The Grand Lady of Main Street

By far the largest retail establishment in town, located at the corner of Town Square and Main Street, is the Emporium. The concept of a department store was first established in Europe, notably with Le Bon Marché (1838) and La Samaritaine (1870), both in Paris. Emporium brings that grand European tradition to the American Main Street, marking an era of prosperity and progress for the town.

Inside, the store is a bustling hub of consumerism. Shoppers here. Products there. Gas lamps mix with electric fixtures, as well as mechanical marvels like this train of baskets for money handling. Since the hired staff in such a large store weren't allowed to handle money themselves, they would place it in these baskets to be delivered to the accounting office. There, the purchase would be rung up and change would be returned to the customer in another basket.

High above the center of the store rises a grand dome of iron and stained glass. Look closely at the ironwork railing along the base of the dome, and you'll spot a series of "hidden" Mickey shapes worked into the design.

The elaborate stained glass panels which make up the dome support the story of the Emporium as a rich beacon of the town's new found prosperity, as well as the Main Street story of progress and innovation. The panels pay tribute to great American inventors, several of whom actually immigrated to America from Europe. There's Alexander Graham Bell (telephone), George Washington Carver (agriculture), George Eastman (mainstream photography), Orville & Wilbur Wright (airplane), Thomas Edison (light bulb, phonograph, motion picture camera), Nikola Tesla (consumer electricity), Robert Fulton (steamboat) and Henry Ford (automobile assembly line).

Elsewhere in the shop are beautifully rendered murals, telling the story of how the Emporium has grown and expanded into a chain of stores on Main Streets across the country, each offering "Top Quality Goods." Look for references to shops in Orlando, Florida (established 1871, a nod to the 1971 opening of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World) and Los Angeles, California (est. 1855; Disneyland opened in 1955). In the case of that institution, listed as The Original Emporium, the proprietor is identified as none other than Walter E. Disney.

Beautiful on the Inside

Walt Disney once described Disneyland as something that would grow and change and get more beautiful every year. Since 1955, this has happened with major additions of new lands and attractions and the maturation of the park's landscape, but it's also been seen in more subtle ways. Take the shops of Main Street, U.S.A. for example. They've always been charming, but with each renovation or change of tenant, the shops' interiors have gained more and more layers of detail and sophistication.

At the Emporium, Main Street's grand department store, dark woods and brass chandeliers add a touch of elegance to the space, while etched glass and period promotional pieces help set the story in the appropriate time. There's lots of story taking place here, especially with the little vignettes like this Tailoring shop on the second level. They're inaccessible and filled with just props and mannequins, but they add immeasurably to the experience.

Just beyond the Emporium is an area of Main Street known as the Crystal Arcade. In this case, it's the definition of "arcade" as a covered passageway with shops on either side (rather than the video game variety). The passage itself cuts back toward the Carnation Cafe on Center Street. Along the way, though, you'll find intricate little shops selling jewelry, trinkets and toys.

The display along the top of the walls of the toy store even features a working model train and toys of lots of classic Disney characters.

Across the way, the Market House is an old time general store, with candy in barrels, a pot-belly stove, a community checkers board and a party line telephone (on which you can listen in to all the town gossip).

Back on the west side of the street is the Blue Ribbon Bakery, one of my favorite spots on Main Street. Step inside, and you'll find a warm, rich interior with amazing detail from the flooring to the cabinetry, the brick back wall to the ceiling elements.

Nearby is the Penny Arcade. Originally an attraction location, the space was converted for retail in the late-'90s, offering all sorts of packaged candy and treats.

Although much of this space is now a shop, you can still find some of the original period games and amusements from the Penny Arcade days. The center aisle is still lined with Mutascopes and Cail-o-Scopes (early flip-book-style movie machines), and in the back of the space is the 1905 Welte Style 4 Concert Orchestrion that's been here since Disneyland opened. Built in Germany, it has more than 300 pipes, a triangle, bass drum and cymbals, all activated by an electric motor... and your spare change.

Some More Emporium

The Emporium, the first department store in the town of Main Street, has been incredibly successful over the years. Starting as a relatively small corner store back in 1863, it has grown over the years to encompass an entire city block.

The most recent addition, The Emporium Gallery, takes things even more upscale, offering the citizens of Main Street only the "Latest and Greatest" products from around the world: Electrical Lamps, Graphophone Talking Machines, Edison Kinetoscopes, Imported Glassware, Ladies' Wearing Apparel, Finest House Furnishings and Children's Toys & Novelties.

A plaque over the door to the Gallery mentions it was established in 1901. The date has dual significance. This location, a true expansion of the original Emporium into the former Center Street Flower Market area, opened in 2001. Using a date one hundred years earlier fit the story. It also happens to be the year of Walt Disney's birth (the 100 Years of Magic celebration honoring Walt's centennial kicked off in 2001).

