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‘A very exclusive experiment in communism’: the radical origins of the Manhattan co-op

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2021

Jack T. Masterson Open the ORCID record for Jack T. Masterson [Opens in a new window]
Jack T. Masterson*
Affiliation:
New York City Department of Education, 65 Court St, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: jmasterson1923@yahoo.com
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Abstract

Though it has long been the residence of choice for Manhattan's rich, the co-operative apartment building has an intellectual lineage that originates in pre-Marxian communitarian socialism. In the early nineteenth century, radical philosophers Charles Fourier and Robert Owen first theorized a multifamily dwelling owned in joint stock by its residents that could deliver economies of scale in the production and delivery of household necessities. Using previously untranslated French sources and archival material (New Harmony Working Men's Institute), this article demonstrates how early socialist ideas about housing, domestic labour and ownership evolved into the idea for the New York City co-operative apartment building.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , February 2023 , pp. 115 - 133
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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References

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2 M. Bacon, Ernest Flagg: Beaux-Arts Architect and Urban Reformer (Cambridge, 1986), 11–12.

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6 Ibid., 106–9. Despite political similarities and a common surname, Albert K. Owen and Robert Owen had no relation to one another.

7 Ibid., 108; Guarneri, Utopian Alternative, 398.

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11 ‘The discourse of Robert Owen, Esq. on a new system of society’, Ohio Monitor (Columbus), 21 May 1826. These two speeches were printed in installments in the Ohio Monitor. The relevant issues are cited below.

12 Ohio Monitor, 28 May 1826; ibid., 4 Jun. 1826.

13 Owen, R., A New View of Society (London, 1813), 44–5Google Scholar; Ohio Monitor, 18 Jun. 1825.

14 Ibid.

15 Ohio Monitor, 28 May 1825; ibid., 21 May 1825.

16 Ibid.

17 On the history of the joint-stock company, see F. Braudel, The Wheels of Commerce: Civilization and Capitalism, vol. II, trans. Siân Reynolds (New York, 1982), 439–42.

18 Ohio Monitor, 28 May 1825; ibid., 18 Jun. 1825.

19 A. Bestor, Backwoods Utopias: The Sectarian Origins and the Owenite Phase of Communitarian Socialism in America, 1663–1829 (Philadelphia, 1950), 160–201.

20 R. Owen, The Life of Robert Owen: Written by Himself, vol. I (London, 1857). Curiously, Owen does mention going before Congress to make ‘the announcement of that new state of existence upon earth…the highest earthly happiness to which man can attain’ (ibid., 213).

21 W. Owen to R. Owen, 16 Dec. 1825, in ‘New Harmony Manuscripts, 1812–1871’, New Harmony Working Men's Institute, Series I, fol. 15; Bestor, Backwoods Utopias, 160–201.

22 W. Maclure to M.D. Fretageot, 21 Aug. 1826, J.M. Elliot (ed.), Partnership for Posterity: The Correspondence of William Maclure and Marie Dulos Fretageot, 1820–1833 (Indianapolis, 1994), 418; Bestor, Backwoods Utopias, 160–201; W. Maclure to M.D. Fretageot, 24 Feb. 1827; Elliot (ed.), Partnership for Posterity, 475.

23 C. Fourier, ‘Letter to the high judge’ (1803), in J. Beecher and R. Bienvenu (trans. and eds.), The Utopian Vision of Charles Fourier: Selected Texts on Work, Love, and Passionate Attraction (Boston, 1971), 84, 86, 92.

24 C. Fourier, ‘La nouveau monde amoureaux’ (1816), in ibid., 336–40. Chris Jennings does a wonderful job highlighting the more excessive aspects of Fourier's theories in: C. Jennings, Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism (New York, 2016), 167–72.

25 C. Fourier, The Theory of the Four Movements, trans. and ed. G.S. Jones and I. Patterson (Cambridge, 1994), 46; Fourier, Utopian Vision, 169.

