Why was Disneyland Built In Anaheim?

[DxCxAxSummer2012]

And were other Cities Considered?

I've Heard Myths About Disneyland Being Built in other cities around So Cal?

Let's Say you're Walt Disney and DL has yet to be Built in Anaheim, Which city today In So Cal would you pick to Build the Park?

[maximpatrich]

well walt was originally going to put the park across the street from his studios, but the lot was far too small for the plans he ended making for the park, so mickey said "hey walt, why dont you come build your park next to toontown, theres a large orange grove over the fence big enough for the park!". And so walt decided to build it next to toontown. But we weren't allowed in to toontown until recently...

[DCA Fan]

Walt was originally going to build his park in an empty lot next to his studios in Burbank, and make the park especially for his studio employees and their families. When they realized they needed more room for all the ideas they had, they searched the immediate area and found Anaheim, which at the time was mostly orange groves and other farms, thus plenty of land was available to work with.

[Steve DeGaetano]

Indeed, Walt was looking at several areas to build Disneyland. Burbank was high on his list--until a Burbank councilman insulted Disney's idea during Walt's proposal to the city council. Walt is alleged to have rolled up his plans and walked out of the meeting without a word.

He eventually hired Stanford Research to do an exhaustive study. They studied all kinds of data--demographics; weather; accessibility, etc. to determine where the best place to build would be. They determined that at then-current rates, Anaheim would be the population center of southern California (in fact, Disneyland today is only a few miles from the center). The availability of lots of land--plus the proximity of a freeway--made Anaheim the perfect choice.

[Piglet]

^^Steve, that is really interesting. I love the information you post on here, thank you!

[AraBrokenDreamer]

Originally Posted by maximpatrich

well walt was originally going to put the park across the street from his studios, but the lot was far too small for the plans he ended making for the park, so mickey said "hey walt, why dont you come build your park next to toontown, theres a large orange grove over the fence big enough for the park!". And so walt decided to build it next to toontown. But we weren't allowed in to toontown until recently...

LOL, I always love it when I hear that.

-Ara

[Wedbliss]

In his Honors Thesis for the Program in Urban Studies at Stanford University, Andrew Reovan wrote this:

The tale of the discovery of the site in Anaheim is one lore is Disney history, as Stanford Research Institute had not even considered the site until just before their report for Disney was finished. As the report describes, Fred R Wallich, and Anaheim resident and real estate professional, had brought the site to the group's attention when ne noticed that 17 property owners with adjacent plots were looking to sell their parcels which together totaled about 140 acres. After further research, SRI determined the site to have ideal weather and to be perfectly located near the proposed Santa Ana Freeway. Similarly, it had the potential to be changed from Residential-Agricultural Zoning to Commercial zoning and was mostly located within the City of Anaheim which offered lower tax rates than land in unincorporated Orange County. Thus early on a series of coincidences attracted Disney officials to Anaheim and were it not for Wallich and Anaheim's efforts to get access to the developing freeway it is doubtful whether Disneyland would be located where is currently stands.

There is lot more interesting information in this thesis and it can be found here:

http://urbanstudies.stanford.edu/pro...ovanThesis.pdf

The SRI report, Analysis of Location Factors For Disneyland is kept in the Anaheim History Reading Room at the Anaheim Library.

[Steve DeGaetano]

That's a good read.

I don't think anyone disputes that Anaheim was a very aggressive city in trying to get Disneyland built there. Walt is quoted as saying (in Van France's book), that he liked the fact that the city managers were young and hungry to get DL built there.

Have you read the SRI report?

[Wedbliss]

No, but I sure would like to. I tried to find in online, but no luck so far. The only place I found that it was available was the Anaheim Public Library.

[Steve DeGaetano]

Originally Posted by Wedbliss

No, but I sure would like to. I tried to find in online, but no luck so far. The only place I found that it was available was the Anaheim Public Library.

Gotcha. And I can see that you're not quite within walking distance to that library.

Would be cool to read, I think.

[Wedbliss]

Here is the best I could find so far. It's from Jim Hill's website and written by him:

Here is how the report begins:

Introduction

"Walt Disney Productions is planning the development of an extensive recreational and educational enterprise to be known as Disneyland. It is the desire of the Disneyland management to provide a wide variety of entertainment activities and exhibits, designed and constructed to afford maximum pleasure and comfort for the people who will (visit) the facility. Stanford Research Institute was asked to assist the Disneyland management by conducting research on the basis of which the most suitable site could be selected. Location criteria were set out in broad terms to allow maximum flexibility in arriving at the best site.

Total area requirements were established at approximately 100 acres. The Disneyland management wanted the facility to be located somewhere somewhere in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, in the section bounded by Chatsworth and Pomona to the north and Tustin and Balboa to the south."



Okay. That's the initial criteria that the folks at the Stanford Research Institute used at the beginning of their search for an appropriate site for Disneyland. Care to guess how many places they found to be potentially great places to build a theme park during their first pass? Would you believe 71?!



Mind you, over 30 of these potential Disneyland construction sites were rather quickly eliminated. Owning to intriguing sounding factors like "build-up" and/or "lack of desirable sites." Then -- when Walt asked Stanford Research to further narrow its focus to the Orange County & the Whittier-Norwalk area -- those remaining 40 sites were swiftly whittled away to 24 possible locations that were deemed:

" ... worthy of further investigation. A tour was then made of each of these sites with Disneyland representatives, and the choice was further narrowed down to four sites."

"Which four sites?" you ask.

•The Ball Road Subdivision -- A site that was " ... adjacent to the city of Anaheim. (This potential Disneyland construction site) was not found in the search of Orange County records because there were seventeen parcels involving as many owners. Mr. Fred R. Wallich, knowing that several owners were considering converting the site to a housing subdivision, brought it to the attention of (the) Stanford Research Institute."

•The Willowick Country Club -- which was located " ... just beyond the western limits of the City of Santa Ana" was another site that was considered as possibly suitable for Walt's family fun park.

•La Mirada -- Made up of 2300 acres in Los Angeles County, the unincorporated city of La Mirada actually featured five different parcels of land that were of interest to the Disneyland team. Several of which supposedly featured excellent access to the Santa Ana Freeway and the Imperial Highway.

•The Leo Harvey property -- A 160 acre plot of land that sat on the boundary of Los Angeles & Orange Counties, near the intersection of Valley View Avenue and the Santa Ana Freeway.

[Steve DeGaetano]

Thanks, Wedbliss.

It seems to me that what Reovan wrote about the SRI report being "lore" of Disney history isn't inaccurate.

We know that lots of sites were in the running initially (I'd heard about Chatsworth, too), and it does appear that the Ball Road site was brought to the attention of SRI by Wallich. But Reovan makes it seem like SRI, on their own, was clueless about Anaheim, and if it weren't for Wallich, they would have discounted it completely.

From what you posted above, it seems that Disney gave the marching orders about where to look. Once Disney broadened his area, the Anaheim sites were looked at more closely by SRI. That Anaheim city officials were very interested also helped.

[Wedbliss]

Yes, I don't think there is much lore involved here. There are just a lot of pieces to this puzzle and putting them all together is tough. There's a bit of information here and some more there. The SRI report looks like the holy grail of this story.

I just found a book called Walt's Revolution: By the Numbers. It's written by Harrison "Buzz" Price, the man from SRI who prepared the Analysis of Location Factors For Disneyland report. I just ordered it, so I'm hoping this contains some good information. Price wrote the book in 2004.

[Steve DeGaetano]

Let me know what you think of the book when you get it. Might be an intersting addition to my collection.

[Wedbliss]

I will do that.