People Archives | Page 7 of 7 | Sweat Equity – The Grimsby Homebuilding Co-operative 1953

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]