How Disney Hid a Three-Story Building in the Middle of Disneyland

with Splash Mountain being dismantled I thought today would be a good day to look at one of its neighbors Fowler's Harbor but more specifically the gallery of Harbor which is a pretty fascinating building it has a lot to do with Splash Mountain so with no Splash Mountain around as it's being transformed into Tiana's Bayou Adventure let's explore the next door neighbor Dolly Harbor so the theme of the Galaxy was to create a 19th century style Southern fishing Village all of these buildings around here are supposed to feel like that you're down in the Deep South in a little fishing town with shanties right on the edges of the rivers of America and they had to go through a lot of creative problem solving to make that happen there is a lot more design and storytelling inside of this little area than what you've probably ever observed or even thought about let's break it down so this project was originally going to be like many projects done by Walt Disney imagineering however they needed to get this done faster than what imagineering had time for so in 1988 Disneyland itself took over the design and construction of this building to make their deadline of 1989 the opening of Splash Mountain they wanted to have a quick walk-up service restaurant right off the shores of the rivers of America to further tell the story of Song of the South over in the southern theme Splash Mountain so creating this Southern 19th century fishing Village put all of that in the exact same timeline and story and one of the best parts about having Disney design this space is they could design it with all the different functionalities that they needed to create a better show there was a lot of problem solving that had to be done with this location and Disney as a park knew all of the different problem solving methods that would make it as efficient as possible for how they needed this building to service two or three things at Disneyland because kind of the thing that I love about the design of Disneyland everything here has to do three things or it's hard to justify its space because there's not a lot of it so one of the things that Disney had to figure out was the height of this building because it couldn't be so tall that it blocked the view of Splash Mountain it had to be where folks could overlook this little area this fishing Village when they were riding on the Columbia or the Mark Twain so its height had to be adjusted for perfect sight lines which is another one of the things that I love that they go so out of their way to do is always create perfect sight lines at Disneyland and oh are they perfect but Not Only Could It Be Too Tall but when you have folks cruising by on the top of the Mark Twain you have to think about the top of this building is also part of its show if guests here can walk by and see all modern HVAC systems and various different control panels that we all live by in the 21st century it would ruin the idea that this is a 19th century fishing Village so the top of this building had to be perfectly designed and executed so that when you rode by you didn't notice that you were looking at a modern building even though you're quite aware that it is but that doesn't matter story is above all when it comes to Disney's immersive storytelling so just keeping in mind when they put something in the park they look at it from every single direction to make sure that the story holds up as much as possible wherever the guest eyes may be that I love so his guests many of the things that we can see on their roof are actually fake facades to keep the actual components of the building hidden from our eye line so every chimney and Peak that you see on this roof is not exactly what it seems to be a lot of it is a faux facade hiding the infrastructure of the heating and cooling and power of this old building so little Shanty style buildups like this one the chimney that we see and this pitch roof are all placed up here to hide things the Disney doesn't want the guests to see because it would break the show so this bizarre jigsaw puzzle that we see that looks like old school development on the side of a river where one building is built then a second building is added onto it it is actually a masterful jigsaw puzzle of Disguise keeping perfect sight lines from The Mark Twain but the rooftops is just one of the many advantages Disney put into building and I'm just going to make a quick disclaimer and apology it's Harbor I have learning disabilities where I often flip words around so if I say Cali Harbor you know I'm talking about Harbor Galley I'll try my best to keep it straight but that is like one of the hardest tasks in the world for me is to keep words in their perfect order hey we all have a way that we learn right so on the edge of the guests are serve you can notice that it is one of the shortest buildings in all of Disneyland I'm six foot tall when I stand here my head would hit the deck if I were to walk in sideways now it's pitched up so you can come in from the side but this gives you an idea of just how short this building is on the front side and even this patio the guests are no longer allowed to go on you can see how short this roof is compared to most buildings at Disneyland it actually has to dip down in order to have enough room for there to be a door for cast members to go inside of and we're all used to the forced perspective of Disneyland but most of the time the baseline or first first floor of a building is the standard size that we're used to and often even over exaggerated to make it feel more grandiose it's the second and third floor where the scale starts to shrink up to create the force perspective this is a rare moment where the shrunken down floor is actually on ground level this is not a true first story so to keep this building nice and low so the guests could Overlook it from The Mark Twain and it wouldn't block views of Splash Mountain it was actually built down below sea level so when they built this they actually had to Dam the water around the rivers of America so they could build this down lower than what the river level is and do doing that it allowed them to create a huge basement in the bottom of this building that they would be able to use for the infrastructure for the building for storage they would need and also fun fact this bridge right here is where the canals go through for Splash Mountain soon to be Tiana's Bayou Adventure there is an emergency exit below us in this canal that emergency exit is designed if needed guests can exit the ride and come out through Harbor galley that is my kind of design but the bridge that we're on not only keeps the canal boats running around where you're on the River's Edge but it keeps the sight lines clear so that you can easily look over this building and then while they are there doing a couple of masterful things I mean a basement for storage is always going to be a plus when you're running an operation like Disneyland but adding in a safety exit in case guests need to be evacuated from the attraction and they could exit through the building amazing and then one other major benefit to making this building below sea level and put in substantial size basement in the bottom of it and this might be my favorite fun fact of them all the lower level of the building allows Disney to have a wave where cast members can easily get to the Columbia or Mark Twain if it's parked here it also