Fred F. French

Fred Fillmore French (1883-1936) was a real estate tycoon. He was born in Manhattan, New York City.

He built Tudor City, a housing development on Manhattan's East Side for the rising middle class in the 1920s. He also developed Knickerbocker Village, low-income housing on the Lower East Side between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. His Fred F. French Building is a well-known skyscraper on Fifth Avenue in Midtown.

French and his company served as the developer and landlord of Knickerbocker Village, important in the history of tenant rights. When the tenants were to take possession of their apartments, they found conditions to be unlivable. [cite web |url=http://www.city-journal.org/html/8_4_urbanities_who_in_the_worl.html |title=Who in the World Was Fred F. French? |first=James |last=Morrison |work=City Journal |date=Autumn 1998 |accessdate=2008-05-04 ] Facilities were either unfinished or poorly equipped, including non-working elevators, and inoperable laundry rooms. [cite web |url=http://www.tenant.net/Community/history/hist03f.html |title=From Eviction Resistance to Rent Control |work=The Tenant Movement in New York City, 1904-1984 |first=Mark |last=Naison |title=The Rebirth of Activism |accessdate=2008-05-04 ] The tenants formed the Knickerbocker Village Tenants Association and started a strike, withholding their rent checks until their grievances were dealt with. The conflict that arose from the tenants' dissatisfaction led to New York City's rent control laws.

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