CHRONOLOGY
1900s
1900s
Walt Disney in its late 20's(Photo by The Walt Disney Family Foundation)
1901 / December 5 - Walt Disney born in Chicago, Illinois.
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1950s
Monsanto's House of the Future at Disneyland
(Photo by Walt Disney Productions - The Walt Disney Company)
Monsanto's House of the Future at Disneyland(Photo by Walt Disney Productions - The Walt Disney Company)
1952 / December - Walt founds WED (Walter Elias Disney) Enterprises to carry out the planning for and building of Disneyland.
1955 / July 17 - Disneyland opens in Anaheim on live TV
1957 / February - An MIT-designed Monsanto House of the Future rises in Tomorrowland, showing Walt Disney's interest in using his park to influence real-world architecture.
1955 / July 17 - Disneyland opens in Anaheim on live TV
1957 / February - An MIT-designed Monsanto House of the Future rises in Tomorrowland, showing Walt Disney's interest in using his park to influence real-world architecture.
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1960s
Progress City conceptual drawing
(Artwork by Walt Disney Productions - The Walt Disney Company)
Progress City conceptual drawing(Artwork by Walt Disney Productions - The Walt Disney Company)
1963 / November - Walt and a chosen group of confidants scout a tract of central Florida swampland called the Reedy Creek Basin.
1964 / April 22 - The New York World's Fair opens with four Disney attractions
1964 / Summer - Anonymous buyers snap up land around Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney has spent an estimated $5 million to acquire 27,400 acres
1965 / Walt Disney completes purchase of forty-three square miles of Florida property. He wants to build a model city there - a utopia eventually called EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). The city is previewed in a model exhibited inside the Carousel of Progress attraction, which has been moved from New York to Disneyland.
1965 / October - The Orlando Sentinel identifies Walt Disney as the mystery buyer of Florida land. In a secret office at WED, Disney's team is working on Project X for Florida - Walt Disney's new city.
1966 / October - Walt made film to promote EPCOT. Shortly after checks into St. Joseph's Hospital.
1966 / December 15 - Walt Disney dies at the age of 65. Suffering from wide-spread lung cancer, and having already endured surgery to remove one lung, Walt Disney quietly died of acute circulatory collapse early in the morning of this day.
His last visitor to his room at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank was his brother Roy. The two discussed plans for Walt's last project which would later become Florida's EPCOT center and Walt Disney World. The fact that Walt was actually dying was kept from him, but all-too-well known to his brother, and his wife and children. Roy say to it that all the lights in the Disney studio, across the street and visible from the window of Walt's hospital room, were kept on at all times to comfort his dying brother.
When the news of Walt's death reached Disneyland in Anahiem, consideration was given to closing the park for the day, but instead it was kept open (as Walt would have wanted), but the flags on Main Street USA were lowered to half-mast. Within 24 hours, Walt was cremated and interred in an underground vault at Forest Lawn in Glendale, with a very private service attended only by immediate family.
1967 / Tomorrowland is redesigned...as a city centered on a Spaceport transit hub. Some of the ideas from Project X are reflected in Spaceport.
February 2 - Roy Disney outlines his late brother's plans to build the world's first futuristic metropolis, or EPCOT. Eventually, the working city will disappear from the plan. EPCOT becomes a kind of permanent World's Fair instead.
Summer - Groundbreaking for the new Disney theme park in Florida and the Disney-built hotels around it.
1964 / April 22 - The New York World's Fair opens with four Disney attractions
1964 / Summer - Anonymous buyers snap up land around Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney has spent an estimated $5 million to acquire 27,400 acres
1965 / Walt Disney completes purchase of forty-three square miles of Florida property. He wants to build a model city there - a utopia eventually called EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). The city is previewed in a model exhibited inside the Carousel of Progress attraction, which has been moved from New York to Disneyland.
1965 / October - The Orlando Sentinel identifies Walt Disney as the mystery buyer of Florida land. In a secret office at WED, Disney's team is working on Project X for Florida - Walt Disney's new city.
