This barn and farm served as the inspiration for many of Disney's early drawings and animal characters. This barn was later used in filming the 1948 film "So Dear To My Heart." Although the film takes place in Indiana, it was this farm that inspired many of the stories and perspectives that are featured in the movie. The film takes place in 1903 and the plot centers around a young boy who adopts a black lamb that was rejected by its mother. The boy is determined not only to raise the lamb, but see it win first prize at the county fair. "So Dear To My Heart" was the second film by Walt Disney that combined live action and animation.The barn is one of the many historical sites regarding Walt Disney and can be found at the Walt Disney Dream Tree and Barn, along with other areas where Walt grew up. This rural setting inspired Disney and helped him create the famous and beloved characters and films he is renowned for.

Walt Disney's film "So Dear to My Heart" was based on his childhood on this farm. 

Tours of the farm are available from the Disney museum in Marceline.

The movie poster for the 1949 release of "So Dear to My Heart," a film set in Indiana but inspired by Disney's youth and time spent in this barn. 

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.

Walt Disney's Farm, Barn, and Dreaming Tree

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. 

Similar to many other towns throughout the Great Plains and West, Marceline's origins are tied directly to the construction of railway lines. When the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad created a new railroad line operating between Kansas City and Chicago, the route required occasional stops along the way that would connect people and goods to the rail line. The railway company's developers chose the location where Marceline sits as a primary stop, including building a subdivision called the "Marceline Subdivision." Stores, businesses, and other buildings arose quickly, even before the town's official incorporation in 1888; Marceline's population reached nearly 2,000 residents by 1890 and exceeded 3,500 by 1930 when this theatre opened.Nickelodeons, with their crude projection and cheaply-made seating, served as the first movie houses in Marceline (and most cities in the U.S.) during the early twentieth century, but more sophisticated movie houses emerged popular after World War I and into the "roaring" 1920s. Although Marceline's population was far smaller than places like Kansas City or St. Louis, many of the town's residents and visitors still benefitted from the country's booming interwar economic climate, which spurred a prolific consumption culture, and live theater and films became a favorite activity. The theatres, or "picture palaces," usually included lavish designs and modern features like electric lights.In October of 1923, A.B. and Ivah Cantwell bought a nickelodeon called the Snappy Theatre housed on the north side of the building. The pair remodeled and expanded the nickelodeon and opened it as the Cantwell Theatre. In 1929, Cantwell purchased the adjacent clothing store and started construction on what is now the Uptown Theatre. Builders stripped down the original 1894 buildings on the property to only two exterior walls and then built the now-historic theatre. During construction, the Cantwell Theatre was renamed the Dickinson Theatre when Glenn W. Dickinson, a regional theater mogul, leased it from Cantwell. Despite the start of the Great Depression, Cantwell finished construction on the building comprising storefronts, apartments on the second and third floors, and the 286-seat Dickinson Theatre on June 30, 1930.The Dickenson Theater opened with state-of-the-art sound systems and projection units, which helped boost its reputation as a modern movie house. The venue also hosted several other events, such as vaudeville acts, dances, beauty pageants, and rallies, making it the town's social epicenter. During construction, Cantwell took over the lease of the nearby Cater Opera House, which had been the site for movies, live acts, dances, and boxing matches since it opened in 1902. Soon after Dickinson opened, the Cater Opera House ceased being an entertainment venue and transitioned into a hall used for large gatherings such as weddings and dances. As a result, the Dickinson Theatre became the only movie palace in the city and local region.In 1936, A.B. Cantwell canceled Dickinson's lease. Dickinson vowed to open a competing theatre within the year. So, he opened the Chief Theatre while Cantwell renamed Dickenson Theatre to its current historic name, Uptown Theatre. The two theatres competed for three years. However, a series of mergers and corporate buy-outs ultimately made Dickenson the owner of Cantwell's former theatre by 1939. In 1938, Cantwell sold the Uptown to the Commonwealth Theatre Company, which sold it in 1939 to the Griffith-Dickinson Theater Group, the largest independent theatre circuit in the United States; Dickinson was the company president. Because of the feud with Cantwell, Dickinson vowed to close the Uptown, but instead, he closed his Chief Theatre in 1939. In April 1940, Dickinson's partner, H. J. Griffith bought Dickinson out to become the sole owner of the Uptown Theatre. Meanwhile, the Chief Theatre mysteriously burned down in February 1942, having never re-opened as promised, and Dickenson's vow to rebuild the Chief after the fire also went unfulfilled. Some speculated that Dickinson burned down the theatre to collect on the insurance, although no proof exists. Either way, by 1942, the Uptown Theatre had again secured its place in Marceline as the only movie house and social centerpiece.The Uptown Theater did enforce partial segregation policies from its grand opening until 1954 when the infamous Supreme Court ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case spelled the end of legal segregation. Verbal historical accounts confirm that African Americans sat in different sections than White guests. However, African Americans did not have to use separate entrances or bathrooms, and Black residents attended a "Big Negro Jitterbug Contest" on New Year's Eve 1940 for non-White residents.Griffith updated the Uptown Theatre equipment and added more community outreach programs, notably after the U.S. entered World War II. Many also frequented the theatre to watch newsreels, which routinely included propaganda as well as anti-Hitler and anti-Japanese programs. Moreover, the theatre also conducted aluminum collection programs, held fundraisers, sold war bonds, hosted war rallies and benefits for veterans, and put on a slew of community events aimed at helping in the war effort. The Uptown remained without a competitor until 1952, when the Star Drive-In theater opened roughly three miles north of the Uptown Theatre. The drive-in, with a capacity for 300 cars, speaks to the automobile culture boom after World War II. Still, The Star was seasonal; thus, the Uptown continued as the only local place to see movies year-round and during inclement weather.Four years after the drive-in theater opened, the Uptown Theatre hosted a movie premiere by Marceline's most famous former resident: Walt Disney. In 1956, Walt and his brother Roy Disney held the Midwest premiere of Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase in Marceline, attracting thousands to Marceline. They showed the movie back-to-back well into the early morning hours, allowing all visitors a chance to see the movie. By the 1970s, the Star Drive-in had closed, and the entire culture of television, movies, and entertainment had changed drastically. Still, the Uptown remained a centerpiece of the town's social world. In 1988, the Disney Corporation again came to town, hosting its premiere of the Spirit of Mickey at the Uptown Theatre.The Uptown remained in operation until 2016, but its significance as a social centerpiece declined steadily. It closed in 2016, but restoration efforts arose in 2019 to save the historic venue. The COVID-19 pandemic, which effectively shut the nation down in 2020 and wreaked havoc until 2021, severely affected restoration plans. By 2023, however, the Uptown rehabilitation work had progressed significantly, and the National Register of Historic Places listed it among its historic sites.

