Americana 1900- The Complete Presentation

[spacemt354]

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The year was 1878. Railroads were “King” in America, carrying millions of riders across the nation. Fred Harvey, a freight agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad observed a problem that many travelers were having. At that time- before passenger trains had dining cars- when a train stopped at a station to pick up and drop off passengers and freight, they often only waited an hour before leaving. Hungry riders had to leave the station, find a restaurant, order, get served, eat their meal and get back on the train before it left. Many passengers missed their trains, and Fred Harvey saw an opportunity. He developed the idea of a restaurant serving quick meals right in the train station and promoted his idea to his employer- but they turned him down. He then offered it to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and they decided to give it a try. Fred Harvey opened his first restaurant at the AT&SF station in Florence, Kansas.
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And thus was born the first restaurant chain in America, the Harvey House Restaurants.​

Soon Harvey House Restaurants and Hotels were found all along the rail lines of the AT&SF Railroad and its affiliated rail lines. It was said that a traveler could not travel one hundred miles without finding a Harvey House to eat in. They became famous for high-quality food at reasonable prices with fast service, generous helpings and clean, attractive facilities. The servers, all female and called Harvey Girls, wore identical uniforms and were held to the strictest standards of behavior, deportment, morality and professionalism. Every Harvey Girl was required to wear the prescribed Harvey Girl uniform. It was black and white, carefully starched, and designed to "diminish the female physique". It included a skirt that hung no more than 8 inches off the floor, an "Elise" collar and opaque black stockings and black shoes. The hair was restrained in a net and was tied with a "regulation" white ribbon. Make-up was not allowed and chewing gum was forbidden.​

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Times change, but The Harvey House Restaurant tradition lives on at Americana 1900 at the three train stations serving the Gulf Coast and Santa Fe Railroad (a subsidiary of the AT&SF): one at the train station located in Maple Grove, one at the station that jointly serves Courthouse Square and Green Springs, and one on The Pike. Just as each station is unique, each full-service Harvey House Restaurant has a physical design to compliment the Township where it stands, and a menu that, while sharing some of the more popular items, also has "blue plate specials" that are unique to the Township where it is located.

What is a "blue plate special"? It is a special low-priced meal of the day, traditionally a "meat and three (one meat and three sides with no substitutions allowed)" served on a single blue plate, often with dividers on the plate. ​

This concept was created by Fred Harvey for his restaurants possibly as early as 1892, and was soon adopted by other restaurants and diners across the country. Many traditional diners and mom-and-pop restaurants still offer a blue plate special to this day.

The history lesson is over- now it’s time to eat!​

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Wow this was well worth the read - it adds so much context to the restaurant's inclusion in the park!

 

[James G.]

Dr. Q.B. Smith’s Home and Office

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This elegant two-story home, a white frame structure of typical farmhouse style with multiple side porches, bay windows, steep second-story peaks ornamented with ornately-carved wooden bric-a-brac and a gray slate roof, serves several functions. Its primary function is as the main first aid station for this part of Americana 1900. Along with basic, fully-staffed medical treatment rooms and a low-sensory relaxation room for visitors on the autism spectrum, it also houses several emergency medical vehicles in the “stables” behind the house (with access directly onto North Maple Grove Road). The two front rooms of the house are open to visitors, and are decorated as the front parlor and medical office of a respected rural doctor of 1900. ​

Beside the house, opposite the Clinton School where Pike Road meets Maple Grove, is the doctor’s medicinal garden. This fragrant garden, with a trained gardener on hand, contains such medicinal plants as meadow saffron, foxglove and glycyrrhiza.

The gardener is available to answer any questions visitors might have as they rediscover this overlooked but still important resource for pharmaceutical medications, a resource that is still providing new treatments for medical conditions today.

J&R Pottery Works and Opperman Woodworking Shop

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Across Maple Grove Road from the doctor’s office stand two connected wooden craft shops. The J&R Pottery Works, on the left, is a simple, one-story log cabin, the oldest structure in Maple Grove (and in all of Americana, having actually been constructed in the early 1800s near Childersburg, Alabama, then dismantled, reassembled and restored in Maple Grove). Skilled craftspeople here produce the endless supply of crocks, bowls, cups, mugs, pitchers and many other pottery products needed in a small town like Maple Grove in 1900. Hand-painted decorations and glazes are applied by skilled artists, and the pottery is fired in on-site kilns (located behind the cabin in a fireproof brick structure, also open to visitors to allow them to witness the entire process of pottery creation from the raw, wet clay to the final firing).​

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Much of the pottery is designed and decorated in styles replicating or inspired by historic pieces found in some of the major American historical and folklore museums. As in all of the other craft shops in Maple Grove, visitors can commission special pieces from personalized crocks to complete dining sets in a variety of colors and glazes.

