A plaque has been placed on the downtown Orlando building where Walt Disney made history with the 1965 announcement that included his development plans for Central Florida.
Folks strolling around Lake Eola can make a slight detour to see the marker describing the day the Disney’s Florida Project – what became known as Walt Disney World – was unveiled.
“The Disney brothers didn’t just announce a theme park, they announced a partnership with our community that was ready to dream bigger about its future,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said during a brief ceremony Thursday evening.
“And there’s no denying that that partnership changed the trajectory of Orlando forever, growing a quiet Central Florida town into a global destination, now known worldwide for imagination, innovation and opportunity,” Dyer said.
The unveiled plaque commemorates the 1965 announcement of the ‘Florida Project’ by Walt and Roy Disney at the Cherry Plaza Hotel in downtown Orlando. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
On Nov. 15, 1965, Walt Disney, his brother Roy and Florida governor Haydon Burns, walked into the Egyptian Room within the Cherry Plaza Hotel for a news conference. It concluded a whirl of mysterious land purchases southwest of Orlando and a swirl of speculation. The nine-story building, wedged between Central Boulevard and Lake Eola, now houses MAA Parkside apartments, World of Beer and other businesses.
It was the largest press gathering in Florida history at the time, Steve Vagnini, Walt Disney Archives manager, said Thursday.
“Walt was getting phone calls from all over the country, ‘Can we get our own Disneyland?’ And Walt said there’s never going to be another Disneyland,” Vagnini said. “But eventually he started to think, what if a Disneyland-style project could be a catalyst for something much bigger, and that had a site looking for an area that had a lot of land available, a place that had a great climate, a place that had great tourism.”
The company archives have some relics from announcement day, including media distribution material and film, he said.
“Few people realize that when Walt was participating in this conference, he had not yet stepped foot on the Walt Disney World property,” Vagnini said.
“He knew it from overhead, and yet, look at the confidence that he and Roy had,” he said, referring to flights above the property.
“It wouldn’t be until the next morning that he actually got to see that on land,” Vagnini said. “And we do have some actually pieces from that, those very early days of the property, things like a no trespassing sign from Bay Lake Property.”
Cherry Plaza’s Egyptian Room previously had hosted community gatherings such as proms, political rallies, spelling bees and fashion shows produced by LaBelle, a furrier still operating on Orange Avenue. Its capacity varied between 600 and 1,200 people, according to reports. The space was inside the hotel’s convention center, which has been gone for decades.
The hotel also was notable because President Lyndon B. Johnson had stayed there while campaigning in 1964.
“I believe that Walt, Roy, Gov. Burns would all be proud of what we’ve done here together,” said Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle before revealing the plaque with an assist from Mickey Mouse.
“I hope that this plaque not only serves as a celebration to our history, but it serves as a reminder as to what we can accomplish when we have a bold vision and we work on it together,” Vahle said.
The plaque incorporates a photo of the brothers at the news conference and mentions Roy’s role in continuing the plans despite Walt’s death about a year after the announcement. Walt Disney World opened in 1971 and now has about 80,000 employees in the area.
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The plaque will be seen near an entrance on the east side of the building. The project was a partnership between Disney and the Thornton Park District, a part of the Orlando Main Streets program.
“As a relatively young city, it’s important that we pause to celebrate and preserve the moments that shaped us,” City Commissioner Patty Sheehan said. “The story of this site and what was announced here is part of the foundation of who we are today.”
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