Sir Adam Beck School and the Summer of '36
From the day that Sir Adam Beck School opened, in 1921, it became the Alderwood community's primary meeting place. It has hosted meetings of ratepayers, the Volunteer Fire Department, dances, political forums and field days. In the torrid summer of 1936 the school was host to a political gathering more fervent than most.
During the Depression Alderwood's nickname was Pogeyville. An industrial suburb with one of every four unemployed, tempers ran as hot as the record high temperatures of that summer. In response to the provincial government's cutbacks to relief programs, relief workers began to strike in June and by the end of the month there were more than five thousand on strike. There were deputations and angry demonstrations in Mimico, Long Branch, Lakeview and York and violence across the city and province.
On July 8 two relief workers and Reeve Armstrong were seized and imprisoned off of the boiler room of the school. A crowd surrounded the school and swelled to 500. After being held for eighteen hours, the Reeve agreed to compromise relief benefits.
Premier Hepburn was convinced that Communists had organized the province wide demonstrations. In the early hours of July 10 he dispatched a special squad of police, who arrested ten men on the charge of "seizing and holding persons." The arrests marked the end of the relief violence.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here.