Main Street, U.S.A. (Magic Kingdom)
Main Street, U.S.A. is the entrance land of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida. Modelled on an idealised American small town of around 1900, it runs from the park's entrance plaza and railway station to the central hub in front of Cinderella Castle, and every guest entering or leaving passes along it. It opened with the park on October 1, 1971, and contains few rides in the conventional sense: its role is to set the scene for the rest of the park, a function often compared to a film's opening credits.
Design and inspiration
The street draws principally on Marceline, Missouri, the town where Walt Disney spent part of his childhood, although the Florida version is broader in its references than its Disneyland predecessor. Where the California street reads as a single Midwestern town, the Magic Kingdom version mixes architectural styles from across the United States — the four corner buildings at its central crossroads are each finished in a different regional style, with New England influences alongside Midwestern ones. The Florida street is also built on a larger scale than the original, in keeping with the bigger park and taller castle it serves.
Nearly every building uses forced perspective: first storeys are built close to full height, while second and third storeys are progressively shorter, so the street appears taller and more substantial than it is while remaining comfortable in scale. The railway station at the entrance is a deliberate exception, built full-size to accommodate the trains passing through it. The upper windows of the buildings carry painted names and business titles; these are credits for Disney executives, Imagineers and others who contributed to the resort, presented as the proprietors of period shops and offices.
History
Main Street opened on October 1, 1971, much as it appears today, with the Walt Disney World Railroad station overlooking Town Square at its southern end. Unlike Disneyland, where the railroad was a personal project of Walt Disney, the Florida line was part of the park plan from the outset, and its Main Street station frames the view of the castle for arriving guests.
The land has changed more in its tenants than in its architecture. The Main Street Cinema, which once screened classic Disney cartoons, became a shop; the Penny Arcade likewise gave way to retail space as the Emporium expanded along the street's western side. Town Square Theater, near the entrance, has hosted character greetings, including a long-running Mickey Mouse appearance. The Emporium and surrounding shops were substantially refurbished in the 2020s, but the period appearance — gas-style lamps, horse-drawn streetcars, a working barber shop — has been preserved.
Attractions and entertainment
The land's moving attractions are the Main Street Vehicles — horse-drawn streetcars, a fire engine, an omnibus and horseless carriages that carry guests between Town Square and the castle hub — and the Walt Disney World Railroad, whose Main Street station is the first of three stops on its circuit of the park. The Harmony Barber Shop offers real haircuts, and City Hall houses the park's guest relations office.
Main Street is also the park's principal performance space. Parades, including the Festival of Fantasy Parade, travel along the street and around Town Square, and the Dapper Dans barbershop quartet performs throughout the day. A flag retreat ceremony is held in Town Square each afternoon. Because the street faces Cinderella Castle, it is the main viewing area for the nightly fireworks, which combine pyrotechnics with projections mapped onto the castle and, in recent years, the Main Street buildings themselves.
Dining and shopping
The Emporium, the park's largest shop, occupies most of the western side of the street. Restaurants include Tony's Town Square Restaurant, themed to Lady and the Tramp; the Plaza Restaurant; Casey's Corner, a baseball-themed counter serving hot dogs at the hub end of the street; and the Main Street Bakery. At the hub's north-eastern corner, the Crystal Palace hosts character meals in a glass Victorian-style pavilion.