Walt Disney's Carolwood Barn
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Walt Disney's Carolwood Barn is a museum located at the Los Angeles Live Steamers complex in Griffith Park. It is a miniature barn used by Walt Disney as a machine shop while operating his miniature Carolwood Pacific Railroad layout in the backyard of his home in Holmby Hills, a district of Los Angeles, California, USA.
The barn is currently open the third Sunday of every month from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. The barn is owned by The Walt Disney Family Foundation and operated by the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society and the Carolwood Foundation.
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[edit] History
[edit] Barn beginnings
Walt Disney vividly remembered having a barn on his family's farm in Marceline, Missouri. As a child, Walt would play in the barn. One of his very first attempts at entertainment was putting on a barnyard circus for his friends in the barn. However, the farm animals did not want to participate in his show and Walt's mother made him give back all the money he had "earned". The barn was always a source of magic and wonder to Walt.
[edit] Carolwood
Main article: Carolwood Pacific Railroad
Walt Disney and Ward Kimball, one of his animators, attended the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948. This journey rekindled Walt's fascination with steam locomotives and he came back to California with ideas for a backyard railroad layout. The Disneys had just purchased a five- acre site in Holby Hills (just north of Beverly Hills). He called it the layout the Carolwood Pacific Railroad, after the street that the house was located on. Walt named his miniature steam engine after his wife, Lillian, calling it the Lilly Belle.
Around the same time, Walt produced a film called So Dear to My Heart. The film took place, for the most part, on a rural farm. Walt used his memories of the barn in Marceline to help the set designers build an accurate barn for the film. One of the other set pieces, an old-fashioned railroad station, was given to Ward Kimball for his Grizzly Flatts Railroad layout.
From the plans made for the film's barn, and his own recollections of Marceline, Walt built his own miniature barn in his backyard, right in the middle of the track layout. He used the barn as a machine shop, tinkering with his steam engine and rolling stock as a way to relieve the stress of being a studio head. Walt would wake up early, before breakfast, and work in the barn; after work and dinner, he would then work in the barn until late in the evening.
[edit] Birthplace of imagineering
Walt's barn is billed as "The birthplace of Imagineering". It was in the barn, with his trains, that Walt got one of the very first inspirations for what would eventually be called Disneyland. Even in the earliest planning stages, he envisioned a park that was surrounded by a miniature train. Today, Disneyland has a scaled steam train circling the perimeter of the park.
Roger E. Broggie, the head of the Walt Disney Studio machine shop at the time, helped Walt assemble the Lilly Belle, as well as the rest of his Carolwood Pacific railway and rolling stock. Roger is known as the "first Imagineer", as he aided Walt in transitioning into three-dimensional entertainment. Roger would also help Walt assemble the trains for Disneyland, among other contributions to the planning of the park.
While planning and operating Disneyland, Walt had less time to enjoy his trains. His visits to the barn became less frequent over time, but the barn still stood there.
[edit] After Walt Disney
Walt Disney died in December 15, 1966. Lilly continued to live in the Carolwood house, keeping up the gardens and decorations. Several years later, she had the train tracks removed and donated them to the Los Angeles Live Steamers, a group of steam train enthusiasts. Walt was a honorary member of the Live Steamers, and Lilly thought it was the right place for the tracks to go. Today, the Live Steamers still have a circuit on their layout called the "Disney Loop". This part of track was originally made up of Walt's Carolwood track, but years of wear and tear have caused the original tracks to be all but removed.
[edit] New life
When Lilly Disney died in December of 1997, her surviving family sold the house to help start funding the Walt Disney Family Foundation, which then led to The Walt Disney Family Museum. The new owner, billionaire Gabriel Brenner, razed the Disney house, mainly due to asbestos concerns, and leveled the original landscaping. Bernner actually purchased the property, in part, because respect for Walt Disney. Brenner managed to save the train tunnel and Mickey-Mouse-shaped drive-in gate.
Walt's eldest daughter, Diane Disney Miller, asked Brenner if she could save a piece of the original house from the wrecker's ball - Walt's barn. Brenner agreed, and in late 1998, Diane had the barn removed from the Carolwood property, piece by piece. Each piece was labeled and shipped down to Griffith Park. Because of Walt's history with the organization, the Walt Disney Family Foundation was able to strike a deal with the Los Angeles Live Steamers for use of a piece of their real estate to accommodate the barn.
With the aid of many volunteers, the barn was reconstructed, piece by piece, at its new home. About 80% of what now stands was part of the original barn (the roof had to be replaced, for the most part, to accommodate modern fire prevention laws). Morgan "Bill" Evans, the man who landscaped most of the original Disneyland and the Disneys' Carolwood backyard, donated his expertise to landscape the area around the barn's new home to match its original location in Holmby Hills.
On July 19, 1999, Diane Disney Miller dedicated the barn as a new place to learn more about her father. At the ceremony, she stated, "Our heart and heritage is here, in this place". Also on hand for the dedication were Steve Soboroff, Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Commissioner, and L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge.
[edit] Collection and displays
The Barn has an extensive collection of Disney and steam-train-related memrobilia. The collection includes:
- Walt's workbenches, hand-built by Walt Disney himself.
- The track switch board Walt used to control the electronic track switches throughout the Carolwood railway.
- One of Walt's porkpie-style hats.
- An extensive display of memrobilia relating to the Disneyland Monorail, including a working 1960s-era monorail toy from Schuco.
- Samples of the train and toy collections of Ward Kimball and David Rose.
- Pieces of the Carolwood rolling stock.
- Roger Broggie's tool box.
[edit] Special guests
The Barn has had many special guests make appearances; mainly Disney Legends who meet with fans and talk about their experiences with Walt Disney. Such notable people have included Bobby Burgess, Margaret Kerry (the live-action model for Tinker Bell), and Imagineers Tony Baxter, Rolly Crump, and Alice Davis.
[edit] Sources
- Carolwood Pacific Historical Society website.
- Broggie, Michael (1998). Walt Disney's Railroad Story. Pentrex Media Group. ISBN 1-56342-009-0.
- Miller, Walter E.D. (producer) & Isbouts, Jean-Pierre (director) (2001). Walt: The Man Behind the Myth. Pantheon Productions.
- Smith, Dave (1996). Disney A to Z. Hyperion Books. ISBN 0-7868-6223-8.
