My head hurts! (trying to find answer to Disneyland question)

[Sambo]

Spot on Davelandweb. Few notice that similarity.

[sir clinksalot]

Wow, I had no idea about the chicken restaurant at all. Thanks for sharing Dave.

I'm still not sure what the answer to the question is.

I'm going to move this to the Disneyland Forum where it may get more people looking at it.

[BestBeatingHeart]

Great thread/info... thanks!

[mcow1]

I was looking at some old home movies of Disneyland in the 50s the other day and wondered what that building was

[yoyoflamingo]

The Chicken Plantation was torn down to make way for Pirates of the Caribbean, as already posted. What's interesting is that during construction of Pirates, chicken dinners were still prepared and served through the construction wall!

Also, the Magnolia Park bandstand was also removed for Pirates of the Caribbean. Perhaps that is the dance hall being referred to?

*Info from Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever

[Mr Wiggins]

Originally Posted by mcow1

I was looking at some old home movies of Disneyland in the 50s the other day and wondered what that building was

That building was the Cavern of Fried Chicken Hell for me as a kid. When you're 10 years old and have a Jumbo 15 Ticket Book burning a hole in your shirt pocket, there's no more cruel and unusual punishment than having to sit through the purgatory of an hour-long chicken lunch while your mom ooos and ahhhs at the beautifully themed decor... and you watch other kids paddle canoes, ride keelboats and swarm over Tom Sawyer Island.

[HBG2]

If you want to see what the Plantation House looked like, go to these three blogs and do a search with "plantation," and lots of gorgeous photos will pop up: Stuff from the Park, Gorillas Don't Blog, and of course Davelandweb.

As for the location, it isn't quite true that it was torn down for POTC. It was torn down for NOS itself, in 1962. It was located in the spot that today is just off the right side of the pedestrian overpass bridge in front of POTC.

Here's an aerial view of that area today:



Here's an aerial view from 1960, with the Plantation House circled. Notice that the ROA had an open inlet going into Adventureland in those days.



This shows you where it stood (plus the inlet and its footbridge).






As you can see, we're nowhere near the Haunted Mansion.

[Datameister]

The chicken plantation restaurant was located between the current locations of Pirates and HM, actually. Much closer to Pirates, near ROA. I have no idea if there was ever dancing involved, though...



EDIT: Bah, darn you, HBG2! Beat me to it.

[Mojave]

While we're having fun talking about the old Chicken Plantation House, it's fun to note that the opposite side of the building (the part that faced the old Frontierland Station) was themed to the Southwest.



AND, the current space of POTC was partly taken up by the original Indian Village. This shot is looking towards what is now the entrance of Pirates.

[WDITrent]

Now that's something I never knew. Thanks, Mojave!

[DLFreak71]

Originally Posted by aimster

^^ It's where HM was built. They tore down the chicken plantation restaurant and built HM in its spot.

I don't know if it was the exact spot, but it's near the HM area.
The plantation was in the NOS area if I'm not mistaken
So I think aimster is close on where it use to be.

After reading all the post
I now see that someone corrected the about the HM before I did.
Fried chicken does sound good (Plaza Inn has good chicken).
D-land did have dance (date) nights, just not in that area.
The Mark Twain also had "parties" on board where famous ppl (Jazz) would come and sing and there would be dancing. Wish that was still true today.

[mechurchlady]

DAVELAND MARK TWAIN PHOTO
I looked at landmarks and from that picture I would say the above two photos are close to the location but it was a few feet west of where they are putting it. This picture is taken on the island in 1958 and shows a view of the building thus the building had to face north and the island probably to the right of the island's landing.

http://davelandweb.com/tomsawyerisla...andCartoon.jpg
That clearly shows the location of the restaurant. That also puts the restaurant directly opposite from the watermill.

[Datameister]

Sorry, but I'm gonna have to stand by the location HBG2 and I indicated. I took this 1960 aerial photo from Yesterland and overlaid it exactly onto modern-day aerial photos. (I used Photoshop to scale and rotate the two pics into near-perfect alignment, using landmarks that haven't changed much like Main Street, ROA, the castle, and so forth.) Then I just traced the outline of the building with the red rectangle. Try it for yourself if you don't believe me!

This animated GIF may be of assistance, as well:

[HBG2]

Originally Posted by mechurchlady

DAVELAND MARK TWAIN PHOTO
I looked at landmarks and from that picture I would say the above two photos are close to the location but it was a few feet west of where they are putting it. This picture is taken on the island in 1958 and shows a view of the building thus the building had to face north and the island probably to the right of the island's landing.

http://davelandweb.com/tomsawyerisla...andCartoon.jpg
That clearly shows the location of the restaurant. That also puts the restaurant directly opposite from the watermill.

That first photo, it was not taken from the island; it was taken from the bandstand area on the other side of the river inlet.



The photographer was right about where the people on the right are in this photo:

[HBG2]

Data, that thing is cool. One thing it shows quite well is how much the RR tracks were bent outward from their original location. I used to think the HM was built right about where the tracks used to run, but I can see now that it's entirely "outside the (original) berm." When you enter the gates and begin the queue area, the tracks would have run along the lawn to the immediate right of the bricked path!