History

In 1979 the four buildings at 839-847 Williamson Street, which were known at that time as the “Four Yellow Houses” and had been owned by an absentee landlord and which were notorious in the area for their run-down condition and streetfronts painted an ugly shade of yellow, were purchased by the Madison Development Corporation, in conjunction with Common Wealth Development (Williamson Street-Marquette neighborhood’s local development corporation), and the City of Madison’s Planning & Development Department.

These groups developed the four houses into the Ridge Side Cooperative, a zero-equity cooperative with nine apartment units, which began operation in March 1981.

Of the four buildings making up Ridge Side Co-op, two had originally been built for the Biederstaedt family–843 Williamson in 1882 & 847 Williamson in 1899; the same family had earlier been living above their grocery in the two-story, brick building which they had constructed at 851-853 Williamson (now a Madison Landmarks building). Of the other two buildings of the co-op, 841 Williamson dates to 1896 and 839 Williamson to 1907.