…a Food Circus

The Food Circus at Century 21

I know what you’re thinking, “Of course there was food at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle (officially called the Century 21 Exposition) It was a fair!” And you’re right. It should go without saying that there was indeed food at Century 21. A lot of it, in fact.

Like any fair, there were snack stands and places to get a quick bite everywhere in the fair grounds (including the infamous Belgian Waffle stand.) but the main attraction for food was the Food Circus, located in the old Armory building (what other institution is moving to an old Armory?), this cornucopia of food options was described in the official guidebook as “a great bustling eaters’ delight.” In there, 52 booths hosted food from many nations, from Mongolian to Mexican.

The Paul Bunyan Cake towered over the eaters in the Food Circus

But towering above everything was the self-proclaimed World’s Largest Cake (sometimes called the Paul Bunyan Birthday Cake) According to Van de Kamp’s Holland Dutch Bakers of Seattle, the bakers of the cake, it contained 7,000 pounds of raisins, 1,500 dozen eggs, 2,200 pounds of pecans, 10,500 pounds of flour, 4,000 pounds of cane sugar and “a BUNYAN pinch of salt: 100 pounds.” You could even buy a portion of the cake as a souvenir… although since the fair was six months long, who would want to eat it?

After the fair, the Food Circus found other uses. Currently, it is known as the Center House and has a food court, but it also houses a theater, the Children’s Museum, a high school and a small exhibit about plans for the next 50 years of Seattle Center.

Do you remember Century 21?

The 1962 World’s Fair was pretty important to Seattle’s history and present. MOHAI is celebrating in many different ways. You can check them out here.

But one of my favorite programs is our Remembering Century 21 Workshops and Seminars. If you have a memory, a souvenir or even simply a tiny gnawing of wanting to know more about Seattle’s Space Age Fair, have we got a deal for you! In conjunction with Seattle Public Libraries and the King County Library System, MOHAI is offering a series of workshops that help you research your C21 past. (or just Century 21 if you’re a young’n.) A list of workshops and seminars can be found here.

Wait, there’s more! At the end of our workshop series, join us at the Seattle Center to witness the results of all your hard work and the hard work of the other workshoppers. More details on this special day will follow, but bookmark this page to keep abreast.

The September Community Celebration not enough sharing for you? Now you, (yes, you!) can be a contributor to MOHAI’s History Is____ Blog. The very blog you are reading. How meta, right? After you have taken the Remembering Century 21 workshops and seminars and have produced a written history or your Space Needle Umbrella, edited your parents’ Super 8 film into a digital video or finished your lyrical ode to the Fountain of Life, (or found out the provenance of the super awesome sculpture that used to be in front of MOHAI) just follow these instructions:

• Submissions should be sent to social.media@seattlehistory.org with the Subject Line: “Remembering Century 21 Blog Submission”  Submissions will only be accepted online.
• Submissions should be in Microsoft Word Format (either .doc or .dox) attached to the email
• Submissions should be roughly 1000 words long.
• If submitter has a photo to which they have copyright permission (either the photo was taken by them, or they have received permission from the copyright holder) they can attach that photo as a .jpg file to the email. Keep in mind that the submitted photo will be resized to have a long dimension of 640 pixels. Also, please include a photo credit .
  • Photo ownership will stay with the photographer and will not belong to MOHAI.
• Submitter may use a MOHAI photo in their submission, as long as it has already been digitized. You can find our digitized collection by visiting www.seattlehistory.org and typing in “century 21” (with quotes) into the search field under the Archive Photo of the Day on the main page.
  • When requesting a photo from MOHAI’s collection, give the image number and the title to aid in our getting the correct photo on the page.
  • Using a MOHAI photo will delay your post a bit as we need to get the correct photo from our archives.
• Submissions will only be edited for spelling and minor grammar errors. Please proofread your submissions before sending them to MOHAI
• Please include in the body of your email a short biography and how you prefer to be credited. A name and brief biography (2-3 sentences) for the author are required.