Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn
In yesterday’s
post I mentioned Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn. I just covered one small project
the Carolwood Foundation is working on at this time, The Small Worlds of Walt
and the restoration of the original Cinderella’s French Village.
Walt’s Carolwood
Barn was a scaled down version of the barn on the farm where he grew up in Marceline,
Mo. It has more windows than the original barn but in most ways looks like his
childhood play place. Walt had it built in his backyard in his Holmby Hills,
Ca. as a workshop for his backyard small scale (1/8th scale) trains.
In 1998 the Disney
Family sold the Holmby Hills estate. The house was demolished due to extensive
use of asbestos in the building of the home. The barn was to be demolished by
the new owner as well to make way for a larger mansion on the property. Diane Disney
Miller and family purchased the barn from the new owner and donated it to the
Los Angeles Live Steamer’s, a small scale train club Walt had been a part of.
The barn was carefully
dismantled and reassembled at the Los Angeles Live Steamer Museum in Griffith
Park, around the corner from Travel Town and the Merry-Go-Round where Walt took
his daughter to play on Daddy’s Day every week.
The Carolwood
Foundation was created to restore and maintain the barn and items inside. The
volunteers are knowledgably about the barn, Walt the man, Disneyland,
Disneyland Railroad History, Ward Kimble and Ollie Johnson.
The Carolwood Foundation
has acquired many items of note that belonged to Walt Disney, Disneyland, Ward
Kimble and Ollie Johnson. They work hard to maintain and display them sharing
the rich history of each item with anybody who asks.
The Carolwood
Foundation has almost completed restoring the Disneyland Retlaw (Walter spelled
backward) 106 Combine Train Car. They have developed relationships with Walt
Disney Imagineering and have received help manufacturing parts, such as light
fixtures that needed to be replaced. There are also original props in the cargo
compartment. Pictures of the car as it was when first put into service at
Disneyland were used as reference in the restoration.
Carolwood
Foundation opens Walt’s Barn to the public the 3rd Sunday of every
month and all are welcome to come. There is no entry fee but any donation is welcome.
They also have special “movie nights” where they show movies on the side of the
barn.
You can find out
more about and connect to Walt’s Barn, The Carolwood Foundation and The Los
Angeles Live Steamers at the following links.
On Facebook:
Walt’s Carolwood
Barn
Los Angeles Live
Steamers
On the Web:
Carolwood
Foundation
Los Angeles Live
Steamers
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