Thursday, November 7, 2013

Downtown Fort Collins was used as a model for Main St. USA at Disneyland. What buildings remain in town that were copied to any recognizable degree?


Disneyland: The object of children's' dreams, invader of parents' pocketbooks, world champion athletes' victory speeches and Fort Collins downtown.

Say what?

In my humble opinion (or IMHO for you whippersnappers who refuse to speak English) one of the neatest things about Fort Collins: our connection with native son Harper Goff, who helped design Disneyland's Main Street USA. Goff, who died in 1993, said he drew inspiration from multiple Fort Collins buildings in sketching out Disney's vision. 

But are there exact replicas of buildings from Fort Collins in Disneyland? That's a bit unclear. Goff said he copied parts of buildings in Fort Collins that became Disney's courthouse, firehouse and bank building. The Disney firehouse, in our eyes, bears obvious similarities to the old Fort Collins firehouse, now Old Firehouse Books and Happy Lucky's Teahouse. But it's also smaller and shorter. The old courthouse (depicted here) was replaced in 1950, but looks pretty similar. The Avery building housed a bank which is said to have been the model for the bank on Main Street.

To help settle this question, I'm proposing a trip to Disneyland. My boss said he'll spring for it as soon as I win the Superbowl.

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