A look back to Saskatoon in the 1920’s

As Saskatoon enters the 2020’s 650 CKOM looks at how the city was the first time we entered the 20’s—in 1920.

Saskatoon City Archivist Jeff O’Brien says in the 1920’s the city was in the midst of rapid growth.

“We had immense population growth, Saskatoon grew from 25,000 people in the 1921 census to 43,000 in 1931,” he said. “That’s a growth of 72 per cent. It’s the best growth of any city in Western Canada by a long shot.”

According to O’Brien, the population growth was reflected in the growth of the rest of the city as well including houses, schools, and public buildings and spaces.

“A lot of Saskatoon’s parks also date from the 1920’s. We had spaces set aside but a lot of development of parks was done in the 20’s,” he said.

“In Victoria Park what they did in 1925 was build the first public swimming pool which was the Riversdale pool. Before that if you wanted to go swimming in Saskatoon you either had to be a member of one of the Y’s, the YMCA or the YWCA, or you would go swim in the river.”

O’Brien says there are still many snapshots of 1920’s Saskatoon today, especially in the city’s downtown area.

“The public school board building is maybe one of the most representative of the period. That’s the old Eaton’s department store. Saskatoon’s first escalator was in the Eaton’s store. They had an elevator and an elevator operator. It was a wonderful store,” he said.

“Even the Midtown mall, they built the centre in the late 1960’s but then they remodeled the front entrance to look like the old railway station that had been there in the 20’s and 30’s. So when you are looking at the front entrance of the midtown you really are kind of getting a snapshot of that end of 21st St.”