What’s left of Montreal’s Expo 67? A look at the remnants of a world’s fair

Almost 60 years ago, Montreal played host to the world during the 1967 International and Universal Exposition.

Expo 67 was the pinnacle of Canada's 100th anniversary celebrations and led to some of the biggest infrastructure projects the city has ever seen.

The event, which welcomed 62 nations and featured close to 100 thematic pavilions, saw more than 50 million visitors in its six-month run. The world's fair thrust Montreal onto the global stage and transformed the city’s landscape. 

At the time, the Montreal Star described it as "the most staggering Canadian achievement since this vast land was finally linked by a transcontinental railway."

But after so many years — and with more and more relics disappearing — what remains to keep Expo 67 from slipping from our collective memory?

“There's still a lot,” said Roger La Roche, a historian who specializes in international exhibitions.

“First of all, the islands themselves. We tend to forget that we built most of it out of nothing in 67,” he said. 

The fair grounds were built on two man-made islands in the St. Lawrence River. Île Ste-Hélène already existed, but it was significantly expanded to swallow up the neighbouring Île Ronde and beyond. 

Île Nôtre-Dame, however, was built from scratch in 10 months, using landfill from the excavation of Montreal’s new Metro system, which was inaugurated the year before Expo 67, in October 1966.

WATCH | Almost 60 years after Expo 67, what's left?:

Other prominent monuments of Expo 67 include Moshe Safdie’s innovative housing complex Habitat 67 and Buckminster Fuller’s oversized geodesic dome. At the time, the metal structure was home to the U.S. Pavilion, but it now houses the Biosphere Environment Museum.

According to Monika Kin Gagnon, professor emeritus of communications at Concordia University, most pavilions and exhibits at the world's fair were meant to be temporary. 

“Some disappeared right away,” she said, “like the Soviet Union pavilion was dismantled the day after the Expo closed and was transported back to Moscow where it still stands there today.” 

Some pavilions deteriorated and were torn down, while others found new homes elsewhere in Canada or were repurposed and given a new lease on life at their original locations.