65 Years Ago: Disneyland, August 1960, Pt. 1

The House of the Future at Disneyland has always fascinated me, because it is so UN-Disneyland! Sponsored by Monsanto, it greeted guests at the entrance to Tomorrowland, but also bordering on Fantasyland. These two images are from August 1960. I’m not sure if designers Marvin Goody and Richard Clancy intended a nod to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, but it would certainly appear that way when you see this mini-waterfall feature underneath the home made of plastic.



The House of the Future was removed to make way for…the future, so it barely lasted ten years. Even after its removal, once could see traces of it. Below, you can see that when the area was changed to Alpine Gardens (tying it into the nearby Matterhorn), the fountains from Monsanto remained.



The signage for Alpine Gardens:



These two images are from late 1964 and show guests lounging (?) on the mod sculptures that resided outside the House of the Future.



I wonder what happened to them? The sculptures…not the guests!



To give you an idea of where the House was located, here’s a fantastic aerial view taken from the Skyway,  circa March 1965:



More gems from August 1960 to come!

See more Disneyland House of the Future photos at my main website.

July 1972: Fantasyland

The small world façade has undergone a few changes over the years; for awhile, it was a mess of pastel hues as seen in this 1999 photo:



Today, the façade sparkles again with its icy cold palette that works perfectly with the cacophony of colors and sound that inhabit its interior:



Here is a shot of the bridge near the Alpine Gardens, once home to the Monsanto House of the Future:





For awhile, this area became Ariel’s Grotto, where a beautiful sculpture of King Triton presided over the nearby water feature:



Now this section of the park has been taken over by Tinker Bell and her posse; King Triton is gone and the fountain looks bare:



Ssee more Disneyland Fantasyland photos at my main website.