Names, Numbers and Narratives: Hidden Stories in City Directories, a Three-Part Series. Part 1

When was the last time you pulled out a phone book, a city directory, or an address book with a carefully curated list of friends and family phone numbers? Some of you might read this and chuckle as nostalgia comes flooding back. In contrast, others might be lost, as phone books have mostly become irrelevant, replaced by the digital contact book in our smartphones with nicely curated emojis next to individual names, signaling as a reminder of who they are to us.

I recently completed a summer internship with Saskatchewan’s Western Development Museum (WDM) as part of their larger language remediation project. My job was researching the Wing Lee Laundry building, part of the WDM Saskatoon’s Boomtown 1910 exhibit. Suppose you have wandered down Boomtown Street and walked inside some of the buildings. In that case, you will notice that not all have interpretive text, providing more information about the artifacts on display, including the Wing Lee Laundry building. When you enter the laundry, there are many artifacts—from sad irons to washing boards, tubs and soap products. However, there is little indication of who worked at this shop and their life in Saskatoon.

I began the search with little information on the laundry. I did know the physical address was 336 Ave E South in Riversdale. So, what did I do? I opened up an old city directory and went straight to the street index to begin my search.

Just as your address book may contain annotations, or nowadays phone contact lists might be decorated with emojis, city directories—although a more formal, primary source—also offer insight into the historical context of the period and help me, as the researcher, ask more detailed questions, becoming a catalyst for my research process.

Where did I find Saskatoon city directories? The WDM has a few decades’ worth, particularly for the 1960s and 1970s. The earlier years of Saskatoon’s history can be found on internetarchive.org. I began my search using the Internet Archive database because I could input search terms that would feature related results rather than manually flipping through the pages of a book. I chose to begin by looking at the year 1915 and work my way backward to determine when the laundry building opened its doors for the first time. My first search term was “Wing” for Wing Lee Laundry. To my surprise, there were three Wing Lee Laundries in 1915 noted as being located at: 217, 20th Street West; w s 9th Street nr 2nd Ave (Sutherland); and 336 Ave E South.[1]

I traced two (all but Sutherland) back to 1913. It wasn’t until 1914 that the laundry at 336 Ave E South changed its name to Wing Lee Lai Laundry to differentiate it from the other two Wing Lee Laundries. I noticed this in the street portion of the directory. However, I needed to verify the proprietors of Wing Lee Laundry, as I was told there were multiple proprietors at the location. Would the directory help me find that out?

The alphabetical section of the directories became incredibly helpful and provided multiple avenues for me to expand my search terms. I would search using the terms “Wing,” “laundry” and “Lai.” I had to consider searchable terms and how to find the correct information. I encountered some challenges due to human errors, changes in names and limitations of search engines.

Over the years, the laundry changed names, and I had to cross-reference city directories to track the changes. I examined city directories from 1908 to 1975 multiple times to ensure I got all the name changes and shifts in the laundry industry. Soon enough, I verified a name on the building—Yee Foo and two business partners towards the end of the laundry’s lifespan, Yee Quon and Lai Chow.[2]

But I had more information to go off. I developed more research questions, like:

• Why was Yee Foo’s name frequently attached to the laundry when his business partners’ names only appeared once?
• Who decides what information is included in the city directories?
• How do societal attitudes of the times show up in the city directory?
• Did businesses have to pay to advertise their business in the directory? Did they get to determine how their company was listed?

We will explore these questions throughout this blog series.

Endnotes

[1] Henderson’s Saskatoon City Directory 1915, (Winnipeg: Henderson Publishing Corporation, 1915), 494.
[2] Henderson’s Greater Saskatoon Directory, 1951, (Winnipeg: Henderson Directories Limited, 1951), 302.

Author Biography:
Shannon Putnam was a 2024 summer curatorial intern at the Western Development Museum Corporate Office, working with Chief Curator Dr. Elizabeth Scott as part of Western University’s MA Public History program. Shannon grew up on a Saskatchewan farm but now calls British Columbia home. As a high school teacher, she aims to inspire curiosity in her students and challenge them to question historical narratives and their place within them.

Acknowledgments:
The WDM extends its thanks to Florence Hwang, great-granddaughter of Yee Foo and her family for their assistance on this project. We would also like to thank the City of Saskatoon Archives for their helpful assistance in accessing records related to the Wing Lee Lai Laundry, and to Harris Ford, PhD Candidate in History at the University of Saskatchewan, for sharing his research on Chinese business and histories in Riversdale, Saskatoon.

Read Part 2 >>

Read Part 3 >>