Rochdale College Revisited
Most Torontonians in their forties and up remember the social experiment that was Rochdale College, they might even have a good story to tell, but to those too young or new to the city it's just another concrete monolith. The eighteen-story-high brutalist structure at St. George and Bloor was the subject of Ron Mann's story, Dream Tower, in the recent Planet in Focus Film and Video Festival, and is also the result of a group of idealistic students in the late sixties who hoped to challenge reigning educational models.
They believed that students should have more control over curriculum, design and teach their own courses, as well as run the administration. Young people rallied behind the idea and its popularity grew, but space became a concern. There had been no central location for the school, so the feds gave them seed money - 5 million dollars - for the construction of a building for the college which would include a residence. The Rochdale dream was becoming a reality.
The design by architects Tampold and Wells was unique, accommodating for communal living and areas that were known as ashrams, each unit of which was independent and responsible for its own welfare. The free college accepted many kinds of people into the fray from hippies and homeless to drug-dealers and draft-dodgers, however the lack of regulation and direction resulted in chaos. Rochdale's student body soon couldn't reach consensus on anything, like what to do about their open door policy, and the school quickly became a haven for biker gangs, dealers and their clientele. Cops' visits then became so frequent some students would welcome them with freshly baked cakes.
Seven years later, in 1975, the Rochdale dream lost steam. Political pressure led to the school's closure. Police carried the last of the students out and welded the doors shut. Today a monument called the Unknown Student rests outside the building, now named the Senator David A. Croll Apartments. Not all of Rochdale's creativity went up in smoke however, the Rochdale movement helped propel the creative minds behind Toronto cultural institutions Coach House Press, House of Anansi Press and Theatre Passe Muraille.
(Image = mechrisman)
Comments (19)
Wow Sookie, that's a piece of Toronto history I had absolutely no clue about (being a young one and all) so thanks so much for sharing!
Awesome piece. I too saw the docuemtary and it answered a lot of the questions I had surrounding this space and its history. I had heard about Rochdale growing up and it always held this mystique for me. I am glad to have gone to see Mann's "Dream Tower" and feel I have a more realistic understanding of what went on.
The doc itself was lacking a bit in some ways (editing, sound, etc.) but it made up for this with its amazing collection of stock footage use from the era. I loved seeing the streets of Yorkdale in the late 1960's full of spaced out Toronto Hippy kids testing the waters of this new found lifestyle and cultural/sexual/political revolution going on around them. My favourtie moment was seeing a young Adrienne Clarkson as a CBC reporter speaking with kids at Rochdale!
Thanks for reporting on this Sookie.
Dang, Sookie. Why didn't we talk about this last night? I remember spending boring late hours reading about Rochdale. Nicely done! :)
Uhh, you do realize that anyone in their forties today was still in high school when Rochdale closed right? All that hippy shit is strictly for the Depends™ wearing boomers.
One thing I did find interesting about Rochdale was that it was where Reg Hartt did his first movie showings.
I remember someone telling me the usual ROchadale tag-line, "this was THE drug haven for students in the 60s". Looking up at the senior residence sign, I dismissed by friends comments only to find she was speaking the truth. The story behind Rochdale is a facscinating political science experiment that ended abrutly once chaos set in. Dissapointing for the group of students and idealist that fueled the concept, their efforts has not gone unnnoticed and adds to Toronto history and culture. Nice piece!
I remember in the late 60s staying the weekends with my boyfriend at Rochdale... it was a memory of being a place of belonging. Toronto was very alive and Rochdale, to me, was it's heartbeat. I remember often cop cars pulling up right on the sidewalk and storming in to drag some dishevled looking hippie from the building while residents threw stuff down on the roofs of the cruisers yelling to the pigs to leave them alone. Ahh yes, those good ole days. He (my boyfriend) is now in Dubai and me, well I am stil living the counter-cultural life in Los Angeles.
DAN here
lived in ROCHDALE 4 1 yr apt 1524
remember that pie in sky at 5 o'clock
Lived with french girl DENISE her pic
was or is painted the in lobby.What happened to SID STERN?
SOMEBODY GET BACT TO ME!!!!!!!!!
i lived in 1014 in 70-71. anybody off my floor still around. colin, vladamir, mila. i played hockey for the roaches'
I met Sid Stern once or twice after Rochdale was done and over. I knew his daughter when I was in High School. I am trying to find her so if anyone hears anything about her it would be cool to know.
Wish I'd seen this post years ago!
