{"id":51789,"date":"2015-05-27T13:00:10","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=51789"},"modified":"2015-05-26T20:37:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T00:37:09","slug":"proud-history-sidewalk-superintendents-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/05\/27\/proud-history-sidewalk-superintendents-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"A proud history of sidewalk superintendents in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between 1931 and 1939, the construction at\u00a0Rockefeller Center in New York City was a magnet for curious onlookers<\/a>. America was mired in the\u00a0depths of the Great Depression, and some\u00a075,000 people\u00a0were employed on the 12-acre site, laying\u00a0foundations and assembling the steel skeleton of the largest private construction project in the history of the\u00a0great metropolis.\u00a0Countless others, either out of work or on reduced hours, looked on from the sidelines.<\/p>\n

There were so many people lurking outside the construction barriers\u00a0that J. D. Rockefeller, the impossibly rich founder of Standard Oil and the project’s backer and namesake, built\u00a0a covered shed overlooking the work site, shielding the the people the papers called\u00a0“kibitzers of construction” from the elements and falling debris.<\/p>\n

Best of all, Rockefeller set up\u00a0an official “sidewalk superintendents” club. On November 7, 1938, 10,000 membership cards bearing the motto “De beste stuurlui staan aan wal”\u2014”The best pilots stand on the shore”\u2014were issued to the men, women, and children crowded by the side of the construction site.<\/p>\n

On the back was a list of tongue-in-cheek sidewalk superintendent club rules:\u00a0take off your hat, don’t drop kids over the fence, and\u00a0make all autograph requests in writing. There’s even video of the club in action:<\/p>\n