Thursday, September 21, 2006

Keel Boat & Riverfront, October 1962



When I first viewed this slide, I thought it was a nice but not-very-interesting view of a Keel Boat. But on closer inspection, you can see that there is a lot of construction going on in the background! I believe that this is where the old Chicken Plantation House used to stand (it was closed in January of this same year)...it was removed as part of Frontierland's expansion, and this area eventually became part of New Orleans Square.

There is a large structure being built behind those construction walls, does anybody know what it is? And is that an old pickup truck parked on TOP of the building (just to the right of the Keel Boat mast)?

You can also see a small bandstand that seems to migrate around the park. And just beyond that, there is a counter-service restaurant...it's hard to read the name, but it looks like it says "Plantation House Chicken Shack". I had no idea that there was a temporary replacement for the Plantation House!

5 comments:

Matterhorn1959 said...

The construction may be the original construction for Pirates of the Caribbean. If I remember correctly, the steel structure was put up for the original ride, and then attention was shifted from Disneyland to the NY Worlds Fair. Once the Fair was over, the design for Pirates changed and the structure had to be removed and then construction for New Orleans Square began. What a great find of a slide.

Chris Merritt said...

Really interesting! A temporary food location to be sure...

thepicklebarrel said...

yeah, i think e-ticket did a neat story on that temp chicken shack during the NO Square construction.

the large platters of fried chicken being carried back and forth through the dusty construction site must have been very appetizing!

William Kelley said...

The original idea for Pirates was as a walk-thru wax-museum type attraction, do I have that right? Or am I mixing it up with Haunted Mansion? And so it could have been a fairly small structure.

I'm not 100% sure that the building going up is that. Maybe it's the restaurant that somewhat separates Adventureland from Frontierland. The location of Pirates would feel more to the right in that photo, past where the bridge was (the bridge over the water from ROA to the Jungle Cruise). Remember that the train got pushed way out to accomodate Pirates.

However, the construction wall seems to go way over to the right of that first photo. I don't know, just talking off the top of my head.

Major Pepperidge said...

mojave33, both the Haunted Mansion and Pirates were originally planned as walk-thru attractions...and Pirates was to be a wax museum thing.

I have no idea if the construction in this photo is for the earlier "Pirates" building, but remember that the concept for the ride changed rather drastically over the years, and it is possible that the old location was slightly different from the present location.

Thanks for your input...again, I don't claim to be right, just laying out some possibilities.