"The first time I saw this photograph I wondered where it was. What fresh-faced little three-elevator town is this? How did it fare? Was it abandoned by the railway? Did its children leave for college? Did its pioneers outlive their dreams?
The more I looked at the picture, the more it came into focus. That elevator on the left, with its annex and smokestack, is the Leslie & Wilson Mill, built in 1902 to provide the community with flour and rolled oats. That large white building on the right is the Western Hotel, constructed in 1903 at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 21st. That river looks familiar. That horizon and its sky. It is a snapshot of Saskatoon, circa 1905.
If that wide and muddy road is 21st Street, then the Bessborough Hotel now stands at the spot where the road meets the river, and the Midtown Plaza with its office tower stands between the two elevators at the other end of the street. The houses on Spadina Crescent are long gone, and the open prairie in the distance is now filled with the rooftops of Riversdale, Caswell Hill and beyond.
The story of Saskatoon began well before the advent of photography and will, of course, live well into the digital age. This little history book falls in between. It begins with early black and white photographs and ends before everyone had switched to Kodachrome. Which is to say, from the late 1800s to about 1969. By the end of the 1960s, the little prairie town in this picture had evolved into the modern cityscape we recognize today.
At the time of this photograph, Saskatoon had just one bridge. But it was not for lack of trying. From its early days, the residents of Saskatoon wanted a bridge across their river, and each new bridge was never enough. Whether for traffic or for trains, each bridge has its own story. So, it seems fitting to base each section of this little history on the bridge that fit the times.
Why did Saskatoon succeed as a city when other prairie towns have faded away? From the start, Saskatoon was tenacious. Its residents dreamed big and bigger. They did not wait for the future to arrive on their doorstep, they imagined the future and pushed it out the door. They believed Saskatoon would be a great city and I believe we have not let them down...
The more I looked at the picture, the more it came into focus. That elevator on the left, with its annex and smokestack, is the Leslie & Wilson Mill, built in 1902 to provide the community with flour and rolled oats. That large white building on the right is the Western Hotel, constructed in 1903 at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 21st. That river looks familiar. That horizon and its sky. It is a snapshot of Saskatoon, circa 1905.
If that wide and muddy road is 21st Street, then the Bessborough Hotel now stands at the spot where the road meets the river, and the Midtown Plaza with its office tower stands between the two elevators at the other end of the street. The houses on Spadina Crescent are long gone, and the open prairie in the distance is now filled with the rooftops of Riversdale, Caswell Hill and beyond.
The story of Saskatoon began well before the advent of photography and will, of course, live well into the digital age. This little history book falls in between. It begins with early black and white photographs and ends before everyone had switched to Kodachrome. Which is to say, from the late 1800s to about 1969. By the end of the 1960s, the little prairie town in this picture had evolved into the modern cityscape we recognize today.
At the time of this photograph, Saskatoon had just one bridge. But it was not for lack of trying. From its early days, the residents of Saskatoon wanted a bridge across their river, and each new bridge was never enough. Whether for traffic or for trains, each bridge has its own story. So, it seems fitting to base each section of this little history on the bridge that fit the times.
Why did Saskatoon succeed as a city when other prairie towns have faded away? From the start, Saskatoon was tenacious. Its residents dreamed big and bigger. They did not wait for the future to arrive on their doorstep, they imagined the future and pushed it out the door. They believed Saskatoon would be a great city and I believe we have not let them down...