Fieldstondale co-op celebrates 50 years

The Fieldstondale co-op is 50 years old this year, and 14 original cooperators are still living there to tell its life story.

On a recent afternoon, one of the original board members, Oscar Zeichner, walked out onto his terrace and pointed out all the buildings that did not exist when he moved in — almost all of them.

“This area here was nothing but a large outcrop of rock, scraggly trees and bushes,” he said.

The two-building co-op, located at 5500 and 5550 Fieldston Road, was planned in 1957 by a group of sponsors, particularly a company called Mutual Housing. Its executive director wanted to build a cooperative open to anyone, regardless of race or religion, according to Mr. Zeichner, a former history professor and dean of graduate studies at City University of New York’s City College.

“Ours was unique. It was not subsidized. We didn’t receive any money from any public authority. It was unique because it was open to everybody. And everybody applied,” Mr. Zeichner said.

Almost all of the original cooperators bought into Fieldstondale based on plans advertised on billboards and local papers, including The Riverdale Press. While the building was still a skeleton, Heinz and Roosja Sharfstein, who were already living in Riverdale, would stop by on a weekly basis to see the progress. They climbed the stairs to the eighth floor and stood in the apartment they would soon call home. Mrs. Sharfstein remembers yelling at her husband for standing on their terrace before there was any railing.

When the Sharfstein’s landlord discovered they had bought into this new “co-op,” he evicted them. Even friends from the neighborhood didn’t recognize the idea that is now so popular 50 years later.

“Nobody understood what a co-op was … People were astounded. They’d say, ‘You bought an apartment for $3,000 and then you still have to pay every month?’ It was something very new for us,” Ms. Sharfstein said.

The idea of an unsubsidized, middle-income cooperative housing open to any race had never existed in Riverdale before.

“We had a microcosm of the racial, religious and ethnic makeup of New York City,” Mr. Zeichner said.

Some people were so excited to live there that they moved in during a series of record-breaking blizzards in the middle of December 1960, he said.

Original cooperators still living in the building today include a holocaust survivor, a civil rights leader, a librarian, a chemist, a concert pianist, veterans, artists, businessmen and educators. Many of these original cooperators recently celebrated the anniversary with a party that included special guests Councilman Oliver Koppell and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz.