Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer joined Disney World president Jeff Vahle Thursday for the unveiling of a new plaque in downtown Orlando that commemorates the history-making announcement in 1965 that Walt Disney World would be developed in Orlando.
The plaque — a project of the city, Disney World, and the Thornton Park Main Street District — was displayed outside the building on East Central Boulevard that today encompasses MAA Apartments, World of Beer, and other restaurants. The building, surrounding Lake Eola, used to be the Cherry Plaza Hotel, where Walt and Roy O. Disney first announced that this now world-renowned theme park — Disney’s “Florida Project” — would be coming to the City Beautiful.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, it was the largest press gathering in Florida history at the time it occurred, with hundreds of members of the press in attendance. Then-Florida Gov. Haydon Burns also joined for the occasion.
“Walt and Roy Disney didn’t just announce a theme park in 1965. They announced a partnership with a community that was ready to dream bigger about its future,” Dyer said in a statement. “With this plaque, we honor more than a historic announcement. We honor a relationship, with both Walt Disney World and our Orlando Main Streets, that bolsters our economy, strengthens our neighborhoods and defines our identity.”
Today, Disney World is the largest single-site employer in the U.S. with over 80,000 employees, according to the company, generating billions of dollars in economic impact annually. Disney’s Magic Kingdom first opened in 1971, followed by Epcot, MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom.
According to Richard Foglesong’s nonfiction book Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando, tourism tripled in Orlando in the first year Magic Kingdom was open, from 3.5 million visitors to 10 million in 1971.
The population in Orange County also more than doubled over the next couple of decades, swelling from 344,000 in 1971 to 846,000 residents by 1999. Today, the county is home to more than 1.5 million — and, notably, horrendous traffic around the parks, a regional economy driven by (i.e., dependent on) tourism, and a premier destination for over 70 million visitors annually.
Former Orlando Mayor Carl Langford, who saw the arrival of Disney World more than 50 years ago, retired to the mountains in North Carolina in 1980 — shortly after leaving office, according to the Sentinel — citing “too much heat, too much humidity and too much traffic.” He reportedly returned to Orlando in the early aughts and died here in 2011.
Disney’s very own Mickey Mouse and Disney World president Jeff Vahle joined Dyer at the unveiling of the plaque Thursday. The plaque will be placed on the exterior wall of the former Cherry Plaza Hotel building, according to WESH 2 News.
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