| Creator | Boston Co-operative Building Company (Boston, Mass.) |
| Title | Boston Co-operative Building Company (Boston, Mass.) records |
| Dates | 1871-1940 |
| Identification | CC 22 |
| Quantity | 0.5 linear feet (1 manuscript box) |
| Collection Abstract | The collection consists of a published act of incorporation and by-laws and a series of annual reports. |
| Historical Abstract | Founded in 1871, the Boston Co-operative Building Company worked to hold and improve real estate in Boston as homes for working people at moderate cost. Included in the original bylaws, and maintained by the Boston Co-operative Building Company until 1917, was the provision that one half of the officers of co-operation had to be women. Corresponding members include William Gray, Abby May, Henry B. Rogers, and Anna Cabot Lodge. |
| Language | Material in English. |
| Location | Collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Archives staff for more information. |
Collection is open.
Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question, unless otherwise designated.
Please contact the College Archivist with requests to publish any material from the collection.
[Identification of item: description and date], Boston Co-operative Building Company (Boston, Mass.) records, CC 22, Simmons College Archives, Boston, MA, USA.
Transferred from the Simmons College School of Social Work Library, 1991
Accession number: 1998.047
Processed by Rachel Wise, October 1998
Supervised by Claire Goodwin and Joan Gearin
This collection guide was encoded as part of the LEADS project by Elise Dunham, October 2012
On May 24, 1871, William Gray, Abby May, Henry B. Rogers, and Anna Cabot Lodge,∗ and their associates, were officially incorporated as the Boston Co-operative Building Company.(1) This act of incorporation, voted on by the Massachusetts House of Representatives, enabled this organization to “hold and improve real estate in said city (Boston), as homes for working people, at moderate cost....”(2) Included in the original bylaws, and maintained by the Boston Co-operative Building Company until 1917, was the provision that one half of the officers of co-operation had to be women.(3)
The Company was established as an “investment philanthropy”(4) and its original stockholders represented the financial elite of Boston. At a considerable cost, $159,395.00 per share in 1871, The Boston Co-operative Building Company stockholders were given an annual vote and were part of a movement that combined, “the good of the tenant as well as the income to the landlord.”(5)
The Boston Co-operative Building Company modeled its housing on the work of Sir Sidney Waterlow and Octavia Hill.(6) Octavia Hill was a London social activist who pioneered the effort to “...make not only the houses of the poor better, but by friendly contact to better the lives of their inmates.”(7) The agents who worked for the Company functioned as social workers as well as rent collectors. The needs of the tenants were as important as the condition of their housing. It was a policy of the Company to go to the rooms of their tenants to collect their rent in order to maintain close ties.(8)
In 1880, the Boston Co-operative Building Company owned property on East Canton Street, Webster Avenue, and in Dorchester.(9) In 1910, with their highest census count of tenants, the Company owned property at “Clark Street, Thacher and Endicott in the North End, East Canton and Harrison Ave both in the South End, and Massachusetts Ave in Roxbury.”(10) The last documentation of the Company in A Directory of Social Agencies Boston and Metropolitan Area appears in 1940.(11) After 1942, the Boston Cooperative Building Company fails to appear in any city directories.(12)
The collection consists of a published act of incorporation and by-laws, and a series of annual reports. The majority of the collection consists of the annual reports which encompass the years 1881-1940, missing only 1882, 1884-1886, 1917 and 1921. From 1881-1916, the annual reports are titled by the year they were published, not the year they are reporting on, and starting in 1918, the annual reports are titled by the year they reporting on, not the year they were published.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
Part of the School of Social Work Library Charities Collection.
Includes a published pamphlet which contains the act of incorporation, by-laws, and a list of the original officers and stockholders of the organization.
Box 1
Includes the published annual reports which reflect the activities of the organization for the previous year. Reports include a detailed summary of the year’s finances for each property held by the Boston Co-operative Building Company, and detailed profiles of its tenants, including nationality and employment. The annual reports also offer statistics on the officers elected during the previous year.
Box 1
