Coop Directory

The DC area has so many cooperatives! This is a partial list of cooperatives we know about in DC and the surrounding area, as well as cooperatives from the past. If you know of a group we should add to this list, please leave a comment with details (web site, location, etc.) at the bottom of the page. See “Home Rule from Below: The Cooperative Movement in Washington, DC.” for a history of cooperatives in DC.

Art Gallery Co-ops

Credit Unions

Daycare and Preschool Co-ops

Food Co-ops

Other Consumer Co-ops

Energy Co-ops

Housing Co-ops

Producer Co-ops

Purchasing Co-ops

Volunteer Co-ops

Worker Co-ops

Community Exchange Co-ops

Organizations Helping Co-ops

Future Co-ops?

  • CHEARS Eco-Yards Co-op
  • Community Grocery Co-op (Ward 7 and 8, more info here)
  • Community wireless
  • Franklin Park Childcare Co-op
  • Greenbelt Compost Co-op
  • Greenbelt Kids Co-op
  • Greenbelt Movie Theater Co-op
  • Greenbelt Thriftstore Co-op
  • H Street Bakes Co-op
  • Solar energy co-op
  • Translator/Interpreter co-op

Co-ops of the Past

Past Food Co-ops (* items have a history page)

  • Anacostia Cooperative Supermarket Inc (registered Jan. 31, 1969, later revoked)
  • Arlington Cooperative Organization (Uncommon Market): food cooperative in Arlington that ran from 1976 until sometime in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Fairly complete co-op grocery store (much smaller version of GLUT or Bethesda Co-op). Had maybe 1500 member households, was mostly volunteer operated.
  • Brookland Food Coop (12th and Quincy St., NE; registered April 9, 1976)
  • Capital View Buying Club (1940-1941)
  • Cen-East Co-op (Eastern Market): In 1963, following the closure of the Center Market at Fifth and K Streets Northwest, fifteen merchants formed a ten-stall cooperative they named ‘Cen-East’ and relocated to Eastern Market (Robert J. Shepherd. 2008. When Culture Goes to Market, p. 29).
  • Chakula Food Co-op (2260 6th St, NW, 55 members in 1981, contact Oraefo Karamoko, on Howard University campus?; registered March 20, 1981)
  • *Community Based Buying Clubs Inc. (CBBC Inc.) (1980-1994, founder Senghor Jawara Baye)
  • Community Warehouse: worker-run collective based in DC that wholesaled mostly grains and flours and other bulk items, mostly to other cooperatives.
  • Co-op Supermarkets (Greenbelt Consumer Services)
  • Cornucopia Food Cooperative (1253 Walter St, SE; contact Hage Griffith; registered May 4, 1981, later revoked)
  • District Grocery Stores (1921-1972): “DGS was one of the largest cooperative grocery chains in the country”; at its peak, around 300 stores in Washington and the suburbs were members.
  • District of Columbia Urban Produce Cooperative (1106 North Capitol St., NW, registered April 29, 1982, later revoked)
  • Fields of Plenty food co-op (2437 18th St, NW, near current Tryst, started on 9/15/1977)
  • Fort Davis Coop Inc (3839 Alabama Ave., SE; 312 families were members in 1981; contact Phyllis Strauss)
  • Frederick Douglass Co-operative (formed in 1941 in SE DC as a buying club, then became a branch of the Rochdale Stores, Inc on July 25, 1944)
  • Lakeland Community Market (MD food co-op): goals of cooperative “to sell healthful food to the community at the lowest possible prices and to be a visible and active socially responsible presence in the community.”
  • Martin Luther King Co-op Store No. 1/Arthur Capper Consumer Federation, Inc. (1011 7th St., SE; contact Beatrice Gray)
  • Mintwood Media Collective: public relations (closed in 2013)
  • New Deal Cooperative (headed by Alice Scruggs and group at Langston Terrace public housing project; registered June 23, 1939)
  • Pleasant Plains Co-operative Fund (planned near Howard University, but it is not certain the store ever opened)
  • Rochdale Stores. Grocery stores that started in 1936. By 1940, there were several branches (Takoma Park, Bethesda, Georgetown, Cleveland Park, Mount Pleasant, and Falls Church), which sold 400 Co-op brand foods.
  • *Shepherd Street Collective Buying Club
  • Stone Soup Cooperative
  • *Sure Savings Collective Buying Clubs (SSCBC) (1980-1994, founder Senghor Jawara Baye)
  • Upper Northeast Direct Charge Cooperative (contact Floyd Agostinelli and Louis Martin)
  • Washington Area Food Federation (“an organization of worker controlled anti-profit food businesses”; included Stone Soup and Fields of Plenty food coops; mentioned on p. 6 here)

