In 1933, a group of University of Washington students facing the economic hardship of the Great Depression came together and laid the groundwork for a system of affordable student housing known as the Students’ Cooperative Association (SCA).  In its first couple years of operation, membership grew to such a number as to necessitate the expansion from one to seven houses by 1935.  One of these units, a women’s residence called Sherwood House, was established in 1934 and named for an engineering student involved in the SCA, Paul Sherwood.

The SCA (including its “Sherwood Forest”) successfully weathered the Depression years, and at times was even called upon by the University and likely the Greeks to provide meals via the Co-op’s Central Kitchen, which at its peak was preparing and delivering three meals a day to over 400 students.  Many Co-opers were lost to the service during World War II, a period which also saw a number of SCA houses vote to send CARE packages to Europe using money saved by forgoing milk.  After the war, UW enrollment increased under the GI Bill and the SCA added more houses to accommodate the influx of veteran students.  Despite apparently flourishing during much of the 1950s with nearly a dozen houses (many of which were owned outright by the Co-op) as well as other assets and some 300 members, the SCA mysteriously met its demise in 1957 when it sold off all its holdings.

But one group didn’t want to disappear!  Later that same year, these renegades dubbed themselves the Sherwood Cooperative Association after the eponymous SCA house, and continued the tradition of cooperative living.  After bouncing from house to house over the next two decades, Sherwood finally landed at 4746 18th Ave NE in 1978, and has remained here ever since.  With a “little help from our friends” we managed to purchase the 90-year-old house in 2001, and in 2007 we joined the Evergreen Land Trust, effectively ensuring our house’s future as a co-op.

Check out our SCA yearbook from 1946!