A View From Above - Key to Landmarks

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  1. Albert School; now Albert Community Center; facing Clarence Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets.
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  2. 12th Street, heading west. The built up area of the the city ends just a few blocks east of this picture. (Close Window)

  3. Quaker Oats building. (Close Window)

  4. CNR Bridge. Saskatoon's first bridge, it was originally built in 1890. Today's Idylwyld Freeway (built in the mid-1960's) follows the old CNR right-of-way roughly parallel to the river and crosses it at the site of this bridge. (Close Window)

  5. The Traffic Bridge. Opened in 1907 but not officially named until 2007, it was the first bridge built specifically for vehicular traffic. Opened in October, 1907, it was the site of Saskatoon's only marine disaster on June 7, 1908, when the steamer City of Medicine crashed into one of its piers and sank. (Close Window)

  6. The Broadway Bridge connects downtown with Nutana between Broadway Avenue and 19th Street East. It was built as a make-work project for men on relief and opened on November 11, 1932. At one time the City considered changing the name to George V Bridge in honour of the King. (Close Window)

  7. The A.L. Cole Generating Station at the foot of Avenue A South, was built by the City in 1911. Called the Saskatoon Power House, it was built to replace the old station built five years earlier at Avenue H and 11th Street. It was purchased by the Saskatchewan Power Corporation in November, 1928, to become part of a provincial power generating system.

    It was expanded several times in the next 30 years, but became increasingly obsolete after the Queen Elizabeth Station opened farther upstream in 1959. Finally in 1983 it was taken out of service. Although several plans existed to adapt it for use as a downtown residential development, it was finally demolished in 1995. Presently the site stands empty, home only to tall grass and wildflowers.

    The heavy plume of smoke in this photo is probably from the municipal incinerator, which stood adjacent to the station. (Close Window)

  8. Riversdale (originally "Riverdale") was Saskatoon's first subdivision. At first dubbed "Richville" (after an original settler), the area was homesteaded in the 1890's. Settlement in what is now downtown Saskatoon first spilled over the tracks into Richville in 1903, around the time the Barr Colonists arrived and set up temporary camps there.

    It was incorporated as a village on 16 January, 1905, and boasted 73 buildings including a hotel, blacksmiths shop, livery feed stable, general store and three lumber yards. Built for "profit rather than amenities", Riversdale had narrower streets and (often) shallower lots than was the norm in the other areas of Saskatoon.

    In 1906 the village amalgamated with the settlements of Nutana and Saskatoon to form the City of Saskatoon. (Close Window)

  9. The Bessborough Hotel. Now the Delta Bessborough, "the Bez" started life as a CN Hotel. Construction began in the late 1920's, but stalled during the Depression. It officially opened December 10, 1935. Saskatoon's "Castle by the River is possibly the City's best known - and certainly its most-photographed - landmark. (Close Window)

  10. Saskatoon Technical School. Built on the site of Saskatoon's original "Chinatown", it served Saskatoon students for decades before being converted into offices for the Public School Board. It was demolished in 2004 as part of the "River Landing" development (the City's long-awaited "South Downtown" project). (Close Window)

  11. The Arena Rink. It was built in 1937 and closed in 1987. It was demolished in 1989. (Close Window)

  12. CN Railyards. The yards split the City in two for decades, creating a barrier to traffic nearly as effective as that posed by the river. In 1966 the tracks were pulled out and the yards removed to their present location south and west of the City. A shopping mall, auditorium, and various other structures now occupy the space. (Close Window)

  13. CNR Station, facing the Bessborough Hotel down the length of 21st Street. (Close Window)

  14. The Robin Hood Flour Mill on a CPR spur line, south of 33rd Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A (now Idylwyld). Now surrounded by residential and industrial development, At this time it perched on the northern fringe of the City, exceeded only by the Woodlawn Cemetery (seen as a dark patch to the right and above it, in this photograph) and the tiny "McVicar Addition" residential neighbourhood paralleling the cemetery. West of Avenue A development extended a number of blocks farther north into Mayfair, but that cannot be seen in this photograph. (Close Window)

  15. 1st Avenue. As in any good prairie railway town, the streets of the old "Saskatoon" settlement (present day downtown) parallel the rails. Since with a very few exceptions the rest of the pre-World War II city is built on a standard grid pattern, it makes for some odd bends as one enters and leaves downtown.

