Museum Home
Main Collection
Special Exhibits
Film Theater


EPCOT

The EPCOT planEPCOT

The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) was very much on Walt's mind during the last few years of his life. But Epcot as it is today bears scant resemblance to Walt's dream. He imagined Epcot as a real city, in which tens of thousands of people could work and live -- and enjoy the latest technologies produced by American corporations. Walt had spent decades changing the face of American entertainment; now he wanted to alter the way people lived, with refinements in sanitation, transportation, and education. As for the theme park that would become Walt Disney World, Walt intended to provide such a place as well; but as far as he was concerned, the men and women who had already designed Disneyland knew how to do that. His thoughts were on his city. The whole enterprise -- the Florida Project, as it was originally called -- was certainly going to require a lot of land. And so Walt started purchasing thousands of acres of swampland just southwest of Orlando, Florida. If residents had known that Walt Disney was purchasing huge quantities of land, the price would have skyrocketed. So when he visited, it was under a fake name, Walter E. Davis (same initials).

EPCOTEPCOT

By the time Walt was finished, he had purchased 43 square miles in Florida -- twice the size of Manhattan, 150 times the size of Disneyland -- for about $5 million. In California, he set up a special planning room for his new city. On a family trip through British Columbia waters, just months before he died, Walt spent quiet time on deck reading books about city planning. "He'd talk for hours about the houses and how the kids would go to school," recalled Marvin Davis, a designer who was one of the few entrusted with these early, secret plans (Davis was also Walt's nephew, having married Lilly's sister's daughter, Marjorie). "He'd even talk for hours about garbage disposal. He was really engrossed in it." After Walt died, in December 1966, the future of the project was in doubt. "When he died, we all said, 'There goes Disney World,'" recalled Marvin Davis. While big brother Roy insisted that the company go through with most of the plans for Disney World -- even making sure it was named Walt Disney World -- the dreams of a city of tomorrow didn't survive. Without Walt, the vision simply lacked the visionary.

Back   Forward

Use of this site signifies your agreement to the terms of use.
© Disney. All rights reserved.