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.

Uptown Theater (The Historic Walt Disney Boyhood Hometown Theater & Hotel)

When the building opened in 1899, it operated dually as a bank on the first floor and a meeting hall on the second floor. Walt Disney's father, Elias Disney, once unsuccessfully attempted to organize a local apple growers union in the meeting hall. Not long after the turn of the twentieth century, W.S. Payne purchased the now-historic building and opened a jewelry store. In 1905, Payne handed over the business to Percy Wilkins, who took on Albert Zurcher as a partner three years later, in 1908. One year after that, in 1909, Zurcher purchased the business and building from Wilkins, and he remained the building's owner for more than six decades. In addition to jewelry, Zurcher sold furniture, appliances, eyeglasses, cameras, radios, and TVs. He worked at the store for sixty-five years, retiring at age ninety when he closed it in 1973. Marceline, a town built by railroad industrialists as a stop along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad in the late 1880s, had plenty of railway employees. Santa Fe workers made monthly visits to Zurcher's store to certify their timepieces in order to get paid. Indeed, Zurcher maintained the official Santa Fe clock that synchronized regional railroad operations to those nationwide. Residents routinely referred to the corner location of the building as "Coke Corner" because of the giant Coke advertisement (painting) on the brick wall, one that the Disney family would have seen anytime they passed by. The Coca-Cola advertisement appeared on the wall in 1906, the same year the Disney family moved to Marceline. However, Zurcher built an apartment annex behind his jewelry store in 1919, which hid the sign. However, in 2002, a fire burned the apartment annex, rendering the Coke sign visible again. Many believe that Walt Disney used the Zurcher building as inspiration for the design of Disneyland's "Refreshment Corner" (or "Coke Corner").

