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Hi there,
Does anyone have any remembrances or historical info about the Coop Supermarket that was at 50 Van Cortlandt Ave West?
I’m working on a project that takes place during that time frame and haven’t been able to find any information online. I lived in Kingsbridge at the time, but was a very young child.
Many thanks!
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If you are asking about the grocery store that was connected to the Amalgamated Co-ops, I would recommend getting in touch with the librarian in the special collections room at the Leonard Lief Library at Lehman College. They have a great deal of material and expertise about the Amalgamated Co-ops. I think the library has issues of a monthly publication that was published by the co-ops.
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The 1927 postcard of the grocery store shows the original store which was located in Building One, the original, of the Amalgamated Houses on Saxon Avenue. Also nearby was the Amalgamated Pharmacy which, along with the grocery store, moved to the new building on Sedgwick and VCAW. I was a stock boy in the pharmacy in the late 1950’s and went on to a career in pharmacy.
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Hi DrDan.
Building One, which appears to have its main entrance at 74 VCPS, doesn’t have any commercial areas facing the streets that I can see. Per the NYCityMap site, the building was constructed in 1928. Was the pharmacy within the apartment building and available only to the co-op owners? Was that also the case for the grocery store?
The building at 50 VCAW was also erected in 1928, according to NYCityMap. If the dates of construction cited in NYCityMap are correct (and that’s a big “if”), then the building was first used in another fashion before accommodating the grocery store and the pharmacy.
I used to walk from my apartment at 4652 Manhattan College Pkwy (Spuyten Duyvil Pkwy until the name change in 1953), across the construction of the Major Deegan in Van Cortlandt Park, up VCAW and along Sedgwick Ave to DeWitt Clinton HS from 1950 to 1954). That was after I gave up riding the city bus down Broadway and changing busses at either W 238th or W 231st. I think that we were issued bus passes, but my memory is fuzzy now. A few times, in order to vary the route, I would use the stairs at the beginning of VCPS and walk along that street to Mosholu Pkwy, then down to the HS. Good times! -
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Both the pharmacy and grocery were tucked into the apartment complex with entrances on Saxon Avenue. I assumed that anyone could shop there but the Cooperators, folks who lived in the Amalgamated houses, got a rebate of sorts at the end of the year.
Owner of that Pharmacy was a Mr Chavkin and I belive he became a partner with Mr. Drucker in the store on Segewick.
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An article on the history of the Amalgamated Houses has the following description of the grocery: ” The first service that the neighborhood recognized it needed was easy access to food. A
Co-Op grocery store for fruits and vegetables, and other sundry items was arranged in a
community room that was set aside in the First Building. Although anyone could shop
there, this store was organized along a co-operative model. Each family that wished to
could buy a $10 share in what was eventually called the Amalgamated Housing
Consumers Society. With membership, came the opportunity for a rebate. Each member
shared the annual profits divided by the amount of goods each family purchased in the
previous year.” Alexandra Hans 2006/ cithiseerx.ist.psu.edu
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@DrDan Thank you so much! Great info. When my family moved to the neighborhood, it was at 50 Van Cortlandt Park Ave West and felt like a regular supermarket (like a C Town–which it later became). I was too young to remember if that iteration was operated like a coop. Just a very interesting slice of old NYC life.
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