In 1927, at age 22, Fred Trump went into the real estate development and construction business, forming Elizabeth Trump & Son Co. with his mother Elizabeth Christ Trump, who was an active partner, writing the checks.[3]
In the late 1920s Trump began building single-family houses in Queens, which were sold for $3,990 each. By the mid-1930s in the middle of the Great Depression, he helped pioneer the concept of supermarkets with the Trump Market in Woodhaven, which advertised "Serve Yourself and Save!", becoming an instant hit.[2] After only a year Trump sold it for a tidy profit to the King Kullen supermarket chain.[2] King Kullen continues to operate in the Suffolk County area today.[4]
During World War II, Trump built barracks and garden apartments for U.S. Navy personnel near major shipyards along the East Coast, including Chester, Pennsylvania, Newport News, Virginia, and Norfolk, Virginia. After the war he expanded into middle-income housing for the families of returning veterans, building Shore Haven in Bensonhurst in 1949, and Beach Haven near Coney Island in 1950 (a total of 2,700 apartments). In 1963 he built the 3,800-apartment Trump Village in Coney Island, competing with Lefrak City in Queens.
Trump went on to build and operate affordable rental housing via large apartment complexes in New York City, including more than 27,000 low-income multifamily apartments and row houses in the neighborhoods of Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, Flatbush, and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, and Flushing and Jamaica Estates in Queens.[2] In 1968 his 22-year-old son Donald Trump joined his company Trump Management Co., becoming president in 1974, and renaming it The Trump Organization in 1980. In the mid-1970s he lent his son money, allowing him to go into the real estate business in Manhattan, while Fred stuck to Brooklyn and Queens. "It was good for me," Donald later commented. "You know, being the son of somebody, it could have been competition to me. This way, I got Manhattan all to myself."[2]
Folk icon Woody Guthrie, who from 1950, was a tenant in one of Fred Trump's apartment complexes in Brooklyn, chronicled his disgust with Trump as a landlord, penning lyrics which accused him of stirring up racial hate "in the bloodpot of human hearts".[5]
Although a millionaire, Trump was known for his frugality, saving unused nails, doing his own extermination work and mixing his own floor cleaners. Nevertheless, he insisted on buying a new navy blue Cadillac every three years, with license plate "FCT".[6] By the time of his death,
Trump was estimated to have amassed a fortune worth $250 to $300 million.[2]