Visitors will see newspaper articles, souvenir items, photographs and films, all of them telling the story of Sainte-Catherine Street’s different roles and the stories behind its growth.

The exhibition revolves around signal events in the city’s past, divided up into six thematic zones. It features over 250 intriguing objects from private and public collections, ranging from the costumes created by Alfred Pellan for the La Nuit des rois at Place des Arts in 1968 to the mask worn by Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante in 1963 and a superb dress from Morgan’s department store in 1900.

Over 250 years of history

The exhibition examines a number of milestones, as covered by the newspapers of the day: the terrible fire that ravaged the city in July 1852, the opening of Morgan’s department store in 1891, the reopening of the Ouimetoscope movie theatre in 1907, Lili St. Cyr’s controversial shows at the Gayety theatre in 1944 and, more recently, the construction of Complexe Desjardins in 1976 and the huge ovation for “Rocket” Richard in 1996, the year the Forum closed. These different events, artifacts, films and archival images remind visitors of how Sainte-Catherine has changed over the years.