Despite the claims of some that once I finished my part of the Wonderful World of Oz project, that I sloughed off, sleeping in late, gorging on tropical treats, laid in the sun, listening to the strains of Bossa Nova..

I actually did none of that! Well, maybe the sloughed off part...

But I have, in fact, been working on a little project (yes, I know I have a reputation when it comes to 'little' projects, but I digress...). Citytrader has been working on a similar park based on a slightly different version of the same idea. Mine is based off an alternative version of a map for a park first drawn for a very famous person. While neither version of that park ever came into being, they did lay the foundation for a much larger and grander..and ultimately very successful - park some years later. As usual my park is BASED on that particular map, but, as usual, I've taken the idea farther along...

While this bench surprising only has but a couple TMTK items created for it (unlike the 700+ made for Oz...), it would not be possible without the generous sharing of work by others downloaded from the Workshop. Many were used 'as-is'...others were tweaked slightly...or a LOT. But each and every blueprint and TMTK item is much appreciated.

The park is about 80% complete, so the screenshots will be slow in coming at first as I tend to work on ALL parts of the bench, so there's things that are under construction on ALL parts of the bench. But here's a first glimpse...

An alternative version of Los Angeles, California, ca. 1940's

Los Angeles, Movie Capital of the World. Boomtown. The Studio has been a busy place over the past few years. Full-length animated feature films have enthralled audiences world-wide.

Many would rest on their laurels. But instead there was an idea in the Ol' Maestro's head that had been slowly growing over the years, and is finally coming to fruition. A slice from the World of Imagination found in the animated features, as well as a salute to a slower time not so long ago. A place where one could share an adventure with their young ones...and feel young at heart themselves...

This is the story of Mickey Mouse Park...

Edited April 30Apr 30 by Wabigbear
title updated

Wow - this is great. Very unique

Or should I say very original!

Oh. I thought you were gonna say you were building an earlier version of Wonder World. But this is good too. :-D

I am genuinely interested in Disney's earlier concepts for a new type of park. I know next to nothing about the plans he had for the park-that-never-was. So I'm looking forward to this!

Walt's original vision came from a desire to have a safe, clean amusement area where parents could take their children, instead of the what he considered seedy amusement parks of the day. His plans quickly grew, and he had employees at his studio come up with some plans as he outlined his changing thoughts. There's two 'maps' that I know of that were draw up. Both versions of a Mickey Mouse Park were planned to be constructed across the street from the original Disney Studios on Riverside Drive in Burbank California, along a flood control channel for the Los Angeles River.

The second 'map' is the more well known version. You entered into a circus area, next came a fairgrounds, then a version of a turn of the century small town, a Western themed street, a country farm, an Native American village, and a mill-themed water ride...with a railroad and horse-drawn streetcars. There was also a small lake with a steam paddle boat that sailed around an island that was to be a bird sanctuary...

Here's a photo with that plan placed over an aerial view of the Disney Studios today...

Even before either of these site maps came out there were sketches of Disney's evolving plans. No map of this early layout is available, but there's an early drawing of a fairly bare-bones park....

That version of the plans above was a bit more pared down from the earlier version shown below. This earlier version is less well known. I came across a copy of it in a book of Disney maps I had.

There you entered a rather fancier turn of the century American small town, complete with a sizeable City Park, industrial area, a Fairgrounds which was hosting a circus, an industrial area, a Western street, a farm, a fort, Native American village, and a railroad.

This is the version I'm basing my park on. It's NOT an exact replica, just loosely based on it. I'm going with the idea that this version of the park was actually built, and that the Studio was financially able to even 'plus' it a little.

I have the small town (laid out similarly but a little larger...), City Park, smaller industrial area, fairgrounds with a circus, farm, a Western town, a fort, a small Native American area. The lake, the flood-control channel, the paddle wheeler are all there. What I added was a new Fantasy area, themed to Disney's early animated films such as Snow White. The train is still there, the horse-drawn street can still makes a figure-8 track. The entrance is far grander. I also added the Studio buildings across Riverside Drive, as well as other buildings along it and Buena Vista Drive...

Of course none of these planned parks were ever built...Walt's dreams were just to large for that plot of land. But the ideas here were what Disneyland itself was built upon...

Edited April 7Apr 7 by Wabigbear

I'm very familiar with these maps, as I own many books on Walt and Imagineering. It will be fun to see these early plans come to life.

As Wagi mentioned, I tried my hand at this forgotten Disney park as well, but never got it to where I wanted it to be.

Having seen a few more screens, I can say this is 100% better than what I put together.

Wagi has done a wonderful job evoking the spirit of the park rather than a brick by brick recreation, which I think is all to the best.

