General Archives | Page 11 of 11 | Sweat Equity – The Grimsby Homebuilding Co-operative 1953

The well-used copy of The Light from One Candle by Rita Larsen Marrocco.

Although this book is the story of a life, it was also an insightful and ‘well used’ source of information about the ‘sweat equity’ co-operative movement in Ontario. […]

Komadoski family

Feeding the workers The Komadoski family, Helen and Mike, had moved into their co-op home while the co-op was still in progress. She remembers cooking for some of […]

Barb Colleary with her daughter, Barb

Grassy lawns eventually replaced muddy yards, to the delight of Barb Colleary and her daughter. Barb: Oh that red mud. Oh [emphatic] the mud. Everything was dyed […]

Everybody worked to their potential

Bill Joyce in conversation 1995 Bill: I really feel that everybody, everybody worked to their potential, that it’s a bit like the army or something. A fellow like […]

Building Inspections

Bill: Building inspection, they put a resident building inspector and we had to pay for him, and we had to provide him with a little shed. Central […]

Barb and John Colleary in their co-op-built home, 1995.

Barb, who was living in a noisy location in Hamilton, was thrilled to think she would be living by the lake. Barb: We used to walk right […]

Charlie and Patricia Gallagher in their co-op- built home 1995.

Charlie recalls the crowding and the carpooling that they didn’t anticipate but certainly learned reliance on each other. Charlie: Yeah, a lot of people backed out when […]

Bill Joyce in Conversation, 1995

Co-op builder, Bill Joyce, was a wealth of information on the Grimsby Homebuilding Co-operative. Forty years after the build, Janet Muise recorded a conversation with him and later […]

Adele and Bob Walsh with son in Hamilton, 1955

Adele and Bob were among the many couples who gathered at the local high school to hear about co-operative homebuilding. They would eventually join 81 families in forming […]