Past Housing Co-ops

  • Columbia Heights Federation of Housing Cooperatives (early 1980s, helped by Metropolitan Washington Planning and Housing Association)
  • Coop Housing Services Program (organized in 1979 by the Metropolitan Washington Planning and Housing Association)
  • Greenbelt Homeowners Cooperative (registered Sept. 24, 1940, later revoked; registered Feb. 28, 1950, later revoked)
  • Group Housing Cooperative (registered May 3, 1944, later revoked; members bought an old golf course in Bethesda and built 24 original homes in the Bannockburn community; president Mary Fox Herling)
  • Potomac Association of Housing Cooperatives (registered May 4, 1979, later revoked)
  • Southern Columbia Heights Tenants Union/Sojourners Housing Ministry (around 1982-85)
  • 3233-3235 M St N.W. Cooperative (One of the earliest housing cooperatives registered in DC; registered Jan. 1, 1900, later revoked)

Other Co-ops of the Past

  • Amaru IV, Production Cooperative Inc. (West End Station, Box 57155, DC; registered Dec. 18, 1978, later revoked)
  • Artists Cooperative of Washington DC (registered Jan 16, 1947, later revoked)
  • Bakers Cooperative Association of the District of Columbia (registered Sept. 22, 1899)
  • Baltimore Information Cooperative (Provides information about the use of computers for campaigns; 1443 Gorsuch Ave., Baltimore; registered Aug. 8, 1983, later revoked).
  • Bread & Roses Community Music Center/Cooperative (“An anti-capitalist, collectively run record shop” at 1724 20th St, NW; registered Feb. 15, 1979, later revoked)
  • Capitol Cab Co. – “the largest cooperatively owned taxi fleet in the world” (registered Sept. 19, 1951, later revoked)
  • Capitol Cooperative Association of the District of Columbia (registered Nov. 15, 1894, later revoked)
  • Columbia Cooperative Association (registered Jan 5, 1914)
  • Community Feeder Cooperative of Washington, DC, Inc (registered June 6, 1979, later revoked)
  • Consumer Co-operative Association / Consumer Services, Inc (registered March 13, 1946, later revoked)/ Consumer Services Cooperative (registered Aug. 4, 1941, later revoked)
  • Consumer Cooperative of Baltimore Inc (registered Nov. 13, 1941, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Association for Community Enterprise Inc. (registered July 25, 1979, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Building & Loan Association of Washington, DC (registered Jan. 27, 1937, later revoked)
  • Co-operative Ice Company of the City of Washington (registered Dec. 20, 1877)
  • Cooperative Industries of DC (Nannie Helen Burroughs helped to found this in 1936. Jessica Gordon Nembhard is conducting research on this; registered Feb. 19, 1936, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Mercantile and Investment Co. (1200 R St., NW; registered March 5, 1904, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Researchers of Washington, DC, Inc. (registered Nov. 1, 1943, later dissolved)
  • Cooperative Service Association of the District of Columbia (registered Nov. 8, 1933)
  • Cooperative Shoe-Making and Repairing Association of the District of Columbia (registered Sept. 4, 1901)
  • Cooperative Street Photographers of the District of Columbia (registered April 10, 1963, later revoked)
  • Co-operative Tin Sheet Iron and Copper Workers K. of L. 2031 of Washington, DC (registered May 19, 1886)
  • Cooperative Urban Ministry Center (registered June 3, 1977, later revoked)
  • Departmental Co-operative Guild (stores at 9th and G St, NW for government employees started around 1907; groceries, provisions, meats, candies, cigars, tobacco, household hardware, kitchen utensils; “In the case of many thousands of positions in the Government service to-day the salary has never been changed since it was established on a hard-time basis during the period of industrial depression…”)
  • DC Federation of Cooperative Associations (1711 14th St, NW; registered Feb. 24, 1984, later revoked)
  • District of Columbia #1 Cooperative Association Inc (registered Aug. 1, 1975, later revoked)
  • District of  Columbia #2 Cooperative Association Inc (registered Aug. 1, 1975, later revoked)
  • District of Columbia Co-operative Council (Rochdale Stores’ central educational organization; branch of the Potomac Co-operative Federation, which includes MD and VA and had headquarters in DC; registered Dec. 28, 1944).
  • District of Columbia Cooperative League (registered Sept. 15, 1937)
  • Douglas Cooperative League (around 1920, 723 Florida St, NW)
  • Exval Gas Stations (Greenbelt Consumer Services)
  • Frederick  Douglass Cooperative (African American, started July 30, 1934 with 36 members, who did sewing, cleaning, pressing)
  • Gabrielle Pelham Cooperative (African American, started Aug. 14, 1934 with 25 members sewing)
  • General Cab Cooperative Association (DC? registered Aug. 1, 1935, later dissolved)
  • Georgetown Cooperative Nursery (registered Jan. 7, 1957, later revoked)
  • Greenbelt Consumer Services (Greenbelt, Silver Spring, Savage; operated 6 supermarkets, 7 auto service stores, 10 SCAN Furniture stores, drug store, barber shop, movie theater, valet shop, beauty parlor, variety store, tobacco shop, laundromat, bus service, Co-op Consumer newspaper)