1966 / October - Walt made film to promote EPCOT. Shortly after checks into St. Joseph's Hospital.
1966 / December 15 - Walt Disney dies at the age of 65. Suffering from wide-spread lung cancer, and having already endured surgery to remove one lung, Walt Disney quietly died of acute circulatory collapse early in the morning of this day.
His last visitor to his room at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank was his brother Roy. The two discussed plans for Walt's last project which would later become Florida's EPCOT center and Walt Disney World. The fact that Walt was actually dying was kept from him, but all-too-well known to his brother, and his wife and children. Roy say to it that all the lights in the Disney studio, across the street and visible from the window of Walt's hospital room, were kept on at all times to comfort his dying brother.
When the news of Walt's death reached Disneyland in Anahiem, consideration was given to closing the park for the day, but instead it was kept open (as Walt would have wanted), but the flags on Main Street USA were lowered to half-mast. Within 24 hours, Walt was cremated and interred in an underground vault at Forest Lawn in Glendale, with a very private service attended only by immediate family.
1967 / Tomorrowland is redesigned...as a city centered on a Spaceport transit hub. Some of the ideas from Project X are reflected in Spaceport.
February 2 - Roy Disney outlines his late brother's plans to build the world's first futuristic metropolis, or EPCOT. Eventually, the working city will disappear from the plan. EPCOT becomes a kind of permanent World's Fair instead.
Summer - Groundbreaking for the new Disney theme park in Florida and the Disney-built hotels around it.
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1970s
Walt Disney World Master Plan, 1969
(Artwork by Walt Disney Imagineering)
Walt Disney World Master Plan, 1969(Artwork by Walt Disney Imagineering)
1971 / October 1 - New park opens in Florida. The complex is christened Walt Disney World. On opening day, there is a single theme park on the grounds, a "Disneyland East" called the Magic Kingdom.
1973-74 - WED Enterprises executive Marty Sklar convenes EPCOT planning meetings with many of the original team members. The Progress City model is removed from Disneyland. The EPCOT concept begins its evolution into EPCOT Center.
1975 - Company President Card Walker announces that EPCOT would be a system based on the communication of new ideas and not a living community.
1979 / October 1 - Ground is broken for EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World
1973-74 - WED Enterprises executive Marty Sklar convenes EPCOT planning meetings with many of the original team members. The Progress City model is removed from Disneyland. The EPCOT concept begins its evolution into EPCOT Center.
1975 - Company President Card Walker announces that EPCOT would be a system based on the communication of new ideas and not a living community.
1979 / October 1 - Ground is broken for EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World
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1980s
First pictorial souvenir book, 1982
(Artwork by Walt Disney Imagineering)
First pictorial souvenir book, 1982(Artwork by Walt Disney Imagineering)
1982 / October 1 - EPCOT Center opens as a theme park at Walt Disney World on the site originaly planned for Walt's EPCOT concept.
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1990s
Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance book, 1997
(Artwork by Walt Disney Imagineering, Flammarion editions)
Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance book, 1997(Artwork by Walt Disney Imagineering, Flammarion editions)
1996 / Inauguration of the Disney Institute, a center for adult recreational learning at Walt Disney World.
1996 / June - After years of planning, future residents buy homes in Celebration, a real town build on the Florida property. Although there are no factories, skyscrapers, or electric cars, Celebration does have schools and other features of true urbanism. It is the company's answer to Walt Disney's utopian dreams.
1997 / Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance is printed complimented with a North American touring exhibit that revealed additional details to the original plans for Progress City, EPCOT.
1996 / June - After years of planning, future residents buy homes in Celebration, a real town build on the Florida property. Although there are no factories, skyscrapers, or electric cars, Celebration does have schools and other features of true urbanism. It is the company's answer to Walt Disney's utopian dreams.
1997 / Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance is printed complimented with a North American touring exhibit that revealed additional details to the original plans for Progress City, EPCOT.
