The 1950s Archives | Page 9 of 10 | Sweat Equity – The Grimsby Homebuilding Co-operative 1953

Co-operative fisheries, Pictou, Nova Scotia

It took a few years, but eventually Father Tompkins encouraged the fishermen to work together. They needed to understand what was causing their poor circumstances and learn how […]

Father Jimmy Tompkins

This is a portrait of Father Jimmy Tompkins taken in Canso, Nova Scotia circa 1923, where he was posted and lived for 12 years. His Parish included 3 […]

Charlie and Patricia

Charlie and Pat met in Ireland, emigrated with friends to Canada and settled in Hamilton in the early 1950s. Charlie had worked with friend Jim Burns at Co-op […]

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 […]

Hamilton Co-op Housing

Some who attended the information meetings in Hamilton would have learned about co-op homebuilding from this promotional invitation in Hamilton Spectator and other publications in the area. Besides […]

Father O’Brien and Father Sherlock

Father Sherlock (later Bishop) and Father O’Brien (later Monsignor) gathered with small groups in Hamilton to discuss co-op homebuilding. After visiting Marrocco’s flagship co-op building group in Ottawa, […]

Mid-winter on Marysfield Drive

In the hamlet of Wildfield, on a street named Marysfield Drive, 14 mostly Catholic families from Parkdale formed the Family Home Builder Co-operative Ltd. They chose to build […]

Finding the perfect stone

John: Well, there is a memorial [stone] to [the Co-op housing project] in Morocco Park is a memorial to Walter [Muise] too. If it wasn’t for Walter, that […]

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 […]