there aren't people on the rooftops, but there are crowds
at the Exhibition grounds in these old postcards from 1920s (above) and before 1910 (below)
In 1912, it became known as The Canadian National Exhibition and covered 350 acres
today, it is much smaller - when the Gardiner Expressway was built in the 1950s it cut the size down to 190 acres. In 1879, when the fair moved permanently to Toronto there were a recorded 100,000 people attending — in a city with a population of 86,000! By 1920 the population of Toronto had grown to 500,000. Today it is almost 3 million with only about 1.2 million attending over the 18 days of the Ex.
I love those hats, always will.
ReplyDeleteas much as I hate wearing hats, I love the elegance of seeing men and women in hats
DeleteYour first photo reminds me of the Sydney Olympic Games and walking down the main concourse after a day at the athletics. We couldn't believe how happy and peaceful the huge crowd was.
ReplyDeleteproving it is possible to have peaceful crowds :)
DeleteWhoa - them's a LOT of folks! You certainly hit the mark with beaucoup crowds of people. I especially like the last one in color. Is that one actually dated 1912 because if it is, I have a hunch my husband's grandmother and grandfather likely attended because they lived in Toronto at the time and were into that sort of thing.
ReplyDeletethe last one was sent in September 1908.
Deletethe name changed from Toronto Industrial Exhibition to Canadian National Exhibition in 1912.
Phew - what crowds! The photographs took me back to pictures of the early 20th century with holiday makers streaming off the trains to head for the beach in my birthplace Blackpool, England’s Famous seaside resort in the north west.
ReplyDeletethe sheer numbers of people enjoying the great outdoors at that time is astounding!
DeleteOh what crowds! I do my best to go to events before or after the heights of busy-ness. Reading through your post I remembering that my parents took a friend and I to The Canadian National Exhibition in the 1960s (from Ohio). I don't remember much but I don't think it was as crowded as in your postcards.
ReplyDeleteThe 60s was when we went, too and I don't remember anything like these crowds. If there had been, I'm sure my mother would never have taken me again!
DeleteWhat great photos of crowds of people enjoying themselves. And my practical mind wonders, in the age before portable toilets, how did they all relieve themselves when needed? Sorry about that, hope it doesn't sound inappropriate, but there was probably indoor plumbing somewhere...
ReplyDeleteoh my, I hadn't thought of that!
DeleteI find these postcards of crowds fascinating because of how people once tolerated standing or walking so close and tight to each other. And all while dressed in wool suits, wide hats, bustling dresses.
ReplyDelete