  • Greenbelt Cooperatives Inc (registered July 24, 1979, later revoked)
  • Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Association (registered Sept. 23, 1941, later revoked)
  • Harry Hopkins Cooperative (white, started Sept. 1, 1934 with 20 members sewing and barbering)
  • Howard Univ. Cooperative Bookstore
  • Kingman Park Cooperation Association of the District of Columbia (registered Oct. 28, 1932)
  • Konsum gas stations. Started from a rented pump at a private gas station in 1936.
  • Madams Organ Artist’s Cooperative (2318 18th St, NW). Started by Corcoran students and soon became a central punk concert venue in 1979 and 1980.
  • Magic Lantern Cinema: “An anti-profit worker-run community film co-op.” “We seek to provide a showplace for independent and political films that do not receive theatrical distribution, and to do so in a setting that is “more than a movie house” and that supports and contributes to political education and activity in and around Washington, DC.”
  • Marta Cooperative of DC-MD-VA (registered March 8, 1962, later revoked)
  • Mary Church Terrell Cooperative (African American, started July 15, 1934 with 32 members sewing)
  • Mary Norton Cooperative (white, started on Jan. 15, 1935 with 70 members doing shoe repair)
  • Maryland Fertilizer Manufacturing Cooperative (started in 1941)
  • National Cooperative Investment Association of Washington, District of Columbia (registered Oct. 9, 1899, later revoked)
  • New Deal Cooperative (headed by Alice Scruggs and group at Langston Terrace public housing project; registered June 23, 1939)
  • Northeast Self-Help Co-operative / Cooperative Industries (formed in 1936 by Nannie H. Burroughs; handicrafts, shoe repairing, canning, a beauty shop, a grocery store, a health clinic, and a farm in Forrestville, MD)
  • Off Our Backs Collective
  • P Street Paperworks and Local 1734 Collective (around 1977-1987? 1734 Connecticut Ave, NW)
  • Potomac Area Cooperative Services (registered April 22, 1977, later revoked)
  • Potomac Broadcasting Cooperative (later Cooperative Broadcasting Association)
  • Potomac Camp Cooperative (registered May 20, 1947, later revoked)
  • Potomac Cooperative Federation (included the Red Circles Stores providing groceries and meats; registered Sept. 6, 1955, later revoked)
  • Potomac Naturopathic Medical Institute Cooperative Health Conservatory (registered Aug. 22, 1980, later revoked)
  • Producers and Consumers Cooperative of Washington Inc (registered Sept. 5, 1936, later revoked)
  • Progressive Self-Help Cooperative (African American, started Dec. 15, 1934 with 25 members sewing, building, wrecking)
  • Raestaff (Resident-At Ease) Housing Institute (cooperative organization supporting housing for single people?; registered July 3, 1952, later dissolved)
  • Richard Allen Cooperative Society, Metropolitan AME Church (1518 M St, NW; registered May 5, 1980, later revoked)
  • Rochdale Co-operative Society of the District of Columbia (registered Jan. 24, 1880). (Rochdale Cooperative Inc is the product of a merger, March 12, 1941)
  • Roosevelt Prosperity Cooperative (African American, started Jan. 1, 1935 with 15 members sewing)
  • SCAN Furniture (Greenbelt Consumer Services and Van Ness/UDC)
  • Shaw Area Community Cooperatives Inc (The Morning Herald, April 17, 1968, p. 9; registered Dec. 23, 1966, later revoked)
  • South East Cooperative (white, started Sept. 1, 1934 with 42 members sewing, painting, trucking, wall papering)
  • Takoma Park Pot Co-op
  • United Negro Progressive Cooperative Association (registered Sept. 5, 1936)
  • United Services, Inc (1936-1940, started by John P. Murchison, former Howard U. professor)
  • Warehouse Collective (a group of young progressive whites with Marxist Leninist leanings)
  • Washington Area Feminist Credit Union (2452 18th St, NW)
  • Washington Area Square-Dancers Cooperative Association (registered Nov. 13, 1956, later revoked)
  • Washington Circle Clinical Associates, A Cooperative Corporation (1801 K St, NW, Suite 1100-K; registered July 8, 1981, later revoked)
  • *Washington Cooperative Bookshop (registered July 7, 1938, later revoked): https://coopdc.org/washington-cooperative-bookshop/
  • Washington Cooperative Protective Assoc. of Washington District of Columbia (registered Aug. 3, 1895)
  • Washington Diplomat Cooperative Mutual Insurance Company of the District of Columbia (registered June 7, 1983, later revoked)
  • Washington Negro Cooperative Civic Opera Co Inc (registered July 3, 1945, later revoked)
  • Washington Professional Women’s Cooperative (Promotes women in the arts, with the Worthy Gallery, President Mary Lee Zetter; registered July 21, 1977, later revoked)
  • Washington Taxicab Cooperative Association (registered Nov. 12, 1934)
  • Washington United Cooperative Inc. (registered May 21, 1929, later revoked)
  • Washington Workshop Cooperative (March 8, 1944, later dissolved; Program Director for Intercultural Committee Leon Berkowitz)
  • *Women’s Community Bakery Collective, 1976-1992 (Capitol Hill)

