The building stands on Avvai Shanmugam/V.P. Raman Salai/Lloyd Road (only in Chennai can we have three names for a single road), just bordering on Gopalapuram. The original, and from what I can make of it, handsome edifice, has since been marred by mindless extensions both horizontally and vertically. And in one corner is a painted and fast-fading sign that says Gopalapuram Co-Operative Housing Society Limited. Standing by its side, I could not help reflecting on how this building may hold within it the story of the development of not just one, but as many as five housing developments in the city.
The Co-Operative Credit Societies Bill was passed by the Government of India in March 1904 and Madras was, as it often was, first off the mark. The Triplicane Urban Co-Operative Society, TUCS, was the country’s first such body. A decade later, the possibility of such societies for affordable housing was realised and the Madras Provincial Co-Operative Union was formed in 1914. However, a true fillip in housing societies happened only with the founding of the Madras City Co-Operative Building Society in 1923, in Triplicane. It shortly thereafter changed its name to Madras Government Servants Co-Operative Building Society.
