A Canadian Family

St-Helen’s Island (L’Ile Ste-Helene) Montreal, Quebec

Family Photo - Summer of 1956

When I was growing up in the 1950s, St-Helen’s Island (L’Ile Ste-Helene) was a popular destination with Montrealers trying to escape the city’s heat – and this was especially true for working-class families (like mine) who couldn’t afford “real” vacations in far-off places. St-Helen’s Island is located just off Montreal Island in the St-Lawrence River and water was clean at the time (or at least we thought it was) so its beach and picnic grounds were always paced with fun-seeking Montrealers!

For this photograph, my parents posed me and my sister in front of our pride-and-joy – the family’s Morris Minor.

What we didn’t know at the time was that St-Helen’s Island would be completely transformed less than a decade later as part of Montreal’s preparation for its world fair – Expo 67. Montreal’s brand new subway system (le Metro) was being built, and an engineer hit on the idea of dumping the excavated earth into the St-Lawrence River to build up Ile Ste-Helene and Ile Notre- Dame-Islands. I suspect this type of project would not pass muster in our more ecologically aware times, but the 1950s/60s were a time of grandoise ideas and mega-projects (see also Happy 5oth Birthday – St-Lawrence Seaway!). In this excerpt from the Montreal Expo 67 Official Guide entitled “Nouveaux Travaux d’Hercule” or “The Miracle of Expo” you can see that Quebeckers really felt they were taking their place on the world stage.

Quote from the Expo 67Official Guide:

In two years the original Ile Ste-Sainte-Helene (top) was extended and

Ile Notre-Dame built up from a few acres of rocks (bottom).

Expo 67 Official Guide:

Map showing the new Metro (red dotted lines)

Ile Ste-Helen with new amusement park La Ronde

Ile Notre-Dame site of the Montreal Formula 1 Grand Prix Races

Related Posts:

Plattsburgh, New York – Montreal’s Vacation Spot

Interesting Links:

The Whole Wide World

1968 Morris Minor 1000 Traveller

July 13, 2009 - Posted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault | 16900022 | blog carnival, classic cars, Expo 67, La Ronde, Morris Minor, Quebec, vintage car