Educational Archives | Sweat Equity – The Grimsby Homebuilding Co-operative 1953

ISA students as co-op builders

It’s important to note that the students of the ISA were motivated by social action, not by the building of houses. The ISA night courses encouraged thought, discussion […]

Co-op Families on opening day of the “Sweat Equity” Exhibit.

After 2½ years of preparation by co-op daughters and sons and the efforts of the Grimsby Museum staff, the original builders were grateful for a lovely day at […]

Parent Tribute Poster

The photos of the parents included in the poster were taken around the time of the build, with some as young as 20 and others just after their […]

The Komadoski family at the Sweat Equity exhibit

The Parent Tribute Poster was a collage of the photos of the parents taken at the time of the build. For many of the children raised in the […]

Co-op sons collaborated as their fathers had done six decades earlier

The exhibit was designed to create the sense of being on a worksite in an unfinished house. Some of the wood was donated, and the framework sections were […]

Ingenuity and co-operation applied

With volunteer design and construction skills completed, others added their labour to build the exhibit. This echoed the tasks undertaken by their parents 60 years earlier. The magnitude […]

Working together to piece it together

With volunteer design and construction completed, others added their labour to build the exhibit. The tasks echoed those undertaken by their parents 60 years earlier. The magnitude of […]

The Co-op at 60 Working Group, 2016

The group’s mission was to honour their parent builders on the 60th anniversary of the co-op. Initially, they planned just a one-day event. As they gathered details of […]

Father O’Brien and Father Sherlock

O’Brien and Sherlock had been introduced to co-operative methods a few years earlier, as students at St. Augustine’s Seminary, when Father Marrocco had come to lecture. After the […]

A Guide to Co-operative Housing: Chapter 4 The Legal side of Co-operative Housing

page 3 The National Housing Act – Under Part 1, Section 4, Subsections 6, 7, 8 of the NHA, joint loans for co-operatives may be made. Two types […]

Mary Arnold with co-op builders in Reserve Mines, Nova Scotia

Arnold, a Quaker and an American activist in housing co-operatives, went to study the work being done at St. Francis Xavier University’s Extension Department in 1937. She remained […]

Cathedral High School meeting, 1953

At a single meeting, over 500 people showed up to hear about building a home of their own. Not all would continue once they learned of the mandatory […]