You guys are in for a real treat!

This is a really interesting concept, can't wait to see what you pull off with this! I love a park with a good ole history attached to it!

As I said, this is a re-imagining of an imaginary park as envisioned by Walt and his workers at the Disney Studios. It's LOOSELY based on the plans above, and since that park never was built, this version has only existed in my mind...a rather cluttered and dangerous place indeed.

Thus dates may be changed (this is kinda in the era of 1940 or so, but some things will be from slightly before that year while other things will be from slightly after), locations or place names may be changed (for instance the Walt Disney Studios shown here was it's earlier Hyperion Ave. campus and not it's location on Riverside Dr where the park was actually planned. I just liked how my Disney Studios building I made for our Disney America Park turned out and decided to use it again...).

I've strayed from the plans above, expanded them as if funding had been available, but somewhat in a similar layout. I did add an area dedicated to Fantasy, as this hypothetical park would have opened during Disney's Golden Era of animated fairytale-themed features.

Because the area outside of the park seemed really bare, I added on a complete cityscape. It turned out really nice, but strained my computer a bit, even with a decent video card the textures really went downhill. So I made the decision to show off that exterior city first, then remove most of it on a copy of the bench so I can finish off the details inside the park itself and hopefully gain back some of the texture details...

So these screens won't feature any peeps roaming the streets, perhaps not as many vehicles as I hoped for, not quite the level of detail I like, but I think they'll still give a feel of what I envisioned for the areas surrounding the park. So let's begin our tour...

We're going to enter the bench from the north, heading down Riverside Dr. The park boundary is on the left, storefront, residential areas and tourist services are on the right...

A classic American Diner from the era, often built in the shell of an old trolley or railroad car...as is this one. The car was a beautiful Workshop find that I savagely tore the back side off of and added a kitchen along with a counter and tweaked the interior detailing...

A night view shows off the interior a little better...

Next door is a Modern Motel...modern for 1940 anyways... The part on the left was the original motel blueprint from the Workshop, all of six or eight rooms I think. I created a look alike "L" shaped addition to match it. And thanks to Shyguy we even have those tiny numbers that work on the doors! Yay!

Of course a modern gas station to go with the modern motel... Another Workshop find, I gave it a new sign and switched to taller gas pumps.

The park area is served by the famous Pacific Electric Red Line street cars. Other than adding a TMTK version of the PE logo and switching to a different destination sign, I didn't need to change anything on this Workshop blueprint... The overhead wires are just a simplistic effort to make it look like such a thing exists to power these cars. Note the California Palms are only on one side of the street, I decided running the power lines made more sense of the left side. The green hills of Los Angeles in the background...must have been a wet year or three.

The beautiful Hotel Carmen, a lovely touch of Art Deco grandeur...

The hotel's pool area. (Sorry for the poor textures shown on the screen). The layout is about the same as the blueprint, I just made a new pool, switched all the sun loungers and added some decor... In the background you can see some of the four-square homes that line a residential street..

Next up is a gorgeous Workshop blueprint of the Carthay Circle Theater. This was actually of the smaller version in the California Adventure Park, but is just so beautifully done I just had to use it. I just added the plaza out front and created the circular FOX Carthay Circle sign as a TMTK item to top the dome I added... One of my favorite structures from this entire project.

Disney's first major full-length animated feature was of course Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which premiered at the Carthay Circle...so that's what is playing here... While I didn't make a lot of TMTK items for this project, this was one spot that I felt needed them.

Some night-time screens...

As you can perhaps tell in this last screen, the Carthay Circle wasn't the only show in town...there was a small theater district located here...

As you can see while there's details, there's not as many details as I usually like...one of the limitations of this game and certainly of my computer...

We'll pause here and allow everyone's scroll finger catch a respite...

Edited April 30Apr 30 by Wabigbear

31 minutes ago, Wabigbear said:

And thanks to Shyguy we even have those tiny numbers that work on the doors! Yay!

That's the exact reason I initially created the set...for the doors in my WOW resort.

This looks great so far. The only thing that looks out of place are those lush, green hills of LA. Yes, it would need many years of decent rainfall to create that. And where is the LA smog? Oh, that's right, it wasn't until the 60's or 70's that we got that. I can remember days where it was literally hard to breath on bad days. Oh, such memories...🥲

I like that you're starting by showing us a part of the city surrounding the park. It adds a touch of realism. I'm OK with the lush green hills because this is a fantasy version of a park that never existed in a version of the city that never existed... Rose-colored glasses, so to speak. Even though you've toned down the decor a bit, it still has that Washington Bruin feel to it. :-)

I love this concept! The original concept is rarely talked about/forgotten. This is going to be an exciting project, and I love what you have so far. This can span to cover a wide spectrum of Mickey's history in a variety of experiences, some real-world and some original. Super exciting!