I lived with Mila Hoskova. There were 4 of us in that apartment. Sharon and Linda were the other two girls. Lost touch many many years ago. I hope you see this, since it's now 2009!
Sookie, you are a brilliant journalist! I spent a lot of time at Rochdale..mainly in Abe's booze can, only half kidding. Do u have a brother named Doug? I became friends with an assortment of characters, most of them very intelligent, some even brilliant., some forgetable, others unforgettable. Rochdale will always be fondly remembered by everyone and as for myself, it was an education as much as it was a party!
Actually the book and the film on Rochdale were both pretty lame as far as depicting the events and the lifestyle of Rochdale's citizens. As a former long time resident (70-75)and as a former Rochdale security guard that is my personal view. A real book and a real movie on Rochdale have yet to be done. Rochdale College by
Grieveson, Brian J. is so far the best work done on Rochdale.
Sid Stern who was a close personal friend of mine. He did indeed die but it was in Toronto shortly after seeing his youngest daughter Tracy married a few days before. I was in a Bangkok telephone booth when I recieved the news that he had died peacefully in his sleep after a night of whoopee. His age at the time was, I believe, 74. The person who told me the news was Bill Litler who had been Rochdale's chief of security for a few years.
Though I went on to recieve two batchelor's from York University I have always valued the education and degree from Rochdale far more than the other two.
Rochdale was a bold experiment that went awry for a few years. The pity is that just as we had solved many of our problems and were beginning to colaesce as a new type of community is when the government stepped in and shut the experiment down.It's always been my personal belief that this was done mostly because they saw us starting to make a bid for political power when we helped defeat two longtime Spadina riding Machine politicos and helped elect two much more progressive politicans in Ald. Dan Heap and Ald. Allan Sparrow.
I hope that someone will soon set out to write a definitive work on Rochdale as most of us are now in our 60's and beginning to take the long voyage to the Other Side.
thank you sookie for your email. MY deepest concolences go out to the family of Sid Stern and his many friends. and thank you Larry for your very nice comments. rest in peace Sid....regards Norm Siwak...ps...fuck blogto
Just found this blog, I lived in Rochdale for a couple years in the early 70s I went by Cathy Martenson then. My boyfriend at the time hung with Hippie Bob & his brother Dan.
Later I lived with Ian Anderson (not Tull) He played on the "Roaches" I used to know all the names but it seems so long ago.
The thing that got me started on thes search was the news yesterday morning RE: Joseph Burgess alis at the Roch Joe Burke)
He was shoot I didn't hear much more except he was wanted for murder in BC. Blew my mind cause I went out to BC with him in the spring of '72. I knew he was weird but WOW. I don't know why I'm tell you all this crap except I'm so weirded out.
Sid was a close personal friend of mine for many years.He passed away in 1986 while living in Kensington Market , where many of us "old cronies" ended up again at the same time.
I understand Rochdale better than anyone because it was in my neighbourhood, the Annex. It was phoney, not real like nearby Yorkville Village.
I'm glad Sid Stern is dead. He was a sleazy criminal, far too old to live with hippies. "Don't trust anyone over 30." He ran a sleazy drug franchise that destroyed the building.
There were "tight-asses", "sleazes", and "filler". Everyone thought they were better than everyone else. The "tight-assed" bosses decided to stop paying the mortgage payments, which killed Rochdale. Rent money then went to pay the salaries of the bosses who destroyed the place. Egomaniac motherfucker Alex MacDonald rented rooms in Rochdale, did his best to be THE BOSS, but never lived there. I do hope he and King Bill are dead.
Basically, Rochdale was filled with sleazy, obnoxious phonies who invaded each other's privacy. It was nothing in the late 1960's and a perverted anachronism in the 1970's.
I only lived there because it was in my neighbourhood. If it had been located in the suburbs, I would never have even visited the place. No other former resident can truthfully state this.
I am writing a novel about Rochdale, although it will not be fiction. It will be the truth about the hedonistic shit hole THAT WAS RUN BY AMERICANS! Half the fucking population were draft dodgers, and I NEVER once heard the phrase "draft dodger" in Rochdale.
Gawd Larry, I'd forgotten all about you. Like you, I feel that my experiences at Rochdale were the most important in my life. Sorry to hear about Sid. I've often wondered what happened to him. I didn't find out til years later, but he once saved my butt by paying off a $2,000 debt I incurred after I got ripped-off. He never told me that he did it, so I never got to thank him.
Nice piece. Just learned about Rochdale in History.
Discussion in class brought up the question. Is the Rochdale (original) building still standing?
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