26 Fourier, Four Movements, 123–4; C. Fourier, Theorie de l'unité universelle, vol. III (Paris, 1841), 456.

27 Fourier, Utopian Vision, 201; Fourier, L'unité universelle, vol. III, 10; Fourier, Four Movements, 158–9.

28 C. Fourier, ‘Civilized work is unproductive’ (1828), in Utopian Vision, 130. Fourier used ‘civilized’ and ‘civilization’ as pejorative descriptors for the current state of things.

29 Fourier, Four Movements, 120.

30 Fourier, ‘Establishment of a trial phalanx’ (1841), in Utopian Vision, 236. There is some dispute over whether it was Owen or Fourier who first discovered the idea of using a joint-stock company to build an experimental community. However, it is unlikely that one plagiarized the idea from the other.

31 Fourier, L'unité universelle, vol. III, 455.

32 Ibid., 455, 468–70.

33 Ibid., 8–11; Fourier, Four Movements, 159.

34 Fourier, L'unité universelle, vol. III, 468; Fourier, ‘Civilized work is unproductive’, in Utopian Vision, 130.

35 Fourier, L'unité universelle, vol. III, 477.

36 V. Considérant, Destinée sociale, vol. I (Paris, 1838), 365, 371–2.

37 Ibid., 371. Considérant imagined that ‘ten capitalists’ could form a joint-stock company and ‘extend and insure their productive capability and credit’ by this ‘concentration of capital’ (ibid., 371–2). This grounded economic language was a far cry from Fourier's often outlandish musings.

38 Ibid., 457, 492–8, 507. Though he is describing what economists call ‘economies of scale’, Considérant uses the term ‘the most beautiful economies’ (‘les plus belles economies’), for the modern technical term had not yet been coined (ibid., 492).

39 Ibid., 363.

40 R. Brisbane, Albert Brisbane: A Mental Biography with a Character Study (Boston, 1893), 184–7.

41 A. Brisbane, Social Destiny of Man: Or, Association and Reorganization of Industry (Philadelphia, 1840); A. Brisbane, Association: Or, A Concise Exposition of the Practical Part of Fourier's Social Science (New York, 1843); Guarneri, Utopian Alternative, 153–77.

42 Brisbane, Association, 15–17.

43 Ibid., 35.

44 Ibid., 22.

45 A. Brisbane, A Concise Exposition of the Doctrine of Association: Or a Plan for Re-Organization of Society (New York, 1844), 19.

46 Brisbane, Association, 31–3.

47 Brisbane, Concise Exposition, 31; Brisbane, Association, 30.

48 Brisbane, Social Destiny, 358; Brisbane, Concise Exposition, 30.

49 Brisbane, Concise Exposition, 11; Brisbane, Association, 34–5.

50 Brisbane, Concise Exposition, 22–3.

51 Brisbane, Association, 23–4, 30.

52 Fourier, Utopian Vision, 177; Brisbane, Association, 23–4.

53 ‘Roast-beef and plumb pudding millennium’, New York Herald, 30 Jan. 1843.

54 ‘Ohio Phalanx’, The Phalanx: Organ of the Doctrine of Association (New York), 3 May 1845.

55 W.A. Hinds, American Communities and Co-operative Colonies (Chicago, 1908), 281–7.

56 Guarneri, Utopian Alternative, 327; C. Sears, The North American Phalanx: An Historical and Descriptive Sketch (Prescott, WI, 1886), 16–18.

57 Jennings, Paradise Now, 184–241.

58 See J.B. Baskin and P.J. Miranti Jr, A History of Corporate Finance (Cambridge, 1997), 60–1.

59 M. Parker, V. Fournier and P. Reedy (eds.), The Dictionary of Alternatives: Utopianism and Organization (London, 2007), 61–3.

