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As far back as the Great Industrial Expositions and World's Fairs of the Victorian and Gilded Age Exhibitions of London, Chicago, and Paris, and on to the twentieth-century, World of Tomorrow, future-fantastic Expos of New York and Montreal, cities have been inviting global citizens to come and imagine the future. There remains a considerable amount of interest, nostalgia, and public memory associated with the optimism and celebration of culture and progress that has been centre stage at these massive, international events for the last 160 years. Inspired by our recent coverage of plans for World Expo 2020 in Dubai, we will look at the past and present of three former sites of World's Fairs and Expos in London, Chicago, and Montreal.
Beginning in London, England in 1851, the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, or The Great Exhibition, kickstarted a series of similar events to be held in the great cities and capitals of the world that has continued in one form or another to the present day. At its centre was the Crystal Palace, a massive, glass-covered structure constructed in Hyde Park especially for the occasion that was evocative of the grand shopping arcades common to the Victoria Era. The Great Exhibition welcomed over six million visitors from May to October of 1851. Organized and promoted in large part under direction from Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria, along with various captains of industry and cultural practitioners, the Great Exhibition, like all such events to follow, was an international celebration of industry, technology, innovation, art, and culture.
Seen in the image above, the Crystal Palace was completely destroyed by fire on November 30, 1936, after a long period of decline and disuse. The remaining tower was demolished a few years later, leaving just a small portion of the upper terrace (seen above bottom-centre, and in the image below), along with a sizeable green space made popular over the years with the help of concerts and other public events. At its heyday during the 1970s, the annual summertime Crystal Palace Garden Parties were hosted by popular bands including Pink Floyd and The Beach Boys. Today the site remains an enigma in terms of what the future holds, with various redevelopment plans having come and gone in recent years.
Across the pond in 1893, The World's Columbian Exposition — or Chicago World's Fair as it became more commonly known — was held in the Windy City to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492. Deemed the White City, the exposition grounds covered a massive, 600-acre parcel of land south of the city centre at Jackson Park, and featured an impressive collection of alabaster-clad, Beaux Arts-inspired, neo-classical pavilions and halls that were centred around an other-worldly series of man-made waterways and canals. Designed in part by Frederick Law Olmstead, the White City was a masterful example of the City Beautiful Movement at its best.
Attended by more than 27 million visitors from May to October in 1893, the opening day took in an unprecedented 750,000 people, a staggering amount during any era, especially at a time when the largest cities in the world were just beginning to cross the one million mark. The Chicago World's Fair, while heralded as a great success overall, was not free from its host of troubles, including a massive fire that destroyed some of the pavilions, and the assassination of Chicago mayor Carter Harrison Sr. by rival Patrick Eugene Pendergast just two days before the closing ceremonies.
Remaining structures from the Chicago World's Fair include the Palace of Fine Arts, re-purposed as the Museum of Science and Industry in Jackson Park, joined by the Louis Sullivan-designed arch and former entrance to the Transportation Pavilion, along with a much smaller replica of The Republic, a grand gold-covered statue that originally stood at 100 feet tall and greeted visitors upon their arrival at the White City.
Fast-forwarding to the 1960s, Expo 67 in Montreal was the epitome of that era's Space Age, future-forward thinking, the precedent for which had been set by the 1964 New York World's Fair only three years earlier. Equipped with its own mono-rail, geodesic dome, and fine collection of striking, modernist pavilions and other structures, Expo 67 welcomed a record-breaking 50 million visitors, including such notables as Queen Elizabeth II, American President Lyndon Johnson, Princess Grace of Monaco, French President Charles De Gaulle, Robert Kennedy, Bing Crosby, Harry Belafonte, and Marlene Dietrich.
Created upon the expanded St. Helen's Island in the St. Lawrence River along with several purpose-built, man-made islands, the Expo grounds were a sight to behold, a futuristic fantasy world seen clearly from the shores of Old Montreal adjacent to the city centre. Standout structures included the American Pavilion pictured above — a large geodesic dome that has since become home to the Montreal Biosphere — and Habitat 67, a Moshe Safdie-designed modernist structure and model community and housing complex, both of which can be visited today.
Monuments to the entirety of human progress, culture, and invention, the great fantasy cities constructed over the last 160 years have served their respective ages and locales as a mirror held up to the collective sense of hope for the future shared by people across the globe since 1851. With a tenure that goes back further than that of the modern Olympic Games, the ongoing legacy of World's Fairs and Expos has survived in spirit, even when the buildings and pavilions fall and fade into history.
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