Lottie's Photos: The World's Fair at Treasure Island, 1939

In 1939 there were two World’ Fairs – one in New York and one in San Francisco. The San Francisco fair was also known as the Golden Gate Exposition and took place on Treasure Island. The fair began on February 18 and ended October 29 in 1939. It was held in part to celebrate the completion of the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936 and the Golden Gate bridge in 1937.

Mom and Dad visited the fair multiple times. Their first visit was shortly after it opened on March 13, 1939. Mom particularly liked the lights and the “Gayway”. They saw the Mississippi Building, and the Ford, Chrysler, Foods, and Peru Buildings. She wrote, “We ate dinner at the Jolly Roger, left about midnight and got home at 2 AM. I’m so happy and I love Ed so much. We were together 16 hours and if felt like 6.”

They went back to the fair on April 23^rd – that’s when this photo was taken. It shows Mom sitting on the edge of the fountain in the Court of Reflections. During this visit they saw the California Building, the Mine, Metals and Machinery Building, the Mission Trails Building, and lots of others. She commented on how beautiful the flowers were and said they saw Doug Corrigan’s plane. They ended their day going to see the Folies Bergère.

Their third visit was on July 9^th when they went with Dad’s parents. That day they saw the Horseshow – “the Canadian Mounted Police were the best.” They visited the Chinese Village and most of the foreign buildings.

Their last visit to the fair was on October 15, 1939 when she wrote, “the cars were so thick it took us two hours to get over the bridge to the island.” That day they saw the Petroleum Building. She noted that they saw all of the buildings at the fair, that there were 135,000 visitors that day, and before they left they stayed to watch the fireworks.