was partially developed with federal urban renewal funds. The San Antonio Conservation Society recommended that 129 structures on the site be preserved; however, on August 9, 1966, an agreement was made to save only 20 existing structures that would be incorporated into the fair site. Overall, only 24 structures were saved. In addition, as a part of the overall HemisFair project, the city extended its River Walk (Paseo del Rio) one-quarter of a mile into the site in order to link the River Walk and the HemisFair grounds in 1968. In 2001, the River Walk was extended again under the new Convention Center Expansion and is now connected to a small lagoon inside HemisFair Park. Opening ceremonies HemisFair began on April 6, 1968, with the gates opening at 9:00am and official ceremonies beginning at 10:00am in the new Convention Center Arena. However, with the opening just two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., VIPs in attendanceincluding U.S. First Lady Lady Bird Johnson and Texas Governor John Connally, both of whom received death threatswere escorted around the site under heavy security. Pavilions at HemisFair National pavilions at the fair included: Canada, Mexico, Italy, Spain, France, Japan, Belgium, Bolivia, Republic of China, Colombia, West Germany, South Korea, Panama, Portugal, Switzerland, Thailand and Venezuela. There were also shared pavilions such as a five-nation Central American pavilion, representing Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica and the special pavilions of the Organization of American States, which represented eleven more Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. Corporate pavilions at the fair included: Eastman Kodak, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Humble Oil (now ExxonMobil), IBM, RCA, Southwestern Bell (now AT&T), Frito Lay, Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, American Express, Chrysler, and 3M. Other pavilions at the fair included: the LDS Church, the Southern Baptist pavilion, the Women's Pavilion and Project Y (Youth Pavilion). A monorail, named Mini-Monorail, connected pavilions together. The monorail was manufactured by Universal Design Limited and constructed by H.C.P. Enterprises. Legacy After HemisFair, much of the land ownership was transferred to the State of Texas and the U.S. Federal Government. Today, the City of San Antonio owns approximately of the site, 30 of which the Convention Center occupies. In 1986, many unused remaining structures built for the fair were removed and in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of HemisFair '68, approximately of the site were redeveloped with cascading waterfalls, fountains,