60 G.J. Holyoake, The History of the Rochdale Pioneers (London, 1893), 7–12, 82–6.

61 Parker, Fournier and Reedy (eds.), Dictionary of Alternatives, 237. The dividend was based on the yearly purchases of each individual member.

62 Conover, M., ‘The Rochdale principles in American Co-operative Associations’, Western Political Quarterly, 12 (1959), 111–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Constitution of the Order of Sovereigns of Industry (Worcester, MA, 1875), 3; J.T. Codman and E.W. Bemis, Cooperation in New England (Baltimore, 1888), 18; E.M. Chamberlain, The Sovereigns of Industry (Boston, 1875), 52–3.

64 ‘Cooperation’, Patrons of Husbandry (Columbus, MS), 31 May 1879; Journal of Proceedings of the Eleventh Session of the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (Louisville, 1878), 7–9; Journal of the Proceedings of the Eighteenth Session of the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (Philadelphia, 1884), 18; A. Shaw, Cooperation in the Northwest (Baltimore, 1888), 313–16; R.H. Newton, Social Studies (New York, 1887), 85–104; J.D. McCabe, History of the Grange Movement (Philadelphia, 1879), 484, 492.

65 K.T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York, 1985), 130.

66 First Annual Report of the Boston Co-operative Building Co.: With Act of Incorporation and By-Laws (Boston, 1872), 4–5; Third Annual Report of the Boston Co-operative Building Company (Boston, 1874), 3–4, 14–16.

67 J.B.A. Godin, Solutions sociales (Paris, 1871), 68–9.

68 Ibid., 147–50; J. Pratt, Sabotaged: Dreams of Utopia in Texas (Lincoln, NB, 2020), 33–6.

69 Godin, Solutions sociales, 71.

70 Ibid., 434.

71 Ibid., 85, 456–7.

72 Ibid., 493–7.

73 Ibid., 490–2.

74 Ibid., 480, 502.

75 S. Marcus, Apartment Stories: City and Home in Nineteenth-Century Paris and London (Berkeley, 1999), 137–47.

76 Godin, Solutions sociales, 431–4.

77 J.B.A. Godin, Mutualité sociale et association du capital et du travail (Paris, 1880), 33, 67.

78 Godin, Solutions sociales, 532–3. Cf. Fourier, L'unité universelle, vol. III, 468. For ‘philanthropic housing’, see G.M. Towle, ‘Saltaire and its founder’, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 44 (May 1872), 827–35.

79 J.B.A. Godin, The Association of Capital with Labor, trans. L. Bristol (New York, 1881), 16–20, 36.

80 E.M. Dallet, A. Fabre and J. Prudhommeaux, Twenty-Eight Years of Co-partnership at Guise, trans. A. Williams (London, 1908), 25, 29–30.

81 An early history of co-operative housing in Great Britain reveals that co-operators around the Atlantic world considered Godin the godfather of co-operative housing. See J.E. Yerbury, A Short History of the Pioneer Society in Cooperative Housing (London, 1913), 1. Edward Owen Greening, a leading promoter of co-operative housing in England, was directly inspired by Godin, as well as the principles of Robert Owen. See T. Grimes, Edward Owen Greening: A Maker of Modern Co-operation (London, 1924), 34–40.

82 C. Postel, Equality: An American Dilemma, 1886–1896 (New York, 2019), 16.

83 ‘Woman's work’, Hartford Daily Courant, 17 Oct. 1874.

84 E. Howland, ‘The Social Palace at Guise’, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 44 (Apr. 1872), 706.

85 M. Howland, Papa's Own Girl (New York, 1874), 360–3; ‘Our book table reviews of recent publications’, Chicago Inter-Ocean, 30 May 1874.

86 M. Howland, ‘Distractions of married women’, St. Louis Global-Democrat, 4 Jul. 1875.

87 ‘Woman's work’, Hartford Daily Courant, 17 Oct. 1874; J. Hitz, ‘Homes for the people in the city of Washington’, Evening Star (Washington, DC), 15 Mar. 1882.

