The real estate developer Fred F. French began construction of Knickerbocker Village in 1933 and completed it in 1934. As a project of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which Congress authorized to extend loans to private developers for the construction of low-income housing in slum areas, Knickerbocker Village was the first apartment development in the United States to receive federal funding, with 98% of the money from the project going to the Knickerbocker Village. It provided 1,590 small apartments primarily to small middle-income families. The RFC was supposed to help revive the construction industry and increase the supply of low-income housing in New York. When the United States Congress authorized the RFC to make loans on slum clearance projects, French picked out the worst block in his holdings and presented it as a worthy subject for clearance. His choice was "Lung Block," so called because of its high tuberculosis mortality rate, where 650 families lived. French proposed to build a low-cost housing project. RFC lent 97% of the required $10 million. The average cost of "Lung Block" to Knickerbocker Village was high: $3.116 million, or $14 per square foot. The development's tax assessment was reduced by two-thirds to bring the monthly room rental down to the $12.50 stipulated by the RFC. Because the average rental before construction of the development had been about $5 a room, Knickerbocker Village no longer served the same low-income families that had lived in the "Lung Block" housing. It was filled with white collar workers. Eighty-two percent of the families who moved into the apartments were soon forced to move back to the slums they had left because of escalating rents. There was a cooperatively run Nursery School started by young mothers and wives of returning World War II Veterans. After fifty years, French sold the complex to new owners in the 1970s. Under that management, over a fifteen-year period, the complex underwent extensive renovation and rejuvenation. Almost $15 million were spent on new windows, new building entrance ways and foyers and waterproofing. The building also has a horticulturist who maintains the extensive gardens in the courtyard located in the center of the building and around the grounds. The complex includes the Hamilton Madison House Knickerbocker Village Senior ServiceNaturally Occurring Retirement Community that offers services and activities for the building's increasing elderly population.
The property suffered severe damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and is trying to recover. It is estimated that the full restoration of its infrastructure will take three years to accomplish. Protection from future flooding is in process as of September 2013.
Notable residents
Notable residents have included:
Cheng Chui Ping, 'Snakehead', human smuggler lived at 14 Monroe Street in the 1980s-early 1990s.
Mark Olf, the Jewish folksinger and Folkways recording artist
Peter C. Rhodes, reporter and writer
Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and later executed, lived on the eleventh floor in 10 Monroe Street at Knickerbocker Village.