Past National Cooperative Organizations registered in DC

  • American Cooperation Educational Society Inc (registered Dec. 13, 1944)
  • Association for Telecommunications Cooperatives (1828 L St, NW; registered Aug. 19, 1981, later revoked)
  • Automobile Owners Cooperative Association (registered Dec. 13, 1933, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Alliance of Government Employees (registered May 1, 1933, later revoked)
  • Cooperative and Educational Farm Research Inc (registered April 16, 1940)
  • Cooperative Book Club Inc. (book cooperative for libraries, NYC; registered Oct. 18, 1945)
  • Cooperative Finance Research Institute (registered April 28, 1936)
  • Cooperative Food Distributors of America (registered June 7, 1937, later revoked)
  • Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, Inc. (CARE; registered Nov. 27, 1945)
  • Cooperative Publishing Co. (Princeton?; registered Nov 22, 1904, later revoked)
  • Engineers Cooperative (registered March 2, 1942, later revoked)
  • Future Homeowners Cooperative Inc (Futurers?) (registered Nov. 8. 1943, later dissolved)
  • Guild Lawyers Cooperative Assoc. (registered April 15, 1940)
  • Housing Producers Cooperative Inc (registered Aug. 6, 1940, later revoked)
  • International Cooperative Purchasing Corporation (registered Oct. 16, 1980, later revoked)
  • Inventors National Cooperative Association (registered July 25, 1933, later revoked)
  • Labor Cooperative Educational and Publishing Society (The 15 Standard Railroad Labor Organizations were the sole stockholders and published Labor newspaper; registered June 20, 1923, later dissolved)
  • Movers Emergency Cooperative Assoc. (registered May 29, 1942, later dissolved)
  • National Association of Low Income and Community Cooperatives Inc. (registered Jan. 27, 1981, later revoked)
  • National Colored People’s Cooperative Beneficial Union (registered March 17, 1904)
  • National Consumer Cooperative Bank (1090 Vermont Ave, NW; registered March 24, 1982, later revoked)
  • National Cooperative Society (around 1920, 501 T St, NW)
  • National Cooperative Hospital Assoc. (registered Feb. 15, 1938, later revoked)
  • National Cooperative Insurance Assoc. (registered March 28, 1939, later revoked)
  • National Cooperative Research Foundation (registered Sept. 30, 1944, later revoked)
  • National Industrial Cooperative Association Inc. (registered April 21, 1938, later revoked)
  • National Negro Cooperative Opera Co. (registered May 24, 1945, later revoked)
  • National Sales & Distributing Cooperative Corp (registered March 5, 1945, later dissolved)
  • National Urban Energy Cooperative Funding Corporation (registered March 20, 1980, later revoked)
  • Oil Workers Cooperative Association (registered June 6, 1946)
  • Peoples Co-operative Insurance Company of the United States (registered Jan. 31, 1884)
  • People’s Marketing and Consumers Cooperative (registered June 28, 1945; may be from Tennessee?)
  • Shoemakers’ Cooperative Union (registered Feb. 2, 1916)
  • Society of USA for Promoting Cooperative Low Prices to All in the Nation Who Desire Them (registered Dec. 20, 1943)
  • Sovereign’s Cooperative Association (registered April 25, 1877)
  • United States War Veterans Cooperative, Inc (registered Aug. 26, 1944, later dissolved)
  • Veterans Home Building Cooperative Inc (registered Feb. 8, 1946, later dissolved)

Past Non-DC Co-ops registered in DC [I added items until about 1946 and then gave up, but there are some interesting cooperatives listed from later years.]

