This exhibition looks at the transformation of Montréal from a nineteenth century merchant city to the metropolis of Canada. It examines the elements that made Montréal a political, social, and economic centre and explores the unique character of its architecture.

The exhibition brings together some 350 objects, including drawings from the CCA collection by Montréal architects Ernest Isbell Barott, Ernest Cormier, René Charbonneau, George Allan Ross, and Robert Macdonald; documents from McGill University’s Canadian Architecture Collection by John S. Archibald, Edward and William Maxwell, and Percy E. Nobbs; as well as archives from Montréal, Outremont, Westmount, the Port of Montréal, and the Canadian Pacific Railway. Drawings from the New York Historical Society and the Avery Library by George B. Post for the Stock Market Exchange (Bourse, 1904), by McKim Mead and White for the Bank of Montreal (1905), and by Thomas Lamb for Loew’s Cinema (1917) are also on loan to the CCA for the exhibition. Paintings, prints, posters, and photographs, as well as three-dimensional objects, notably from banks and department stores, are on view. Collectively, the objects highlight Montréal architecture, its construction, and social context from 1880 to 1930, as well as the transformation of the city’s urban fabric.

Curated by Isabelle Gournay, University of Maryland, and France Vanlaethem, Université du Québec à Montréal.