88 ‘Social palaces’, Cleveland Leader, 8 Jun. 1874; ‘Workingmen's homes’, Golden Rule (Boston), 19 Apr. 1876; ‘The Social Palace’, Brooklyn Eagle, 8 May 1881; ‘The Social Palace at Guise’, New York Times, 5 Jun. 1881; ‘The Familistere of Guise: a model community’, Boston Journal, 3 Jun. 1882.

89 ‘The Familistére: social and industrial reform in France’, New York Herald, 10 Jul. 1880.

90 ‘The Familistére de Guise’, New York Herald, 10 Jul. 1880.

91 ‘Godin's Familistére at Guise’, Brooklyn Eagle, 18 Jul. 1880. This piece echoes the urgency with which early promoters of luxury apartment buildings assured the bourgeoisie that family privacy would not be violated in their experimental housing. See Cromley, Alone Together, 9–10, 202.

92 C. Barnard, Co-operation as a Business (New York, 1881), iii–iv, 153.

93 ‘Godin's Familistére at Guise’, Brooklyn Eagle, 18 Jul. 1880.

94 ‘Death ends career of many successes’, Los Angeles Times, 17 Nov. 1911; ‘New York apartments little changed in 30 years’, New York Times, 12 Jul. 1914.

95 J. Favre, La Fraternité Humaine (Paris, 1880), 219–20; ‘Fondation de la colonie sociétaire’, La réforme industrielle ou La Phalanstere, 1 (Nov. 1832), 220. The latter source refers to Colomb Gengembre as a ‘friend of the principal shareholders’ in the venture, those being Considérant and Fourier.

96 J.M. Guinn, A History of California, vol. III (Los Angeles, 1915), 623.

97 ‘New York apartments little changed in 30 years’, New York Times, 12 Jul. 1914.

98 G.M. Price, ‘A pioneer in apartment house architecture: memoir on Philip G. Hubert's work’, Architectural Record, 36 (Jul. 1914), 76; ‘New York apartments little changed in 30 years’, New York Times, 12 Jul. 1914; ‘Pioneer designer of big apartments’, Sun (New York), 12 Jul. 1914. The fact that Hubert was taught architecture by his father, a long-time follower and companion of Charles Fourier, is a key piece of evidence that scholars who discount the socialist influence on the Manhattan co-op have ignored. See Lasner, High Life, 33–45. Cf. Guarneri, Utopian Alternative, 398.

99 ‘New buildings going up’, New York Times, 19 Mar. 1882.

100 ‘Homes at small expense’, New York Times, 30 Jan. 1881.

101 R.H. Newton, ‘The progress of co-operation in the United States’, Princeton Review, 2 (Jul.–Dec. 1882), 201; ‘Co-operative house building’, Buffalo Commercial, 29 Nov. 1881.

102 C.L. Norton, ‘Home clubs’, Christian Union (New York), 23 Mar. 1881; ‘New buildings going up’, New York Times, 19 Mar. 1882; ‘Co-operative apartment houses’, New York Tribune, 1 Apr. 1883.

103 New York Times, 16 Feb. 1881.

104 New York Times, 17 Feb. 1882.

105 ‘New buildings going up’, New York Times, 19 Mar. 1882.

106 ‘A typical modern apartment house’, Carpentry and Building (New York), 1 Apr. 1885.

107 J.H. Browne, ‘The problem of living in New York’, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 65 (Nov. 1882), 919–20; ‘Homes in big flat houses’, New York Tribune, 21 Nov. 1886.

108 ‘Homes in big flat houses’, New York Tribune, 21 Nov. 1886; ‘New York literary women’, Buffalo Weekly Express, 15 Jul. 1886.

109 ‘Central Park Apartments’, New York Times, 20 Nov. 1881. Cf. Godin, Solutions sociales, 443–55, 476–80.

110 ‘New York apartments little changed in 30 years’, New York Times, 12 Jul. 1914.