  • Addams, Brocks and Community Cooperative (Jane Addams Cooperative, registered May 19, 1941, later revoked; registered May 24, 1944, later revoked)
  • Adex Cooperative (registered Jan 7, 1946, later revoked)
  • Altgeld Gardens Consumers Cooperative (registered June 27, 1944, later revoked)
  • Arizona Cooperative Association (registered Dec. 4, 1944, later revoked)
  • Aurora Cooperative Association (registered Sept. 20, 1941, later revoked)
  • Automotive Products Cooperative Association (registered Sept. 15, 1945, later revoked)
  • Automotive Service Stations Cooperative Inc (registered Sept. 21, 1945, later revoked)
  • Cabrini Consumer Cooperative Inc (registered April 17, 1944, later revoked)
  • Carlsbad Consumers Cooperative Inc (registered Nov. 9, 1944, later revoked)
  • Catasauqua Consumers Cooperative (registered Jan. 20, 1943, later revoked)
  • Catholic Book Cooperative Society (registered April 7, 1943, later revoked)
  • Catholic Institutional Cooperative Assoc. of Philadelphia (registered Nov. 22, 1943, later dissolved)
  • Chester Cooperative Association Inc. (registered Feb. 1, 1945, later dissolved)
  • Chicago Cooperative Finance Assoc. Inc. (registered Dec. 1, 1944, later revoked)
  • Cleveland East Cooperative (registered Oct. 23, 1944, later revoked)
  • Community Consumers Cooperative Inc (registered Aug. 7, 1944, later dissolved)
  • Consumer Cooperative Association of Swarthmore Inc (registered Dec. 18, 1945, later revoked)
  • Consumer Cooperative of Harrisburg Inc (registered Jan. 8, 1942, dissolved)
  • Cooperative de Las Casitas (California?; registered April 19, 1943, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Federation of Chicago Area (registered April 4, 1946, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Fuel (registered Oct. 4, 1941, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Health Service Inc (registered Nov. 5, 1937)
  • Cooperative Supply (registered Oct. 28, 1944, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Film Association (A cooperative library through University of Maine, Orono, and by CIO unions?; registered in DC Oct 24, 1977, later revoked)
  • Cooperative Town Inc (maybe Pennsylvania; registered May 28, 1946, later revoked)
  • Dellbrook Cooperative Inc. (registered July 10, 1941, later dissolved)
  • Des Moines County Consumers Cooperative (registered June 2, 1941, later revoked)
  • Diversey-Damen Cooperative (registered Feb. 28, 1941, later revoked)
  • Douglas Park Consumers Cooperative Inc (registered Oct 5, 1944, later revoked)
  • Douglas Park Cooperative Apt Inc (registered Aug. 22, 1945, later revoked)
  • Doylestown Consumers Cooperative Association (registered Feb. 2, 1944, later dissolved)
  • Edgewater Cooperative (registered March 29, 1946, later revoked)
  • Electric Appliances Cooperative (registered Feb. 19, 1946, later revoked)
  • Ellis Student Cooperative Inc. (registered April 24, 1943, later revoked)
  • Fairfax Cooperative Nursery School Assoc. (California; registered March 18, 1945, later dissolved)
  • Far View Cooperative (registered July 10, 1941, later revoked)
  • Farhood Cooperative Inc (registered Oct 11, 1944, later dissolved)
  • Fbera Cooperative Flying Club (registered July 21, 1945, later dissolved)
  • Friendly Cooperative Assoc. Inc. (registered Sept. 1, 1944, later dissolved)
  • Garden Home Housing Cooperative Inc (registered April 23, 1945, later revoked)
  • George Washington Carver Consumers Cooperative Assoc. (registered Dec. 21, 1944)
  • Gila River Cooperative Enterprises, Inc. (registered Feb. 23, 1923, later dissolved; cooperatives run by prisoners in the Japanese internment camp at the Gila River Relocation Center);
  • Glen-Hazel Consumers Cooperative (registered Oct. 22, 1943, later revolved)
  • Goldcrest Cooperative (registered April 10, 1946, later dissolved)
  • Grofar Cooperative Association (registered April 20, 1942, later revoked)
  • Half Acre Homes Cooperative Inc (registered Feb. 28, 1946, later dissolved)
  • Havenford Township Cooperative Association Inc (registered Sept. 8, 1945, later dissolved)
  • Hillsdale Cooperative Grocery Co (registered July 24, 1922, later revoked)
  • Huntingdon Consumers Coopreative Association Inc (registered Oct. 18, 1944, later dissolved)
  • Hyde Park Cooperative Society Inc. (registered July 27, 1942, later revoked)
  • Investors Cooperative Association Inc (registered Nov. 27, 1945, later revoked)
  • Jackson Consumers Cooperative Association (registered Feb. 23, 1943, later revoked)
  • Lebanon Valley Consumers’ Cooperative Inc (registered June 17, 1943, later dissolved)
  • Lincoln Park Consumers Cooperative Association (registered Oct. 22, 1945, later revoked)
  • Midvale Consumers Cooperative Inc (registered March 29, 1946, later revoked)
  • Minidoka Consumers’ Cooperative (registered Dec. 22, 1942, later dissolved)
  • Morgan Park Consumers’ Cooperative (registered Sept. 22, 1941, later dissolved)
  • New Kensington Consumers Cooperative (registered June 23, 1942, later revoked)
  • North Chicago Consumers Cooperative Inc (registered Dec. 1, 1945, later dissolved)
  • North Shore Cooperative (registered Feb. 14, 1944, later revoked)
  • North Side Consumers Cooperative Inc (registered June 11, 1945, later revoked)
  • Panama Cooperative Cattle and Land Development Co. (registered Oct. 4, 1922, later revoked)
  • Philadelphia Area Cooperative Federation Inc. (registered Oct. 3, 1944, later revoked)
  • Philadelphia Civic Theater Cooperative (registered June 6, 1946, later revoked)
  • Phila Veterans Housing Cooperative Inc (registered March 4, 1946, later revoked)
  • Portland Consumers Cooperative (registered Sept. 9, 1941, later revoked)
  • Poston Cooperative Enterprises Inc (registered April 21, 1943, later dissolved; likely cooperatives run by prisoners in Japanese internment camp at the Colorado River Relocation Center in Poston)
  • Rockford Consumers Cooperative Inc (registered Jan. 15, 1945, later dissolved)
  • Rohwer Cooperative Enterprises (registered May 8, 1943, later dissolved)
  • Roosevelt Agricultural and Mercantile Cooperative Association (registered Nov. 28, 1904)
  • Russian Civilian Relief and Russian American Cooperative Association of the U.S. of America (registered Oct. 18, 1917)
  • San Francisco Cooperative Mercantile (registered Feb. 4, 1904, later revoked)
  • Second Student Cooperatie House (registered Jan. 28, 1943, later revoked)
  • Seven Hour Poto Cooperative Association (registered June 14, 1934)
  • South Bend Cooperative Services Inc. (registered July 29, 1942, later revoked)
  • South Side Consumers Cooperative Inc (registered June 11, 1945, later revoked)
  • Summerdale Cooperative Health and Recreation Association Inc. (registered April 5, 1945, later revoked)
  • Sumner Cooperative Business Association (registered Sept. 7, 1875)
  • Topaz Consumer Cooperative Enterprises (registered Feb. 8, 1943, later revoked;  likely cooperatives run by prisoners in Japanese internment camp)
  • United Cooperative Projects (a set of four cooperative houses at University of Chicago, included Whitman House; registered Jan. 2, 1945, later revoked)
  • Victory Court Cooperative Inc (registered Feb. 21, 1944, later revoked)
  • West Suburban Cooperative Inc (registered Feb. 27, 1946, later dissolved)
  • Westchester Cooperative of Illinois Inc. (registered Dec. 29, 1944, later revoked)
  • Whirton Cooperative Association Inc. (registered Oct. 26, 1945, later revoked)
  • Wilkinsburg Cooperative Association (registered July 20, 1942, later dissolved)
  • York Center Community Cooperative Inc. (registered Dec. 19, 1944, later revoked)

30 comments

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  7. Michael Hartman

    The New Deal Cafe, in Historic Greenbelt, MD is more than just a “Volunteer Cooperative”. It is an award-winning music venue (WTOP’s Top-10 2012 best music venue in the DC region) featuring live music six nights each week (Tuesday through Sunday), with special nights for Open Mic and Comedy, Wine and Beer bar, Middle East food restaurant, and gallery showcase for local artists. And a lot more…

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  9. rodneynorth

    Wow. What a resource! Thank you all especially for the historical information on co-ops from days gone by. There aren’t many who would do such research – so I feel indebted to whoever did this for all of us in the DC co-op community.

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  11. Chip

    I was pretty involved in the co-op scene in the DC area in the late 1970s. A couple of organizations you don’t seem to have listed:

    Arlington Cooperative Organization (Uncommon Market) – food cooperative in Arlington that ran from 1976 until sometime in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Fairly complete co-op grocery store (much smaller version of GLUT or Bethesda Co-op. Had maybe 1500 member households, was mostly volunteer operated.

    Community Warehouse – worker-run collective based in DC that wholesaled mostly grains and flours and other bulk items, mostly to other cooperatives.

    Community Soap Factory — don’t remember much about this, small collective that made castile soap and sold to other cooperatives mostly

    Apocalyptic Nut Butter Works — I think this was a collective. Made and delivered fresh nut butters to area cooperatives

    Strongforce — DC based organization that provided support (consulting, knowledge, resources) to cooperatives

    If someone wants more info on the above I might have some articles or info somewhere in my files.

    • Johanna Bockman

      Thank you so much for this! I am going to update the directory in the next day or so, and I will likely contact you about articles. So great!!

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