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."

Zurcher Building

Walt Disney was born in Chicago, but Marceline would be the place that the future cartoonist would call home as his father, Elias Disney, acquired a farm near Marceline in 1905. Disney's first drawing and his first cartoon features people and animals from Marceline and even after achieving stardom he credited his success to the experiences of growing up in this small community. In 1938, Disney wrote to the local newspaper and claimed that "more things of importance happened to me in Marceline than have happened since – or are likely to in the future.” This post office, along with a nearby museum dedicated to Walt Disney, are among several places in Marceline that share the story of Disney's early years.&nbsp; Walt Disney passed away in December of 1966. In response, the people of Marceline joined others around the country and lobbied the United States Postal Service to have a commencement stamp made of Walt Disney to honor him. The Department approved and Marceline was one of the first to offer the stamp along with other cities where Disney had lived and worked such as Chicago, Burbank, Kansas City, and Anaheim. The Disney family was made as the guests of honor along with other honored guests at the ceremony. The Santa Fe Railway Super Chief was also renamed as well to the "Walt Disney Special." Originally 120,000 stamps were ordered however as demand rocketed for the stamps and the amount of stamps ordered went from a small 120,000 to 153,015,000.&nbsp;

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. 

Walt Disney Post Office, Marceline 

In 1914, six years before the historic library building opened, the town's first library opened unassumingly as a small reading room in the rear of the Marceline First National Bank Building. The Women's Civic League donated 300 books shortly after it opened, and Sigmund Steiner, president of the Marceline Women's Civic League, suggested that the club try to secure a Carnegie Library. The Civic League wrote a letter to the Carnegie Institution in March of 1917 and received good news two months later when the Andrew Carnegie Library Foundation informed them in May 2017 that they would provide Marceline with $12,500 for a library building. Andrew Carnegie (1835 -1919), an exceptionally wealthy industrialist and renowned philanthropist, enjoyed a complex relationship with laborers and the working class. In 1882, Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick colluded to beat down the striking steelworkers during the Homestead Steel Strike (workers sought better pay and improved working conditions), one of the worst labor conflicts in American history. Seven years later, in 1889, Carnegie wrote "The Gospel of Wealth." In the article, he explained his views on philanthropy: "In bestowing charity the main consideration should be to help those who help themselves." His well-documented philanthropy amounted to $333 million, most of which went to public buildings and community projects, which he deemed "the improvement of mankind." More than $56 million of his wealth went to constructing more than 2,500 libraries worldwide. Though many of his laborers said, "What good is a book to a man who works twelve hours a day, six days a week?" Carnegie felt that raising wages would not help as workers would probably spend it on better food or drinks instead of what he thought they needed.Carnegie's statements about the character of many he sought to help have led many to criticize Carnegie while still praising his support of libraries and other organizations. Carnegie would have died an incredibly wealthy man if not for donating nearly 90% of his wealth, and his impact on the development and expansion of public library systems is significant. Between 1886 and 1921, Carnegie funds assisted in the construction of 1,681 city and 108 college libraries in the United States. One of the libraries provided by Carnegie was at the site of the violet strike: Homestead. He returned six years after the strike to dedicate a building that had a library, concert hall, and various sports facilities. He noted in a biography that he always kept the pain of the strike with him, stating, "No pangs remain of any wound received in my business career save that of Homestead."Communities in later years, such as Marceline, contacted the Carnegie Institution, indicating their desire for a Carnegie-funded library. Carnegie awarded grants to local governments if they could obtain land for a library, pay for the staff and library maintenance through public funding, and assure library services would be freely available to the public; the city promised to provide its share of the costs by levying a tax. After 1910, the Carnegie Library Foundation provided design guidelines for the libraries it funded because stand-alone library buildings were a relatively new building type. Carnegie's personal secretary, James Bertram, developed model specifications and floor plans for proposed libraries, which included a centralized location for librarians and reading rooms. A newly formed Library Board met in December 1917 to select a site for the building and receive bids and plans from architects, which they would then submit to the Carnegie Foundation for their approval. The town purchased a site in 1918, chose an architect in 1919, and opened the library on November 1, 1920. In 2001-01, another one of the nation's wealthiest entrepreneurs and philanthropists, Bill Gates, provided a grant to the library via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The library received computer and internet upgrades, and more upgrades arrived via grants and public funds in the following years. Thus, the building's past is preserved, and its future seems secure. Of the thousands of libraries constructed from the late 1880s to the early 1920s, roughly 750 still stood as of 2017, including the one in Walt Disney's hometown of Marceline.

