H O ME t o w n R eflections . . . . .
The Little Chief Texaco at Twentieth and Avenue B in 1961.
Photo: 1100-30128 courtesy of the City of Saskatoon Archives
a few doors down from the Barry Hotel, sat on city council from 1917-1929, including three years as mayor. Another hardware merchant, Lorne Massey, was elected to council in 1910 and 1911, as did Dr. J.H.C. Willoughby, one of the founders of Riversdale, whose homestead atTwentieth Street
and Avenue P later became St. Paul’s Hospital. More recently, Don Junor, long-time general manager of the Barry Hotel and founding member of what is now the Riversdale Business Improvement District, served on city council from 1968-1979. A public figure of a different sort was “Popcorn Pete,” aka
Peter Molino, who for 40 years worked a popcorn cart at the corner of Avenue B, in front of Adilman’s department store. Saskatoon’s Melting Pot The spirit ofTwentieth Street over the years was perhaps best captured by local historian George Kovalenko, who called
it “an Old World street of many nationalities; a casual and intimate one of shops and stores with brightly lit-up neon signs.” Like Riversdale and Pleasant Hill generally, Twentieth has always been Saskatoon’s most ethnically diverse area. “Like the Avenue of the Americas in NewYork,” one long-time
Summer 2014
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