The Allerton Coops: An Interracial Utopia?

In this lecture, Director of The Bronx County Historical Society Dr. Steven Payne will discuss some little-known aspects of the history of the United Workers Cooperative Colony—better known as the Allerton Coops—in The Bronx. Along with Amalgamated Houses, Sholem Aleichem Houses, and the Farband Houses, the Allerton Coops are one of four co-operative housing complexes built in The Bronx in the late 1920s by working-class Eastern European Jews. The Coops was an outlier at the time for being one of the first interracial housing complexes in The Bronx, with evidence of African-American residents as early as 1930, almost four decades before this was the case in many other housing developments in The Bronx. (Parkchester, for instance, was almost entirely white in its tenancy until 1968, when New York State intervened.) Dr. Payne's talk will analyze the reasons for this unique yet complex history at the Allerton Coops while recovering the lives of some of the earliest African-American and multiracial residents during the 1930s–1960s, drawing on oral histories, documents, photographs, and other items from the collections of the Historical Society.
Admission is free, but registration is suggested.

Accessibility:

This event will be held in the museum's educational space (herb cellar), which is accessed using stairs. This lecture will also be available to attend virtually, Virtual registration information to follow.

Language:

This lecture will be delivered in English.

Esta conferencia se impartirá en inglés.

Getting here:

Public Transportation:

• Subway: #1 to 242nd Street Station, then walk north on Broadway to the tree-lined pedestrian path leading into the park.
• Bus: Bx9 to West 246th Street and Broadway, then walk into the park on the tree-lined pedestrian path leading into the park.
• BxM3 Express Bus to 246th Street and Broadway, then walk into the park on the tree-lined pedestrian path leading into the park.
• Metro-North Hudson River Line to Marble Hill Station, transfer to the Bx9 bus or #1 subway as above.
  

By Car:

VCHM is located at 246th & Broadway within Van Cortlandt Park.

Address for GPS: 6036 Broadway, Bronx, NY

Parking:
You can park in Van Cortlandt Park's free parking lot, which is a 5 minute walk on park trails from the museum () or you can pay for metered street-parking on Broadway ().

Photo: Walter Jones, Zelda Dubois, Henry Beattie, with twins Janet and Joyce Jones on the steps of the fountain in the courtyard of the first court of the Allerton Coops, 1940s. At Home in Utopia collection, The Bronx County Archives at The Bronx County Historical Society Research Library.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Van Cortlandt House Museum, 6036 Broadway, Van Cortlandt Park, The Bronx, United States