British Co-operative Building and the Goal of Homeownership
Before the age of the modern mortgage, Seattle’s early pioneers looked toward international cooperative building societies to help working citizens plant roots in the city.
The story, cleaned up
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About a year ago this journal detailed at length the salient features of the American co-operative system of building as practiced with such beneficent results in Philadelphia. The salient features of that system were the subscription by members for shares at $1 per month, to be paid until the payments, with the interest, reached a total of $200, when it was considered matured. The English method, as described in a recent issue of Scribner's Monthly, differs somewhat from the American, being, as the writer says, 'more complicated, more liberal, and more exact.' The system in that country had for its object to make 'householders'—householders there being a synonym for voters. In this method, members incorporate and choose directors. Participants are divided into paid-up shareholders, subscribing shareholders, and simple depositors. A member who desires an advance for building makes an application and deposits a fee for a survey. If the security is satisfactory, he receives his loan, provided he subscribes for as many shares as will at maturity equal the loan. If it can be conceded that Seattle is, and is to be, a center of industry, there will be a demand for houses for the accommodation of a growing population of working citizens. The best and most economical way for supplying this demand, as well as conserving the financial resources of the people, is through an organization of this kind.
“If it can be conceded that Seattle is, and is to be, a center of industry, there will be a demand for houses for the accommodation of a growing population of working citizens.”
In 1877, the editorial board of The Intelligencer identified housing as the primary challenge for a 'growing population of working citizens'—a struggle that has remained the defining narrative of Seattle's urban development for nearly 150 years. The proposed solution, a cooperative building society, echoes modern debates over community land trusts and alternative ownership models designed to provide relief in a hyper-competitive real estate market.
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