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.

Marceline Carnegie Library

Similar to numerous towns throughout the Midwest, Great Plains, and West, Marceline owes its existence to a railroad company. Marceline's history is tied to the rapid expansion of the Santa Fe Railroad during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. More specifically, the company named at the time was the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. When they created a new railroad line operating between Kansas City and Chicago, the first railroad to connect Chicago to the West Coast through Kansas City via a railway, they needed to select stopping points along the way. Planners and railroad executives created stops and new towns so the locomotives could get supplies such as water, food, and fuel. The stops also allowed for crew changes. The railway chose the location where Marceline sits as a primary stop; the town was home to the headquarters for the Santa Fe's Missouri Division. Given its existence as both a stop and headquarters, Santa Fe also invested in the town, including developing homes known as the "Marceline Subdivision." Santa Fe Railroad named the town Marceline at the request of one of its directors. He asked that the town be named for his wife, Marcelina. Not long after the railroad arrived, in 1888, the town incorporated as Marceline, Missouri. Stores, businesses, and other buildings arose quickly, even before the town's official incorporation in 1888; Marceline's population reached nearly 2,000 residents by 1890. The showcase train engine is a model SD40 6-axle Diesel-Electric locomotive built by the General Motors (GM) Electro-Motive Division in 1966. The locomotives built during the 1960s, notably those developed by GM's Electro-Motive Division, evolved into the dominant train engine. So ubiquitous, in fact, several hundred still traverse the country's railways in the 2020s. Locomotives built today still share profound similarities to the ones built in the 1960s. More than 1,200 SD40 models (like the one displayed in Marceline) were built from 1966 - 1972, which pulled freight throughout North and South America, as well as Africa. The Santa Fe engine in Marceline, built in 1966, indeed came from that distinctive locomotive-building period. In 2017, the Santa Fe SD40 was donated to the Walt Disney Hometown Museum. Sam Bailey, a Marceline native and retired locomotive engineer for Santa Fe (which became part of BNSF), spearheaded the restoration project. In 1968, the locomotive's second year in operation, Bailey served as the first SD40 hostler, an engineer who operates a locomotive between shops, yards, and fueling tracks. Bailey began meticulously restoring the Santa Fe SD40 #5008 in October 2017 and finished two and a half years later. It now sits on tracks outside the Walt Disney Hometown Museum, the former home to the Santa Fe Railroad.

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."

 Santa Fe Engine #5008

Walt Disney moved to Marceline at the young age of four with his family who arrived from Chicago by train in 1906. The family was taken from the depot to&nbsp;the farm by wagon by a man named Mr. Coffman. His father, Elias Disney, bought the home from a Civil War veteran. As an adult, Disney recalled that this&nbsp;farm and the barn allowed him to observe and imagine the lives of animals that later inspired so much of his early work. The farm included a cottonwood that Disney referred to as his "Dreaming Tree." While that tree was destroyed in a windstorm, visitors to the museum can learn about efforts to preserve the tree by planting a sapling from its seeds.&nbsp;&nbsp; The original home of Walt Disney is recognized as a historical site but is a private residence. The farm is occasionally open for special events and&nbsp;visitors to the museum can learn about opportunities to see the restored Disney barn.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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. 

Tour of Walt Disney's Boyhood Home, Marceline Missouri

Walt Disney's Farm, Barn, and Dreaming Tree

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources