The Kingston Housing Co-op is in an ideal location. It’s in the Rondout, at the end of a pocket of houses at 35 Stuyvesant Street with a beautiful yard that includes a stand of bamboo and an enormous maple tree.
Stuyvesant is right where Broadway curves and starts to drop down to the main Rondout area. That means the house is a short walk from the main features of the Rondout, including the waterfront and bandstand, several galleries and museums, Kennedy Elementary School and the Catholic School and Early Development Center, the trolley to Kingston Point Park, as well as many shops, restaurants, and churches.
It means the house is also a short walk to the main features of Broadway, including Kingston Hospital, Kingston High School, the YMCA, and more restaurants and churches. A little further on is the Kingston Library.
And just what is a housing co-op? A housing co-op is a large house specifically designed to be shared by a number of people who wish to live together. This one is designed for up to 11 people. It is a beautiful building, a historic Victorian built in 1890 with amazing woodwork.
It has three stories. The bedrooms are on the second and third floors. They all have historic stained glass windows and high ceilings. Some have skylights amd most have a lot of natural light. There are two full baths (with toilets, skins, and a shower or bathtub), and one half bath (with just a toilet and sink).
The first floor has a shared main entrance and a central kitchen, dining room, living room, pantry, and a washer and dryer. It also has a small guest room for friends and relatives, a front porch with a swing, and a backyard with a patio. There is a storage shed and dry storage in the basement.
One part of living in a co-op is sharing responsibility for things like shopping, cooking and cleaning. This allows everyone to save time. Living in a co-op also means shared rights, so those of us living here make decisions for ourselves about how to split up responsibilities and deal with issues that arise. It means we also have equal say in selecting new residents as spaces open up.
And because the co-op is owned by a non-profit, living here is slightly more affordable than the average housing in the area. Residents share the basic monthly expenses -- there's no "rent" and nobody makes a profit. And by buying food in bulk we save a lot of money on food, even though we buy mostly organic and local foods.
Click here for more detailed information on housing co-ops and co-ops in general.
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