Founding Ideals

"This Co-operative began February 22nd, 1967 and was initially called Campus Co-operative Association Ltd. Its present Corporate name of Assiniboia Community Housing Co-operative (ACHC) LTD. was formally registered March 10, 1982. ACHC objects are:

(a) To promote co-operative housing and the social and economic welfare of the members of the association by utilizing their united efforts to provide housing and related services on a non-profit basis.

(b) To expand the availability of low-cost housing, primarily to single adults, in the city of Edmonton between the boundaries of the North Saskatchewan River to the North, Mill Creek Ravine to the East, 76 Avenue to the South, and 121 street to the West.

(c) To associate itself with other co-operatives and associations throughout Alberta, Canada and other countries for the purpose of mutual aid.

(d) To create a non-sexist living environment and promote gender equity.

(e) To provide housing that is well-built, well-maintained and is not damaging to the environment.

(f) To promote communal living.

(g) To engender a sense of community among the members of all houses in the Co-operative.

(h) To ensure that no discrimination, restriction or coercion shall be exercised or practiced by reason of age, race, colour, creed, national origin, political or religious affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, marital status or physical disability in ACHC's selection of members.

(i) To carry on any business or render any other service which can be conveniently carried on or rendered in connection with the above. To acquire by purchase, lease or otherwise and to sell or otherwise dispose of such equipment and facilities as may be necessary and convenient in carrying out the above objectives. 

(j) To encourage and facilitate a democratic process among all members of the Co-operative."

Not to Scale

Love From Well-Traveled Members

Correspondence Quotes

An undated letter to GLL from Granada, España:

"Honourable Lentils, beans, legumes & pulses, I have to say I do miss the meals there, the food is good here but the company at 10554 83 ave can't be beat. I suppose this letter will find the earth waiting for compost and seeds? I trust you will all rise to the occasion - get out there and start that garden and reap the profits in the fall. Maybe I should designate tasks? Just kidding."

And a 2004 postcard from Barbados (it's February in Edmonton, we're living vicariously through these past travelers):

"Greetings and Love to all Lentils & Friends of Lentils!! Look - I found the Bajan Golden Lentil. Forget the co-op cottage, we just need to get a co-op charter to the tropics."

Before Fairies!

A labeling mishap: one of our 2014 GLL members discovered a photograph collection and sent them to the archiving group. While 'before fairies' (i.e. before our current house members) was a fair enough assumption, looking through them we discovered that it's never safe to assume that there isn't a fairy living in the Golden Lentils Lodge.

Things We Forget

The lovely and unfortunate thing about living in a community with such high turnover is that we often find surprises like this - a guestbook from 2006 that didn't make it past five entries and photographs of people and protests with no context or date. Part of our archiving quest is to find items like this and either contextualize them or put them back into use (next time you're at GLL, ask to sign our resurrected book!)

Ingenuity at the Bottom of a Box

Someone in our cooperative was a fan of a series of zines/pamphlets/architectural plans produced by a fellow named Roland Prodaniuk. We found quite a few of these in our dusty archival boxes.

I googled him, and am going to share a pic or two of the zines as well as the hint of a bio I can string together from the wide and unwieldy internet. From what I can gather, he seems to be an amazing and interesting personality living in north Edmonton. I'm going to send a few emails and perhaps find out a bit more, because I'm very curious about his connection to the co-op, as well as his life and history in general.

"The Pro Consulting Scientific Research Institute ecstatically thrives on probing, researching, and solving problems as related to the paramount problem pentad: Peace, Pollution, Population, Poverty, and Power (energy)."

On this website he appears as a character in the stories of an Edmontonion looking into the history of Fort Road. Some memorable excerpts from http://cowbird.com/character/358/stories/ -

There. That's where he'd be, down there in that space. That's what the cops said. And they told us to take note of the water bottles lined up along the window.
One of the cops started going on and on about Roland's habits and rituals but the other cop stopped him, "Don't tell them everything."

We went outside to get one last shot of Roland. He told us a funny story after and I don't think he heard us when we said "we have to get going."
We never had time to get to what the water bottles in the window were for. And we never learned about the history of the road. In fact, by the end of the night, I don't think we knew much more at all about anything. Maybe we'll go back for a visit.
Bye Roland. I hope you're okay with all those peanuts you eat.

Some of the pictures have audio attached, and I would strongly encourage anyone with a moment or two to listen to them. Especially "Shine the Light on It" - in which we hear about Roland's perspectives on business and non-profits.

They want to use Casinos to raise funds. That's just robbing the poor.

On a website named "Elementymology & Elements Multidict," there is a paragraph that reads:

Roland George Prodaniuk, of Edmonton, Canada, suggests that element 120 is the last element. He named the element Rolandium (Ro), "named after its theorist and originator, Rolandium sounds better than Prodaniukium and far better than if shortened to Prodanium. See Element 120 Details. Prodaniuk, who signs his messages to the Yahoo group "synergeo" as Advanced Problematist & Theorist is the owner (and only employee?) of the Pro Consulting Scientific Research Institute.

This institute has it's own website, mostly dealing with ideas about chemistry, the periodic table, and particle physics (from what an uneducated social scientist can gather): http://www.ecn.ab.ca/~prosci/t00/t00.html

On the topic of the social sciences, I love this phrase. "Cease burying utilities. The sole benefit of any thing humankind buried to date that is not a seed for plant growth, or soil nutrient, is the gainful employment of only a few archaeologists and fewer anthropologists, absolutely nothing else, while for posterity the tangible detriments are infinite" (found on the third page of this pamphlet):

Finally, "If They Can't Afford Houses, Give Them Castles!"

I love people and stories, and will be pursuing this one further.