Sunday’s benefit for the Volunteer Park Friends of the Conservatory brought out hundreds of people to enjoy the sunny day and touches from 1912 like an old-timey band, horse-drawn carriage rides and… a hot dog truck. Images from the crowd including lots of people having fun in their Victorian best are below. 

Here’s an excellent look at the history of the Conservatory from the Seattle Times:

In March of 1912, The Seattle Times reported that construction of the building would begin “as soon as special material can be obtained from the East.” But the dates for the completion and opening of the conservatory are strangely vague.

The Seattle Times ran a splashy piece with big photographs on Sept. 22, 1912, saying there was “little remaining to be done except to complete placing glass in the framework and to link up to the greenhouse proper the service plant.” They expected the building to be completed within a month.

In January 1913, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer told its readers the building was complete but it still hadn’t been stocked. But by the spring of 1915, The Seattle Times felt confident running a story headlined “Beauty Riot in Hothouse,” proclaiming that anyone visiting the conservatory’s “perfection of blooms” now had “an asset making for happiness in human affairs far beyond their own realization.”

It looks like we may have been off by a year or two when it comes to 100-year anniversaries. No bother. Looked like people would happily dress up again next year.

More images from the day from CHS contributor Alex Garland here.