According to The Chicago Tribune, the Palace of Fine Arts, which at one time housed the city’s collection of precious artworks, was built to last. When the fair was done, the exterior was changed so that the front was now the back, and vice-versa, and the building was given a new color scheme, but otherwise it’s the same as it was in 1893. Today, it houses the Museum of Science and Industry (pictured above), and according to 2016 statistics from the Themed Entertainment Association, hosts over a million visitors per year.

Another Columbian Exposition building was built specifically with a view toward another use after the fair was over. As The Art Institute of Chicago explains on its website, the institution needed a permanent home, and there was even talk of using the building that eventually became the Museum of Science and Industry. Instead, the Art Institute put up money to build a structure. However, it was used during the exposition first, not as a tourist attraction, but as a site for meetings and discussions. After the dust had settled on the fair, the museum moved into its new site.