Where Did Disney Almost Build Walt Disney World?

For more than 50 years, Walt Disney World has driven tourism to the state of Florida.

Until recently, Sunshine State officials had happily allowed Disney to govern itself, a benefit the company probably wouldn’t have gained elsewhere.

Given the recent unpleasantness, you may wonder whether Disney could have avoided the problem by building elsewhere.

Alas, the Florida Project wasn’t always called by that name. Project X could have wound up in several other locations instead.

Where did Disney almost build Walt Disney World, and why did Disney decide against each one?

Flushing Meadows, New York

You’ll sometimes read that Disney considered East Meadows, New Jersey as well. The logic for both locations remains the same.

WED Enterprises reached the pinnacle of architectural design in 1964. That was the year that Disney dominated the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

Flushing Meadows, New York, hosted the two-year event, and Disney’s four pavilions proved the highlights.

According to most residents at the time, Disney operated four of the top five pavilions at the World’s Fair, a notion supported by attendance statistics.

Walt Disney relished in the afterglow of achieving the impossible. His upstart team of Imagineers beat the best and the brightest across the globe.

In 1965, Disney leveled up to a profound degree. And Uncle Walt loved the place. So, he started sniffing around for real estate in the area.

Alas, two factors worked against the notion of making Disney’s World’s Fair presence a more permanent endeavor.

For starters, the weather in this area proves particularly fickle during the winter. Disney would have needed to host virtually all its attractions indoors.

That’s an expensive proposition in and of itself. Even worse, land in this area had already risen in price by the mid-1960s.

Disney studied real estate in New York and New Jersey in hopes of finding a deal, but none was forthcoming.

A permanent Disneyfied World’s Fair simply wasn’t a feasible project, no matter how wonderful it might sound today.

Marceline, Missouri

Similarly, nostalgia drove Uncle Walt to investigate a sort of homecoming.

Disney recognized that his name alone would draw attention to his hometown of Marceline, Missouri.

I cannot help but smile at the thought of Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress playing in Marceline, Missouri. In fact, Disney should do that anyway. But I digress.

The point is that Walt Disney would have loved to bring a theme park to his beloved Marceline.

Believe it or not, had the entrepreneur not died, this project legitimately might have happened.

The Missouri native drew illustrations and plans for “a fishing lake, a barn dance attraction, and various bucolic draws.”

In addition, “There was to be a hotel and re-creations of an old-time butcher shop, barbershop, a general store, haberdashery, pool hall, an old service station and a coal mine. Activities for kids included a “buggy train, miniature golf, and a horseshoes area.””

Disney purchased 200 acres of land where his family home had stood. Marceline’s government gave him the option to buy 500 acres more.

Alas, Walt Disney’s death in 1966 ended this project. His successors idly discussed the project for another few years before killing it in the 1970s.

Before Disney called its secret construction The Florida Project, it went by a different name, though. It was the Marceline Project!

New Orleans, Louisiana

Here’s an idea that makes sense until the moment you realize the flaw with it.

Disney definitely shortlisted New Orleans as an ideal location for an East Coast theme park.

Advisors to Walt Disney circled an area known as – I kid you not – the Bayou Sauvage at the top choice for this park.

Alas, two issues disrupted the process, one of which Disney couldn’t control.

New Orleans resides in the wrong spot near the Gulf of Mexico. The flow of air and water here leads to heightened humidity. I’m talking comically high.

During the summer, the Big Easy averages humidity of nearly 80 percent, which is higher than even Orlando.

Also, Orlando claims less rain and scores higher on the Comfort and UV Indexes.

Still, Walt Disney loved New Orleans, as demonstrated by its strong presence at the theme parks.

So, the businessperson might have chosen New Orleans if not for one problem: the politicians.

Louisiana’s government performed what has since been called a shakedown. Here’s quote about the situation:

“After a while, Walt Disney realized Orlando would always “give” to him and his company, while New Orleans and its seedy leaders would always be asking for something.

Florida offered Disney major incentives while Louisiana had its hand out…”

Obviously, the Florida part of that no longer applies, but Disney faced in the 1960s what has happened 60 years later in Orlando.

St. Louis, Missouri

Walt Disney considered a second, more famous Missouri city for his second theme park.

On paper, St. Louis checked all the boxes as a potential location. It was a boomtown at the time, with the Gateway Arch opening in 1965 and Busch Stadium following in 1966.

Disney could have built at Riverfront Square, although it would have faced the same outdoor weather concerns as in New York.

Surprisingly, this thought didn’t bother Walt Disney as much as you might expect. He even considered a location near Niagara Falls…on the Canada side!

Nobody would do that unless they were fine with cold weather park operations or a seasonal schedule.

Disney himself worked on a film project about St. Louis in 1962. This reignited his passion for all things Missouri.

By 1963, his company had created illustrations and detailed plans for a theme park in St. Louis. It wouldn’t have been the only one, either.

Disney envisioned this St. Louis park working in tandem with one in the south to capitalize on the warmer weather in that area.

What caused Walt Disney to cancel the plans? According to reports at the time, local lawmakers insisted that Disney sell alcohol at his new park!

At the time, Anheuser-Busch’s August A. Busch Jr. wielded significant power in the local government. He understandably wanted his beer available at the park.

For his part, Walt Disney wouldn’t hear of alcohol being sold on premises at a family-friendly park.

In 2015, the blueprints for this Disney Park That Never Was went up for auction. They sold for $27,000 and are probably worth even more now.

Notably, the plans included some familiar Disney attractions like Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Washington, D.C.

Some accounts suggest that Walt Disney, a patriot who assisted the war efforts many times, wanted to build a park near the nation’s capital.

Details often vary regarding the grand plan here and how serious Disney was. However, it definitely fits Disney’s blueprint for the Marceline Project.

The company desired cheap swampland, and this section of the country is overflowing with such real estate.

Years later, Disney tried to build a new theme park in the area. Disney’s America should have opened near Manassas, Virginia, if not for a citizen revolt.

Among the locations we’re discussing today, Washington seems like the one Disney desired the least, except for possibly…

And…Santee, South Carolina?

As a reporter, I’ve chased down a LOT of weird stories over the years. It comes with the job.

Usually, rumorkillers come as part of the job description. People hear crazy stories that don’t pass the laugh test. So, I research them and then report the truth.

Here’s an instance where the truth kinda stunned me. On social media, you’ll occasionally notice a post like this:

Fun fact: Santee, South Carolina was the runner-up location for Disney. Maybe they should reconsider.

— Amanda AlpertLoveday (@AlpertLoveday) April 21, 2022

My first instinct is often, “Oh, twitter user, you’re so silly.” In this instance, the surprise is on me.

A few years ago, a friend of mine mentioned this odd fact to me, and I dismissed it out of hand.

My sister has lived in that area for years, which means I should have heard something about this.

To my complete and utter shock, there’s some meat on this bone, though. How much is up for debate, but here’s what I learned while doing research.

In 2017, a Greenville, South Carolina, news station reported on a new concert venue coming to the region.

What does that have to do with anything? Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young spoke on the development. Here are the pertinent comments:

“Years and years ago, Walt Disney and Disney World wanted to locate in Santee, South Carolina…The mentality of us not wanting that there had Disney World to locate in Florida and not Santee.”

I have uncovered no records of this from the 1960s. If you can point me to any, please do. I’d love to read them to enhance my research.

All I can confirm for now is that someone in the kind of government job that would know believes that Disney seriously considered Santee, South Carolina.

As you can see, lots of other places could have become the Most Magical Place on Earth rather than Orlando.

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