Main Street Clarification

It’s not a comparing article about Main Street, this blog is too green to start such a tremendous endeavour as to comparing entire lands. I just recently realised something that deserves a little “mise au point”.

Everybody knows, everybody has read and seen that the Original Main Street building rows (lefthand and righthand) have been replicated in Hong Kong, those two only differ in color and texture but for the design and shape of the facades, the rows are the same. This has been heavily documented and critisized.

Tokyo has itself a very unique Main Street covered by a canopy like some huge european train station.

So Anaheim and Hong Kong have the same Main Street, as Tokyo got a roof on its one. Those are common facts.

But what’s the status for Orlando and Paris ? If you are a sedentary Disney fan you have read that those are two very different Main Street. First they both have their own Town Square buildings (City Hall, Train Station etc…) and second while the first one is themed after the early century, the second one tends to come closer to the 20’s when motor engine where starting to populate city streets.

If you are a traveling Disney fan, then you’ve seen both and can swear that those two are as you had previously read totally different Main Street with not only different Town Square but very different rows as well.

Well…They’re not.

Walking up Main Street, look lefthand starting with the Emporium all the way up to Casey’s Corner, those are the same set of buildings. Same for righthand but the two facade prior the West Center Street (now the Emporium 2001 expansion in Walt Disney World) are unique. Those two corners hold Main Street Motors in Paris to stress the automobile presence of the theme and Uptown Jewelers in Florida.

Look in the back of the pictures, facades are already the same.

Beside those corners and Town Square of course, Disneyland Paris Main Street rows are replicated after Walt Disney World’s. Even the texture are the same, only the colors change.

Look this sketch of the four Main Street blocks of Paris and Orlando : Darker areas are the replicated facades.

For 15 years I was under the imression (even after walking them both) that my homepark’s Main Street, just like Walt Disney World’s was unique in style et theme. I was disapointed to discover the contrary, but felt I had to share, here I am.

Still, for me and many others who haven’t noticed without any research, that’s still two very different Main Street USA with their own (and unique for both) Town Square which brought to the Kingdoms two wonderful kinds of City Hall, Main Street Station and others.

But it’s still a bummer to figure after all those years that there are not 4 Main Street sets as I previously thought but only 3 (and a very tiny half)…

Comments (You can sign-in as a guest once you've clicked inside the name field)

D.O.C.

Nice article. I also like the photo treatment on your lead picture.
Ryne

I think it’s great that you’re setting the record straight on Paris’s Main Street. I must say that having a brick street, warmer paint scheme, and the Main street Motors building with the billboard does surprisingly make it feel more different from Florida’s than it really is. In fact, of the Main Streets I’ve visited, I would list Paris at 1, California at 2, and Florida third.