers' Cooperative Association, founded in 1925. They bought property to the east of the New York Botanical Gardens. At the time, the East Bronx was being developed by speculators eager to entice upwardly mobile workers from the slums of Manhattan. Unfortunately, the onset of the Great Depression brought the cooperative movement to a grinding halt.
“The Coops” [pronounced coops, not co-ops] were the subject of the Independent Lens film AT HOME IN UTOPIA (2009).
© Matthew X. Kiernan
NYBAI14-3969
When Chad and me finished up our whiskey we looked around.
"This place looks like a fine camp, don't it son?"
"Yeah, I think you're right."
"So, what do you think we should do, kid?"
"I say we fight our way outa this damn place."
"I gotta say, I was thinkin about doin that exact thing. So where dya suppose we start on this whole thing?"
"Guns. We need guns."
"Good. So where we headin?"
"I don't know."
"We had better figure that out, then hadn't we?"
"I guess so, boss."
Jonah Hex and Chad Hawkings take #72 the Iceberg Lounge as their base.
United Workers Cooperative Colony (1927–29)
Architect: Herman Jessor with Stefan S. Sajo
2812–70 Bronx Park East
Allerton, Bronx
The project was established as a non-profit trade union cooperative by the United Workers’ Association. Union members were mostly involved in the needle trades. Most were non-religious Jews and many were Communists. (Jewish holidays and traditional ceremonies were not celebrated.) There were a sprinkling of non-Jewish and black or inter-racial families. Residents were called "coopniks". The complex housed 339 families in the first section and 328 in the second. The raised basements featured classrooms, recreational facilities, a restaurant, a day-care center and a library. Shops in the neighborhood were sponsored by the organization. When completed, it was the largest cooperative housing complex in the U.S. Unlike private ownership cooperatives, in the Coops, tenants bought a single share in the cooperative. When they moved, the coop bought back the share at the same price originally paid. There was no profit to be made in selling apartments. By 1943, the Coop was bankrupt and became a rental property.
The United Workers' Association was founded in East Harlem in 1918. They first established a cooperative apartment building at 1815 Madison Ave. In 1922, they opened Camp Nitgedaeget ("Camp Don't Worry" in Yiddish) in Beacon, New York. Advertised as "the first proletarian camp for workers", it was the largest cooperative camp in America. Out of the organization grew the United Workers' Cooperative Association, founded in 1925. They bought property to the east of the New York Botanical Gardens. At the time, the East Bronx was being developed by speculators eager to entice upwardly mobile workers from the slums of Manhattan. Unfortunately, the onset of the Great Depression brought the cooperative movement to a grinding halt.
“The Coops” [pronounced coops, not co-ops] were the subject of the Independent Lens film AT HOME IN UTOPIA (2009).
© Matthew X. Kiernan
NYBAI14-4003
School ended on Monday. Summer camps don't begin until next week. Means a week largely spent unscheduled, pottering and when Dad can take a break from work: biking!
I can see why people love camping. Don't forget your toilet paper...lol
Texture with thanks to MattNJohnson
Texture with thanks to fantasystock
Have a great day friends
United Workers Cooperative Colony (1927–29)
Architect: Herman Jessor with Stefan S. Sajo
2812–70 Bronx Park East
Allerton, Bronx
The project was established as a non-profit trade union cooperative by the United Workers’ Association. Union members were mostly involved in the needle trades. Most were non-religious Jews and many were Communists. (Jewish holidays and traditional ceremonies were not celebrated.) There were a sprinkling of non-Jewish and black or inter-racial families. Residents were called "coopniks". The complex housed 339 families in the first section and 328 in the second. The raised basements featured classrooms, recreational facilities, a restaurant, a day-care center and a library. Shops in the neighborhood were sponsored by the organization. When completed, it was the largest cooperative housing complex in the U.S. Unlike private ownership cooperatives, in the Coops, tenants bought a single share in the cooperative. When they moved, the coop bought back the share at the same price originally paid. There was no profit to be made in selling apartments. By 1943, the Coop was bankrupt and became a rental property.
The United Workers' Association was founded in East Harlem in 1918. They first established a cooperative apartment building at 1815 Madison Ave. In 1922, they opened Camp Nitgedaeget ("Camp Don't Worry" in Yiddish) in Beacon, New York. Advertised as "the first proletarian camp for workers", it was the largest cooperative camp in America. Out of the organization grew the United Workers' Cooperative Association, founded in 1925. They bought property to the east of the New York Botanical Gardens. At the time, the East Bronx was being developed by speculators eager to entice upwardly mobile workers from the slums of Manhattan. Unfortunately, the onset of the Great Depression brought the cooperative movement to a grinding halt.
“The Coops” [pronounced coops, not co-ops] were the subject of the Independent Lens film AT HOME IN UTOPIA (2009).
© Matthew X. Kiernan
NYBAI14-4004
shot from Yeshwantpur, Rajastan Nomad Camp.
Don't knwo why on seeing this image today, i got hooked about the movie "Kanchivaram" Directed and written by Priyadarshan. The movie stars Prakash Raj and Shriya Reddy in lead roles and has the musical score by M. G. Sreekumar. The film was premiered and released at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2008 and Score a National Award this year.
Read the story here
Golf carts by Main Camp
Don't call them Gators. They ain't Gators, ok?
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I don't know these people. We came across a wedding photo session on the University of Washington campus. I joined in, from afar.
Check it out large to better see the levitating groomsmen.
The Muslim camps don’t have government-run schools. Only a small fraction of kids gain entrance to schools run by Finn Church Aid, where they are taught how to read, write and count. Dil Murmad, who teaches at Quran school, keeps his class outside as there’s no space inside the school for all of the children. He teaches the Quran and Arabic. For many kids it is the only accessible school.
Photo credit: Ville Asikainen
Story by Eeva Suhonen (Finn Church Aid)
Book I picked up at the library for .50 Really enjoyed reading it on the trip. Haven't finished a book in 3 days in sooo long!
April/May Hiking Trip.
Day 2. Monday, April 29th.
Tallulah Gorge State Park, GA.
My photos.
The Shortline bike trail was the best part of this day. We rode it twice. FINALLY got some quiet time in the woods. This place is SO noisy from the highway, but the Shortline was cool, quiet and pleasant.
This day was a huge disappointment. The place has a ton of rules and a schedule for water releases. We planned our entire trip around hiking the gorge using their schedule. We get their early Monday morning (only 100 passes per day allowed) and were told they're decided to extend the water release. WTF?! This is actually the 2nd time this happened to us. The first was on another trip and we detoured 200+ miles to hike the gorge, but it started sprinkling when we arrived and they closed it. And the girl at the campground was rude that day, so we didn’t even camp. Don't think we'll go back here again.
This post card must have been mailed as an enclosure in a letter.
A pen and ink message covers the reverse;
"Dear Mother, Well here I am on my way to France but don't know what time we are going to reach there. We left Ayr Monday night, arrived in London about 8 a.m. yesterday (Tuesday). After four hours stay in London we came on to Southampton where we are now in resting camps. Don't know if it is we are waiting for a transport or not. Just heard we were leaving at 2:30 so we will soon be off again. By the time we are through with this job I think I will be quite use to traveling & knocking around. Telegraphed from Ayr, did you receive it? Love to all. Don't worry. John".
No date on this message. We'll have to hope that John survived to return to Mother and the dear old home.
I found this card at a post card show in Dundas, Ontario.