Built in 1930, the Uptown Theater continues to serve the community of Marceline and is connected to the city's most famous resident, Walt Disney. The theater originally opened as Dickinson Theater and offered "talkies" (movies with sound) long before many other theaters in the region. The venue also hosted vaudeville acts, dances, community events, beauty pageants, political rallies, and newsreels during World War II. In 1956, Walt Disney returned to his boyhood home to hold the premiere of his feature film, The Great Locomotive Chase, and four decades later, in 1998, the Disney Corporation selected the Uptown Theater to host its world premiere of The Spirit of Mickey.
More than 750 million visitors have strolled past the Refreshment Corner Cafe at Disneyland, probably unaware that its inspiration comes from the historic Zurcher building in Disney's boyhood home, Marceline, Missouri. The corner building opened its doors in 1899 as a bank on the first floor and meeting hall on the second floor, but it spent more than six decades as a department-type store run by Albert Zurcher. A large Coca-Cola mural in the rear of the building led to the corner's name being referred to as "Coke Corner."
In recognition of Marceline's status as the hometown of Walt Disney, this postal building was renamed to the Walt Disney Post Office by order of Congress on November 11, 2003. A ceremony held the following year celebrated Marceline as the home of Walt Disney. The post office is also notable for its historic mural by Joseph Meert that are similar to those by the more famous mural-maker of the 1930s, Thomas Hart Benton. These works were funded by the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture (later known as The Section of Fine Arts) and are similar to works that were created in this same area part of the Works Progress Administration's program that employed artists and produced thousands of important cultural works.
The Carnegie Library, one of the numerous libraries partially funded by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Library Foundation, opened in 1920. The genesis of the library dates back to 1914 when a reading room was established in the rear of the Marceline First National Bank. The Carnegie Institution approved the community's application for a library in 1917, awarding the town more than $12 thousand; the town of Marceline had to provide the rest. In 2001, the library received another grant from another institution tied to a modern wealthy entrepreneur, Bill Gates. The 2001 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided computers and an Internet upgrade.
Built in 1966, this Santa Fe Diesel-Electric engine has been part of the Walt Disney Hometown Museum, housed in a former Santa Fe station located across from Ripley Park, since 2017. Although the engine is a product of the 1960s, it speaks to the lengthy relationship between the Santa Fe Railroad and Marceline. When Santa Fe planned a railroad from Chicago to Kansas City that continued on to the West Coast, they created stops and towns along the way. Marceline was one of those towns and also served as a headquarters for the railroad company. One of the railroad's directors requested the name Marceline to honor his wife, who bore the Spanish name of "Marcelina."
This museum opened in 2001 and is located in Marceline's restored Santa Fe railroad depot. The museum offers exhibits related to the early life of Walt Disney and his family after they moved from Chicago to a farm in Marceline, Missouri. Walt was four at the time of the move, and he spent his boyhood years at the farm before moving to Kansas City. Disney drew his first cartoons and even offered his first public entertainment in Marceline- a circus where the young boy determined to return the money of his young friends because the show did not live up to expectations. The museum includes artifacts and hundreds of letters related to Disney's boyhood thanks to his sister, Ruth Flora Disney Beecher, who donated the items. The museum also includes parts and a car from Disney's Autopia attraction which was closed in the late 1960s. The museum includes exhibits related to the history of Marceline and the Santa Fe Railroad among exhibits related to the life of Disney and the farm where the future cartoonist was inspired to create cartoons based on the lives of the animals he cared for.
This barn was recreated in 2001 by volunteers and is part of the farm where Walt Disney grew up. Many of Disney's first drawings and cartoons featured animals that Walt cared for as a young boy growing up on a Missouri farm, and this setting served as inspiration for Disney's 1948 film "So Dear To My Heart." Walt spent many days in this barn and underneath the shade of a large cottonwood tree that later became known as "the Dreaming Tree" owing to the way Walt drew inspiration for his cartoons and characters from watching animals while under this tree. While the original tree succumbed to a windstorm in 2005 after many years of disease, Walt Disney’s grandsons harvested seeds from The Dreaming Tree and planted a sapling from the original tree the year before. This barn and the "son of the Dreaming Tree" are two of several area historical sites related to Walt Disney and his childhood. Tours of the farm are available from the Disney museum in Marceline.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
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This short tour includes several sites related to Walt Disney's boyhood years in Marceline, including the farm where he was first inspired to create cartoon characters based on animals and the former Santa Fe rail depot that is now home to the Walt Disney Boyhood Museum.