Looks wonderful as always, Wagi! Love all the little tweaks you've added to really set the time period.

Thanks for the kind replies everyone - most appreciated!

I got in too much of a hurry showing off the Carthay Circle Theater, so we'll back track to the last block and explore a little more...

Back to the Modern Gas Station where we'll turn onto S. Sparks St. (not all of the street names are legit, but I did look on Google Maps to find most of them...)

There's Grover Drugs...must be a chain drug store because I've seen that name before...multiple times in fact...

And we have Sid Cahuenga's One-Of-A-Kind Shop... (I purchased a great framed photo of Walt Disney with his auto-pen signature from the shop at Hollywood Studios years ago...still hangs on my sun room wall...)

Next up is the Riverside Tourist Cabins. Before the advent of motels, many of these spots were scattered across the country, each with a collection of small cabins - little more than big enough for a bed, a chair and - if lucky - indoor plumbing. Sometimes a small playground for the kids, and picnic tables and a firepit. Usually found in tourist areas or small towns without a larger hotel. They were also relatively cheap lodging for the night...

People could park their cars right outside of their cabin...

Comfortable if basic lodging back in those days...

Around the corner is Rich St., named for an elderly curmudgeon noted for his extreme longevity... It's a residential street, largely of cookie-cutter Four-Square style homes erected by a developer some years ago...

Many were starting to be subdivided into multiple apartments as they aged and the neighborhood grew...

Just down the street is one of the ritzy private clubs serving famous and wealthy, including many stars of the Silver Screen...

We'll head back over to Riverside Drive now...

On the other side of Riverside Dr is the walls surrounding Mickey Mouse Park. Of course Disney invented 'synergy' so of course they plaster the walls with tasteful billboards advertising their latest feature films... (The Carthay Circle billboard is an image of an authentic one made into a TMTK...)

I absolutely love this Baroque office building...in fact I tweaked it and used it to create two different structures in our Wonderful Wizard of Oz Park. Here I did shorten the building by several stories to help lessen sight-line problems from within the park, but I still think it looks grand. It featured a gorgeous theater marquee, so I decided it should carry the name of the famous El Capitan Theater in LA, a theater I think Disney now owns. I just changed some signs and decided that Disney's Dumbo would be playing here...

Next door is yet another Workshop find...this was the Castro Theater that I tweaked and renamed the "Metro". As I'm sure must come as a shock to everyone, here is playing "The Wizard of Oz", in all it's Technicolor glory...

And some nighttime screenshots...

I would have loved to added more details like having some windows lit for nighttime screens, some more sidewalk and storefront details, but...this isn't even INSIDE of the park and as I said before the textures are starting to go downhill fairly fast. I might make a bench in the future with just this outside the park exterior area so I can finish it off as I want later on... A sincere to all those who shared their fantastic blueprints and TMTK creations in the Workshop, this project simply would not exist without them.

There's more to see before we make our way towards the park entrance...

Edited May 2May 2 by Wabigbear

Looks great! I'm assuming the layout of the city area is purely fictional, using landmarks and various styles from the era. It's not an actual replica of the city blocks as they really existed??

34 minutes ago, shyguy said:

Looks great! I'm assuming the layout of the city area is purely fictional, using landmarks and various styles from the era. It's not an actual replica of the city blocks as they really existed??

Correct. The park proper itself also isn't laid out according to the actual physical space there was available - just loosely based on it. In reality Riverside Dr isn't a straight shot from the look of the current Google map images, and many of the side streets match up to it at an angle, and also different areas are residential. I just borrowed some of the real-life street names, placement of streets and structures is totally from my imagination.

The architecture is so spot on so far, really outstanding stuff, Wabi! I always really love (and totally don't envy, no, not at all) how you do your building exteriors - the small details you add really add so much and make them all come to life.

I really like the coziness of the Tourist Cabins all arranged around the central firepit area. The nighttime image of the private club all lit up looks great! Heck, it all looks great! And oh yeah, there's gonna be a Disney Park as well! :-p

Thanks guys! I can't take credit for all the buildings, many are blueprints by others I got from the Workshop. However many of them I have tweaked, even removing entire floors of a taller multi-story building, or taking a facade that's great but not wide enough and duplicating parts to make it fit what I needed. Later on there's a hotel structure I'll show where I took a two-story/two tile wide Art Deco facade and built a eight story half-block hotel out of it. Or taking a Pullman-style railroad car and making a diner out of it - all of it depends on the skills of the original creator, I just build off the strong bones they provided.

