Welcome Guest!
In order to take advantage of all the great features that Waterloo Region Connected has to offer, including participating in the lively discussions below, you're going to have to register. The good news is that it'll take less than a minute and you can get started enjoying Waterloo Region's best online community right away.
or Create an Account




Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Flash from the Past: Memories of wilder days at University of Waterloo
#1
Flash from the Past: Memories of wilder days at University of Waterloo  
Quote:Once upon a time, the University of Waterloo campus was relatively goose-free and about that time (early 1968), Kitchener photographer Fred Curylo was high over Westmount Road North.

His photo was issued as a postcard by Kitchener News Company and it lets us peek back almost 50 years...

[Image: B822158860Z.1_20151022155731_000_GMC1IKA...allery.jpg]

Quote:But late-1960s North American campuses were scenes of dissent, protest, demands, resistance and old rules being cast aside. University of Waterloo's was no exception...

Via sit-ins, students demanded representation on the university's governing bodies — a concept virtually unimaginable in the 1960s. It did happen.

Outrageous prices in the bookstore occasioned a friendly, laughter-and-music-filled sit-in. Prices were reduced. This was education of another sort: if you don't demand, you don't get.

Obviously not every demand was accepted and some weren't even realistic. Picketers protesting recruiting by companies involved in the Vietnam War had little chance to stop corporate representatives signing up engineering and science graduates.

In that same vein, I recall when Burt Matthews became president of UW in 1970 the university bought a home on Westgate Walk in Waterloo for him and for successive presidents. IIRC they paid $110,000 for this property, a seemingly outrageous amount at the time. So outrageous that the Federation of Students held a sit-in in the back yard to protest the (their opinion) waste of money. 

But we were much better behaved than our counterparts at campuses like Berkeley or Columbia. It was a true sit-in. No damage to the property or other shenanigans. I fondly recall that Mrs Matthews came out to serve us refreshments and offer the use of toilets in the house.

I don't recall if ex-MP Andy Telegdi was there. He later became president of the FoS so it's possible. But I do recall that in those radical days our MP was an NDPer, Max Saltzman.
Reply


#2
I always find pictures of the incomplete Dana Porter amusingly odd.

I note that PAS and Needles Hall are yet to be built in this view as well.
Reply
#3
Thanks for posting this! Do you know which house on Westgate Walk was the president's house? Is it still UW's property?
Reply
#4
[attachment=501 Wrote:insider pid='12931' dateline='1445954534']Thanks for posting this! Do you know which house on Westgate Walk was the president's house? Is it still UW's property?

I believe it was 12 Westgate Walk, Kitchener. 

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4504899,-...56!6m1!1e1

The house was purchased for UW President Burt Matthews and in 1971,  as part of orientation (I think it was called initiation back then), a large group of students walked from campus to Westgate Walk to "capture the mansion."

   
Link on page 2.

Well, IIRC it turned out to be quite a party.  There was lots of beer -- delivered by someone with access to a Canada Post van!! -- as well as hash and marijuana.  Some played "football" with watermelons which smashed and created a mess. I remember a young women asked Mrs Matthews for a dollar bill and she rolled a joint in it and lit it in front of her.  Yeah, those were the days.  I think that was the one and only "capture the mansion" event at UW.
Reply
#5
(10-27-2015, 10:02 AM)insider Wrote: Thanks for posting this! Do you know which house on Westgate Walk was the president's house? Is it still UW's property?

I read somewhere that it was sold after Matthews retired. I have no idea if the current president lives in "subsidized housing" Wink
Reply
#6
(10-27-2015, 11:16 AM)jgsz Wrote: Well, IIRC it turned out to be quite a party.  There was lots of beer -- delivered by someone with access to a Canada Post van!! -- as well as hash and marijuana.  Some played "football" with watermelons which smashed and created a mess. I remember a young women asked Mrs Matthews for a dollar bill and she rolled a joint in it and lit it in front of her.  Yeah, those were the days.  I think that was the one and only "capture the mansion" event at UW.
Thanks for the link. I don't recall those details. As they say of those times, "If you remember them then you couldn't have been there." Wink
Reply
#7
(10-27-2015, 11:42 AM)ookpik Wrote:
(10-27-2015, 10:02 AM)insider Wrote: Thanks for posting this! Do you know which house on Westgate Walk was the president's house? Is it still UW's property?

I read somewhere that it was sold after Matthews retired. I have no idea if the current president lives in "subsidized housing" Wink

Hehe... coincidentally, 12 Westgate Walk it has a for sale sign on google street view:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4505576,-...56!6m1!1e1
Reply


#8
(10-27-2015, 12:41 PM)insider Wrote: Hehe... coincidentally, 12 Westgate Walk it has a for sale sign on google street view:
And the listing agent is none other than Waterloo's Crazy Canuck, Todd Brooker!
Reply
#9
(10-27-2015, 11:42 AM)ookpik Wrote:
(10-27-2015, 10:02 AM)insider Wrote: Thanks for posting this! Do you know which house on Westgate Walk was the president's house? Is it still UW's property?

I read somewhere that it was sold after Matthews retired. I have no idea if the current president lives in "subsidized housing" Wink

David Johnston owned Chatterbox Farm in Heidelberg, definitely not university property.
http://chatterbox.farm.tripod.com/index_old.htm
Reply
#10
(10-27-2015, 12:56 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(10-27-2015, 11:42 AM)ookpik Wrote: I read somewhere that it was sold after Matthews retired. I have no idea if the current president lives in "subsidized housing" Wink

David Johnston owned Chatterbox Farm in Heidelberg, definitely not university property.
http://chatterbox.farm.tripod.com/index_old.htm

And the current President, F. Hamdullahpur  may  live here.

I say "may" because 411.ca says there is an F. Hamdullahpur who lives at 705 Springwater Pl Waterloo.  Of course, I could be wrong.... 


 
Reply
#11
If I remember correctly, the University owned a house on Old Beechwood where Jim "the hair" Downey lived. It was sold around the time David Johnson moved here.
Reply
#12
(10-27-2015, 01:12 PM)jgsz Wrote:
(10-27-2015, 12:56 PM)tomh009 Wrote: David Johnston owned Chatterbox Farm in Heidelberg, definitely not university property.
http://chatterbox.farm.tripod.com/index_old.htm

And the current President, F. Hamdullahpur  may  live here.

I say "may" because 411.ca says there is an F. Hamdullahpur who lives at 705 Springwater Pl Waterloo.  Of course, I could be wrong.... 


 


Wow... that is quite modest considering his $400,000 salary
Reply
#13
(10-27-2015, 01:59 PM)insider Wrote:
(10-27-2015, 01:12 PM)jgsz Wrote: And the current President, F. Hamdullahpur  may  live here.

I say "may" because 411.ca says there is an F. Hamdullahpur who lives at 705 Springwater Pl Waterloo.  Of course, I could be wrong.... 


 I Think he moved from Springwater... rumor has it he built a new home about 4 or 5 years ago here 
https://goo.gl/maps/KD9HsUCzhgp

Wow... that is quite modest considering his $400,000 salary
Reply


« Next Oldest | Next Newest »



Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

About Waterloo Region Connected

Launched in August 2014, Waterloo Region Connected is an online community that brings together all the things that make Waterloo Region great. Waterloo Region Connected provides user-driven content fueled by a lively discussion forum covering topics like urban development, transportation projects, heritage issues, businesses and other issues of interest to those in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the four Townships - North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich.

              User Links