    In the 1950's residential neighbourhoods began to be built using a more modern system of curving residential streets feeding into collector streets leading to main thoroughfares, the size of the development being based on the drawing area for an elementary school. The idea was to create smaller, more aesthetically pleasing residential areas, reduce the number of intersections and control traffic flow on residential streets. Grosvenor Park was the first such neighbourhood constructed. (Close Window)

  16. 2nd Avenue. The tracks of Saskatoon's Municipal Railway can be seen running down the center of it. (Close Window)

  17. 3rd Avenue (Close Window)

  18. 4th Avenue (Close Window)

  19. City Park (now Kinsmen Park). It contained King Edward School on 25th Street and City Hospital on the other side, facing Queen Street. King Edward School was torn down in 1980. (Close Window)

  20. Canada Building. Built in 1912, during the height of the pre-war building boom. (Close Window)

  21. 21st Street. The downtown stretch was Saskatoon's first paved street. Legend has it that a tunnel once ran (and perhaps still runs) beneath the street between First Avenue and Spadina Crescent, linking the CNR station and the Bessborough, and was used to bring baggage in for travellers staying at the hotel. (Close Window)

  22. 22nd Street. More-or-less following the route of the old Battleford Trail, 22nd is Saskatoon's major east-west artery west of the river. Until the rail yards were taken out of downtown in the 1960's, however, it was closed off at 1st Avenue, forcing traffic to detour to the 23rd Street underpass, go under the tracks and then turn south on Avenue A and backtrack a block to get to it. (Close Window)

  23. Flanagan/Senator Hotel. On the corner of 3rd Avenue and 21st Street, it was built in 1907 by James Flanagan. The hotel was modernized in 1912. Long since re-named the Senator, the hotel has undergone many changes over the years including the removal of the cupola which can be seen in this picture and which for many years housed a doctors office. (Close Window)

  24. Saskatoon's original Timothy Eaton store stood at the corner of 21st Street and 3rd Avenue. It was built in 1928 on the site of the 1903-1911 City Hall and contained the city's first escalator - which was made of wood. This picture was taken in 1939 showing the store decorated for the Royal Visit that year. In 1970 Eaton's moved out of the building and it became an Army and Navy store. The Army and Navy closed in 2000 and it is presently in the process of being converted to offices for the Public School Board. (Close Window)

  25. University Bridge, also known as the 25th Street Bridge. Completed in 1916. (Close Window)

  26. University of Saskatchewan campus. Saskatoon was chosen as the site for the U of S on 7 April, 1909. After a year in temporary facilities construction began on 4 May, 1910. (Close Window)

  27. The Town of Sutherland. Originally built to service the CPR yards there, it became part of Saskatoon in 1956. (Close Window)

  28. 19th Street (Close Window)

  29. 20th Street (Close Window)

  30. Goose Lake Line railway, servicing the Goose Lake region south and west of Saskatoon. (Close Window)

  31. Footbridge over the CNR yards. It was built in 1910 to provide access between downtown and Riversdale, and was torn down when the yards were removed in 1963. (Close Window)

  32. Avenue C (Close Window)

  33. Avenue B (Close Window)

  34. Avenue A. Now Idylwyld Drive along most of its length. Only the two block stretch south of 20th Street is still called Avenue A. Rather than having names, streets are "lettered" from A to Y. Briefly during 1922 the City discussed naming them ("A" might become "Ash", "B" - "Beech", etc) but nothing ever came of the idea.

    Curiously, there is no "Avenue Z". (Close Window)

  35. Nutana - the site of the original Temperance Colony settlement. Renamed Nutana after the settlement on the west bank of the river (present day downtown) incorporated as a village on 16 November, 1901. While legend suggests that the word "nutana" comes from a local Indian word meaning "first born", it seems more likely to have simply been a derivative of Saskatoon. In 1906 Nutana, Saskatoon and Riversdale joined to become the City of Saskatoon. (Close Window)

  36. Saskatchewan Crescent - site of some of Saskatoon's most stately homes. (Close Window)

  37. The U of S Memorial Gates. Built to honour former students killed in the Great War (1914-1918). they were built at the main entrance to campus and were dedicated on May 3, 1928. The road leading through the gates was closed to traffic in 1991 and replaced with the footpath that exists today (Close Window)

  38. The original site of Griffiths Stadium. Part of the University Lands, this site was leased by the City in order to build a new City Hospital. Construction ceased due to lack of money, however, and the uncompleted excavations stood open for many years. Finally after a person drowned in them they were filled and a sports field built over them. (Close Window)

  39. College Drive. (Close Window)

  40. Temperance Street. (Close Window)

  41. Saskatoon School For the Deaf, now the Williams Building, used by the University as overflow classroom space, for storage and to house a day care. (Close Window)

  42. The old Grand Trunk Railway Bridge, now the CN bridge. (Close Window)

  43. Old City Hall. Originally King Edward School, it was purchased by the City in 1911 and served as City Hall until 1956. The "New City Hall" (now the "Old Wing" of City Hall) opened that year and the old one was torn down. (Close Window)

  44. Knox Presbyterian Church, built in 1914 (now a United Church) (Close Window)

  45. St. John's Anglican Cathedral. The cornerstone was laid by the Duke of Connaught in 1912 and the church was visited by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip during their 1959 visit to Saskatoon. (Close Window)

  46. St. Paul's Cathedral was completed in 1910. Sir Wilfred Laurier laid the cornerstone. (Close Window)






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