Snapshot Missouri! - Rocketing Through Kansas City

Back in 2011, we featured a short series entitled Snapshot Missouri. It featured photos from a Disney-centric midwest road trip that my son and I had taken that year.  The series fell victim to what became my regrettable, erratic publishing schedule and ended after a mere four posts.  My son and I have since become roadtrip warriors (as documented both here and on our sister blog Boom-Pop!) and revisited the Show-Me State in 2015 and again last summer.

Our visit to Kansas City last June was not Disney-focused as it had been in the past, and time did not permit the usual touring of Walt Disney historical sites such as the McConahy Building and 31st Street.  But we did manage a quick freeway exit detour to the old TWA headquarters building, located at the corner of 18th Street and Baltimore Avenue.

TWA sponsored the Rocket to the Moon attraction at Disneyland from 1955 until 1962.  At the same time, TWA displayed a replica Moonliner on the roof of their headquarters building in Kansas City. That original replica is now preserved at the nearby National Airline History Museum.  The building itself was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and a restoration was completed in 2006.  Part of that restoration involved the placement of a new Moonliner replica that we now happily showcase here.

Snapshot Missouri! - Walt Disney Elementary School

How cool would it be to go to school here!

The entrance foyer of the Walt Disney Elementary School in Marceline, Missouri has changed little since its inception more than fifty years ago.  Disney Legend Bob Moore created the cutout mural that adorns the wall.  Additional murals can be found in the school's gymnasium.  The school also features an original flagpole from the 1960 Winter Olympics, of which Walt served as Chairman of Pageantry.

Snapshot Missouri! - The Zurcher Building

A number of sources have indicated that the Zurcher building in Marceline, Missouri was in fact the architectural inspiration for Disneyland's own Coca Cola Corner.  There are certainly structural similarities that lend credence to the supposition, but thematically there is unfortunately no connection; a jewelry store operated in the building from 1903 until 1973.  It is now home to a Mexican restaurant.  Coincidentally, there is a long faded mural that advertised Coca Cola on the side of an adjacent building.

Snapshot Missouri! - Kansas Avenue U.S.A.

 

It is a Disney historical fact.  The concept for Main Street U.S.A., as it was initially conceived for Disneyland, and then subsequently exported to Disney Parks in Florida, Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong, was based directly on Marceline, Missouri, Walt's boyhood hometown.  The notable irony to this is that, unlike so many other small towns across the Midwest and the entire U.S.A., there is in fact no Main Street in Marceline.

Marceline's equivalent primary thoroughfare is Kansas Avenue.  The residents however have sought to clarify the Disney connection as reflected in this Snapshot of a Marceline street clock and signpost.

Snapshot Missouri! - The Walt Disney Municipal Park

Our newest Snapshot! series will feature photographs from our recent road trip that took us to various Disney history sites in the state of Missouri.  Relating to our post earlier this week on the Midget Autopia in Marceline, this photo features a sign that identifies the community park in which the remnants of that former Disneyland attraction can be found.

The Walt Disney Municipal Park was dedicated on July 4, 1956 with Walt Disney and Roy Disney both in attendance.  The occasion was also marked by the premiere of The Great Locomotive Chase at Marceline's own Uptown Theatre.