gives them the ability to work on the ships while the Park is open and never interfering with the guests because through the extended basement there are lower level entries in this building where cast members can get over to the boats to either load them or to provide them much needed maintenance for something that lives in the water 24 hours a day 365 days out of the Year allowing Disney to provide something that looks realistic a boat dock but at the same time provide something that is functional a way to both work on the boats service the boats and load the boats with never getting in the way of the Disney guests because everything happens on the lower tier at the water level which when we look at this ladder on the far side of the dock gives you an idea of just how high guess ride on the boat versus this bottom line where cast members and maintenance employees can easily board or work on the boats so if you think about the practicality of this boat maintenance and boat loading on one side safety evacuation for Splash Mountain on the other side perfectly justifying the extra effort of damming up the rivers of America and putting an extra large basement in the bottom of what looks like a pretty small fishing Shanty off the side of the rivers of America the sailing ship Columbia going in reverse is something that you don't see every day it happens every day but rarely do I ever catch it actually backing up out of Fowler's Harbor love this kind of stuff so some of the design elements that you'll see that were put into Fowler's Harbor to make it feel 19th century and that it is older than the park and predates all of our existence are little subtle details like how rough all the shingles are and how there's actually grass and straw growing between them or over here where plants have taken over the top of the building you can also see how the sheets of aluminum on the roof line are purposefully rusted out to make it look older and weathered as if it's been here for quite some time that is purposely rusted out and then using a faux Rock exterior to create the most shallow of height and putting in a door that is way too small for any person to actually walk through and because of the incline for the bridge needed for Splash Mountain we see the rock hiding what is the most shallow part of the construction project and then the roof has to dip over for the perfect sight lines for people to see over to Splash Mountain and if you think about the benefit of adding in the rock wall it definitely keeps most people's eyes away from seeing all of the little fishing Village and puts them more into the location of Splash Mountain creating one of those sight line differentials that helps continue the story of Disneyland and take gas into different parts of their imagination and then there's subtle textures everywhere such as making the garbage cans look like they're made out of wood the concrete in this area gets way more rough along with the old school wooden handles tied together with turn of the century leather straps because during this time nails were a commodity and then all of the old school fishing supplies that you see all along the walls but look at the incline down to make that door tall enough for cast members to walk through because the front of this building is quite small and then placing the wooden walkway just gives it that dock Seaside feeling versus if they were to leave all of this concrete like the trails that you just came from a Mill View Lane on the sign right here refers to the street where Joe Fowler lived in Florida when he was working on Walt Disney World so a subtle Walt Disney World tie-in to Disneyland there are a few if you know where to look Ezekiel Talbot was a Ship Chandler who sells Goods to ships and that's the reason for the anchor line and the block on the sign this area opened in July of 1989 serving a Seafood menu that included shrimp cocktail popcorn shrimp and a halibut sandwich but from 2001 to 2008 McDonald's sponsored the facility and sold its own french fries and beverages but only bizarrely french fries and beverages Harbor Galley thankfully went back to its rightful menu in 2009 serving soups chowders loaded baked potatoes Seafood salads and my favorite the tuna fish sandwich and of course the name of the entire area is after Joe Fowler who was an admiral in the United States Navy after he retired Walt Disney recruited him to supervise the construction of Disneyland and later he would even do the same for Walt Disney World he was known by his nickname can do because of his response that everything Walt asked Jonathan Winship listed here at the proprietor of the establishment was an American 19th century sailor and entrepreneur from the Massachusetts area which you guessed it is where the sailing ship Columbia was originally built you know the real one not the Disneyland one and seen here Joseph Barrel was a merchant also from the Boston Massachusetts area in the 18th century during the American Revolution where he owned a bunch of ships Joseph Barrel also financed helped arrange the Venture of the original sailing ship Columbia on its voyage around the world and this was all based on his readings of Captain Cooks which is yet another Walt Disney World tie-in to all of these characters and the chandelery means a warehouse of the chandelier which in this case would be Joseph Barrel all of these subtle typographic embellishments not only make it feel real but subtly tie it into so much real US History which we all know is something that Walt Disney absolutely loved so if you ask me all things considered it looks authentically 150 years old which was the goal and it also perfectly hides that below us is a service area for two Disney attractions extra storage for the kitchen an emergency exit for Splash Mountain and a quick service restaurant so many things living in this one little part of Disneyland doing all the different things that it needs to do to justify its space and when you think about it there's so many different ways that it could have been built but it was built the right way the Disneyland way where extra effort and energy goes into making sure that every piece tells the story of Disneyland and that's what I love friends I hope you've enjoyed this interesting look at a quiet corner of the park if you enjoyed it do me a favor subscribe to the channel this is entirely very Niche Deep dive into something that most folks don't care about but I appreciate you for caring and making it till the end of today's video I'll be making more of these if you tell me that you'll show back up to watch them friends from the edge of Fowler's Harbor I can't wait till the next time I see you in the Sleepy corner of Disneyland thank you so much for watching and thanks for going on this journey with me and I hope you had as much fun as I did because I love this stuff and hopefully you do too

Channel: Hey Brickey!

Views: 312,478

Keywords: how disneyland was created, how disneyland wass created, how disneyland was creaeted, how disneyland wass creaeted, how disneyland was, how disneyland was built, how disneyland was made, disneyland history and secrets, splash mountain disneyland history, disneyland history, disneyland level design, disneyland design, disneyland secrets, disneyland secrets in the park, disneyland fun facts and secrets, disneyland fun facts, fowlers harbor, disneyland harbor galley, brickey

Id: uLVlabsAHWA

Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023