111 Considérant, Destinée sociale, vol. I, 499; Brisbane, Association, 25; ‘New buildings going up’, New York Times, 14 Jul. 1880. Hubert himself referred to the Central Park Apartments as an ‘experiment’ in more than one source. See ‘Co-operative apartment-houses’, New York Tribune, 8 Apr. 1883; ‘Homes in big flat houses’, New York Tribune, 21 Nov. 1886.

112 ‘Artists and art topics’, New York Times, 19 Feb. 1882.

113 ‘New-York literary women’, Buffalo Weekly Express, 15 Jul. 1886; ‘Homes in big flat houses’, New York Tribune, 21 Nov. 1886.

114 Newton, ‘The progress of co-operation in the United States’, 201–14.

115 ‘The Navarro flats sold’, New York Tribune, 10 Nov. 1888; ‘A social palace: Paris’ famous Familistere founded by M. Godin’, Daily Evening Bulletin (Haverhill, MA), 28 Feb. 1888.

116 E. Archard, ‘A home club house’, Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), 4 Jan. 1885.

117 ‘Problems of living’, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 Feb. 1894; ‘Modern development of the apartment house’, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Mar. 1896.

118 Browne, ‘Living in New York’, 920; ‘City real estate’, New York Times, 5 Mar. 1882.

119 ‘The Navarro flats sold’, New York Tribune, 10 Nov. 1888; ‘Co-operative apartment houses’, New York Tribune, 1 Apr. 1883; ‘The Navarro flats sold’, New York Tribune, 10 Nov. 1888.

120 ‘From New York’, Middle Town Press (Middletown, NY), 26 Jul. 1890; ‘The West Side’, New York Times, 20 Mar. 1887; Bacon, Ernest Flagg, 12.

121 Hoffmann, C., The Depression of the Nineties: An Economic History (Westport, CT, 1970), xxxivGoogle Scholar.

122 C.J. Rosebault, ‘Magic of art in co-operative apartments’, New York Times, 16 Nov. 1919.

123 ‘A striking example’, Carpentry and Building (New York), 1 Jul. 1907; ‘Duplex apartment plan shown to advantage’, New York Times, 16 Aug. 1908; ‘Big co-operatives open new future for Park Avenue corners’, New York Times, 28 Feb. 1909; ‘Park Avenue's transformation as co-operative apartment centre’, New York Times, 1 May 1910; ‘Co-operative apartment houses: their history and advantages’, New York Times, 6 Nov. 1910.

124 ‘Co-operative housekeeping’, Washington Post, 3 Sep. 1903; ‘New Park Av. apartment to be operated on co-operation plan: solves servant problem’, New York Times, 21 Mar. 1920.

125 W.D. Howells, ‘Ways and means of living in New York’, in Imaginary Interviews (New York, 1910), 109.

126 F.J. Haskin, ‘A town in one house’, Ottumwa Tri-Weekly Courier (Iowa), 2 Sep. 1916.

127 Ibid.

128 ‘Co-operative housing proves success in Bay Ridge: twenty plants built or purchased within five years’, The Standard Union, 21 May 1922; ‘16 families built big apartment on co-operative plan’, Brooklyn Eagle, 1 Jul. 1919.

129 Ibid.

130 ‘Wage-earners succeed in cooperative housing’, New York Times, 24 Feb. 1924.

131 ‘Workers Party of America’, New Yorker Volkszeitung, 14 Jun. 1922.

132 E. Lowell, ‘Big co-operative apartment in Gotham will be ready for tenants early in November’, Daily Worker (New York), 11 Oct. 1926.

133 Ibid.

134 ‘Cooperative youth dance Saturday eve’, Daily Worker, 20 May 1927; ‘Finding utopia in the Bronx’, Bronx Bohemian, 27 Apr. 2009, https://bronxbohemian.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/finding-utopia-in-the-bronx/.

135 Lasner, High Life, 93–101.