As for the tourist cabins, I knew about them of course - Citytrader probably mentioned seeing them when he was middle aged - but I stumbled across a photo online that inspired me...

These existed around the country, I'm not sure they had them around Los Angeles, but I still loved the idea...

Hey. I think I stayed there!

You can actually still find those lovely "modern" cabins still around. There is one near Gettysburg, PA, and I've seen a few in the Carolinas as well. And yes, Wagi, in this century! They sure aren't $2.00 any more!

Edited May 5May 5 by citytrader

Glad you cleared it up that it was this century, I'm never sure which one you're reminiscing about!

There's still more to explore in the neighborhood around the park...

J. W. Robinson's was a major department store in Southern California...

(I wasn't able to add the signage pr the marquee I had planned, but I love this building just the same...)

Not very busy on the side streets...

Local State Courthouse...

Down that side street there's a city park...

On the next block is the local St. NoName Presbyterian Church...

California Cafe on the corner...

At about this time Pacific Electric was switching from streetcars to diesel buses...

Home of La Brea Studios, one of the small-time players in the film industry...

Just past an alley entrance was Hamilton's Department Store...a small Kansas chain I believe...

Behind Hamilton's was an office building with a bakery and various stores on the ground floor...

Bakery at night, looking back towards the Hamilton building...

Side streets in this area nicely treed back in those days...

A mix of building styles from different decades...

Even a glimpse of the park can be seen!

Back out to Riverside Drive now...

Riverside High...Go River Rats!

No idea what they sell here, but the window displays are kinda cool...

All American Restaurant...freshest sushi in town!

There's an entrance to a sound stage just ahead, so we''ll pause here for now...

Lots of nice buildings here and, like you said, different styles of architecture from different ages. In the "Hamilton" pic, I like the shadow of the bird on the side of the building... I'm easily amused. It's kind of exciting, or disconcerting, depending on one's attitude, to see a giant Mouse head grinning at you from down the street!

This is a great project

That Hamilton's Department store looks strangely familiar! 🤣

Everything looks great!

Continuing our tour...

Here's where the magic begins! Walt Disney Studios!

Everyone who knows Disney history will point out that this is NOT what the Studios on Riverside Drive in Burbank looked like!

In fact, this a representation of the second Walt Disney Studios located on Hyperion Dr. Here Mickey Mouse was born and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was produced. After Snow White was a success, Disney needed more room and there wasn't any to expand at the Hyperion site, so the move was made to Burbank...

My take on it...

You may have seen this before, I first created it for the Disney America Park with Citytrader...

Some more store fronts just past the Studios entrance...

I was kinda stuck with how to end this street scape without adding on even more storefronts, when I happened across some TMTK images in the Workshop of tunnel interiors. I could have used a large billboard, but just went with the 8 meter wide size of the TMTK object. Los Angeles is famous for some of the tunnels in the city, many have Art Deco details, so I just made up what I think is a fitting end to Riverside Drive (I would have done something to the other end, but I had built out to the park boundaries and couldn't adjust the buildable area...).

There's another street crossing over on the upper level...

There's a stairs up to the upper street level...

More shop fronts...

And a service station...

A short block of shops directly across Riverside Dr. from the Disney Studio. The street branching off to the left is Buena Vista Dr.

Down at the end of Buena Vista Dr I placed another tunnel to replace just running into a cliff...

Again, more varied storefronts. Not much detail added in this area unfortunately...

Above the Buena Vista tunnel is a small plaza offering a look back over the area towards the Studios. There's another looooong staircase lading to the lower levels here as well...

Partway down Buena Vista Dr is a side street...

The park boundary is on the left, warehouses and such on the right...

Down the block is the entrance to the park offices and backstage areas...

Shortly after the entrance is small grouping of shops, a warehouse and even a theater, looks like one of the animation models wearing a Robin Hood outfit is heading in for a latte...

Buena Vista Street then crosses over the Los Angeles River channel which forms the edge of Disney property here...

Downriver you can spot the pumping station used to keep the park lake at an even level...

We'll head back towards the park entrance now (finally, huh?)...

Another Pacific Electric bus drops passengers off at the park entrance. Peep spawn points are hid within the building on the right, they then cross the sidewalks to the park ticketing...

The Park Place Hotel is next to the entrance plaza. (this was a tweak of a two-story Art Deco facade from the Workshop. I just cloned it to make the lower floor, then copied parts to create the tower. Didn't get to add lit windows yet...sadly.)...

FINALLY! We're ready to purchase our ticket and discover Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Park...

Edited Sunday at 02:36 PM4 days by Wabigbear