In regard to the period in which the story of Main Street takes place, 1901 also represented a cultural shift. Queen Victoria passed away in January that year, effectively bringing an end to the Victorian era. The majority of the design of Main Street, U.S.A. is Victorian, very eclectic and heavy on ornamentation. Victoria's reign was followed by that of her son, Edward, and the Edwardian era was marked with a move toward a more elite style influenced by his travels through continental Europe.

The Emporium Gallery demonstrates this shift. In contrast to the darker woods and elaborate carvings seen in the original section of the shop, the Gallery is open and airy, with a high domed ceiling and colored glass inspired by department stores like Le Bon Marché in Paris.

The expansion of Main Street's Emporium also came with the addition of new departments and custom offerings, some of which can be glimpsed from the floor of the Gallery. There's the Haberdashery, providing men's sportswear and formal wear, and the Millinery, creating fine ladies' hats.

Overlooking the entire space is this mural of happy citizens "Shopping in the Grand Style." The casual observer might be impressed with the diversity represented in the townspeople. Those in the know would realize these are actually portraits of several of the Imagineering team members who worked on the Emporium expansion project, all worked in by the mural's creator, Imagineering artist Joe Warren.

The woman with the yellow umbrella is Art Director Agnes David-Hoffman. The gent on the right in the brown jacket is Jim Heffron, Senior Concept Architect. That's Cicero Greathouse, Artistic Director and master of character paint treatments, wearing the top hat and monocle. On the left, the lady in pink is Katie Roser, responsible for the props and displays in the shop. Finally, the flowered hat in the lower left corner sits on the head of Joyce Carlson. While Joyce may not have been directly involved in this project, she was a Disney Legend who started with the company in 1944 and went on to influence every iteration of "It's a Small World" and countless fellow Imagineering artists.

Also on the left, the fellow in the straw hat is Graphic Designer Kevin Thomas. That's Program Architect Steve Grant carrying the stack of red, yellow and blue boxes. The woman on the top right, with the big pink bow on her hat, is Katherine Fredericks who supports Bernie Mosher, the Creative Director for Imagineering Florida.

There are likely other Imagineers depicted here. These are the ones I know. If anyone has more information and would like to contribute, please feel free to do so in the Comments.

Shop Full o' Details

Head inside Osh Popham's Main Street Emporium, and you'll discover a wealth of Victorian-era design. Every detail, from the sconces and furnishings to the columns and fine filigree work on the ceiling, tells the story of the finest department store in town.

It's especially fun to see how period display pieces have been utilized to showcase the decidedly-modern merchandise that's actually on offer. Setups like the gold frames with turn-of-the-century photographs (above a selection of Disney frames) and the Vinylmation figures stacked inside candy jars, are all the work of the park's Visual Presentation team.

The Imagineering Architects and Interior Designers who worked on the Emporium also did their part to set the stage. Details like doorknobs and velour wallpaper may blend into the background, but they're important elements in creating a sense of place and a feeling of quality.

Then there are those details so full of story, you may not even realize it. Take these brass chandeliers, for example. The town of Main Street, U.S.A. exists at a crossroads in time. It's a period when progress is being made, but the old and new can often still be found side-by-side. The upward-pointing fixtures on the chandelier are traditional gas-burning lamps. You can even spot the little key at the bottom of each arm used to turn on the gas for lighting. These chandeliers have been retrofit, though, with modern electric lights. They're the fixtures that point down.

So why have both? At this point in history, electric lighting was relatively new. Insistent on being the finest shop in town, the Emporium simply had to have electricity. Since it was new, though, it wasn't the most reliable. Maintaining a gas backup ensured the shop could remain open, even in the event of an outage.

My Regards to Mr. Popham

The story of the Emporium on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom is told through several subtle details, but right up front we're told who owns the place. These display windows, flanking the corner entrance off Town Square, proudly list Osh Popham as proprietor.

Osium "Osh" Popham was the character played by Burl Ives in the 1963 Disney film Summer Magic. In the movie, Popham is the local postman and runs the general store in the town of Beulah, Maine. Apparently, he decided to follow his son and move to the big city of Main Street, U.S.A.

Tracking the dates along the building, one can surmise that the original Emporium opened on the corner of Main and Center Streets in 1863. The store gradually grew over the years, taking on the whole block and eventually expanding across Center Street itself with the opening of the Emporium Gallery in 1901.

While the window acknowledgement is the only direct reference in the Emporium to Osh Popham, Summer Magic pops up elsewhere. Nancy Carey (Hayley Mills) and her cousin Julia (Deborah Walley) are the proprietresses of the nearby Le Chapeau. The background music on Main Street is also filled with tunes from the film, including Flitterin', Femininity, and Beautiful Beulah.