The structure to the right of the log cabin, the Opperman Woodworking Shop, is a simple one-story craft shop with vertical board-and-batten siding. Inside visitors can find trained woodworkers and their apprentices creating hand-crafted furniture and other useful objects from such fine woods as oak, cherry and walnut. These skilled artists use period-appropriate tools and techniques to create beautiful tables, chairs and decorative accents. The furniture crafted here is not the ornate, elaborately-carved furniture often associated with the “Victorian Era,” but is inspired by the plain, simple and sturdy designs that would be found in the farmhouses and working-class homes of America in 1900. The designs may be simple, but the craftsmanship of the furniture created here is first-class. Specially-commissioned pieces can be ordered.​

Next to and behind the Opperman Shop is the lumber yard, where the finest hardwoods are prepared to be used in the manufacture of the Opperman Shop furniture. These huge slabs of wood are sawn into more manageable sizes, aged and treated, and prepared for the craftspeople inside to use. Every tree used in the manufacture of furniture in the Opperman Shop is replaced with one hundred others, newly-planted in reforestation projects in Americana Park or in donations to the National Park Service.

 

[James G.]

The Pioneer Milling Company

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A path leads from the southwest corner of Maple Grove to a tall wooden structure with an undershot water wheel being turned by the mill stream flowing beside it. This is the Pioneer Milling Company, an operating grist mill originally constructed in 1874, once abandoned but now moved and carefully reconstructed and restored on the edge of Maple Grove. The huge millstones inside the mill grind wheat, oats and corn into flour and meal for use in many of the restaurants of Americana 1900, and for sale to park visitors in Elliott and Sons' General Store. Much of this has been grown in the hundreds of acres of cropland cultivated by Americana 1900 as part of the Morrison Farm Tours program and the associated American Heritage Crops project, which reintroduces heirloom grains back into American agriculture.

Visitors to the Pioneer Mill can watch the massive stones grind the grains into different forms of flour, from coarse to fine, and see the complicated machinery required to run this vital part of America’s history.​

 

[D Hulk]

James, my friend, I say this with as little hyperbole as possible…

If Americana 1900 were to be built, it would be a genuine contender for Best Theme Park in the World.

No joke. While I’ve yet to visit Silver Dollar City - itself a frequent Top Ten Park whenever you find fandoms which aren’t wholly monogamous to the Mouse - your combination of living history, immersive-yet-realistic placemaking, and the high-caliber attractions which are to come, all that makes Americana 1900 feel like an even better version of SDC. From Maple Grove alone, it’s clear you’ve also designed a park which could wholly satisfy guests without even a single ride. It’s always a joy to wake up to your latest slice of Americana. Kudos!

 

[James G.]

James, my friend, I say this with as little hyperbole as possible…

If Americana 1900 were to be built, it would be a genuine contender for Best Theme Park in the World.

No joke. While I’ve yet to visit Silver Dollar City - itself a frequent Top Ten Park whenever you find fandoms which aren’t wholly monogamous to the Mouse - your combination of living history, immersive-yet-realistic placemaking, and the high-caliber attractions which are to come, all that makes Americana 1900 feel like an even better version of SDC. From Maple Grove alone, it’s clear you’ve also designed a park which could wholly satisfy guests without even a single ride. It’s always a joy to wake up to your latest slice of Americana. Kudos!

Coming from the designer of DisneySky, the best theme park presentation I have ever read, your words are truly humbling. Now I'm anxious to see the reaction to the rest of the Townships in Americana 1900- and we're still not done with Maple Grove!

 

[spacemt354]

I really appreciate how most of the reference photos seamlessly match the artwork in the map - adds to the realism of the whole thing!

 

[James G.]

Gulf Coast and Santa Fe Railroad

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Wide wooden staircases and accessibility ramps lead guests up to the Maple Grove Station of the GC&SF Railroad, a solid brick passenger station with a ticket window (for display purposes only- all rides on the Gulf Coast and Santa Fe Railroad are free to park visitors), wooden benches for passengers to sit upon while waiting for the next train to arrive, and a plethora of clocks on the walls, showing the time in major cities throughout the nation. Passengers may wait here, or can pass through and onto the covered brick platform running parallel to the train tracks. A tin roof supported by cast-iron columns provides shade for passengers as they wait for the next passenger train to arrive.​

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The GC&SF Railroad is one of only a few theme park railroads that operate coal-burning steam locomotives, and is the only one to use the standard American railroad gauge of four feet, eight-point-five inches (all others use a more narrow gauge). Five engines are available for use by the railroad: the Northwest Territory, the Gadsden Purchase, the Red River Basin, the Louisiana Purchase and Seward’s Folly. All of the locomotives are identical in design and construction, but are unique in their ornamentation and details. They use the standard 4-4-0 wheel configuration, which was popular from the 1860s until well into the twentieth century. Normally, three engines are in use on the four-mile-long railroad line, with one engine on stand-by if needed and the fifth undergoing maintenance.​

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Each train on the Gulf Coast and Santa Fe line consists of the engine and coal car, three fully-enclosed coach passenger cars with rows of seats separated by a central aisle, an open-air “cattle car” with more rustic seating for passengers, and a caboose, specially fitted with ramp access to allow guests in wheelchairs and mobility scooters to board the train and enjoy the experience and sights without having to transfer. A Special Events caboose is occasionally added to a train, but there is always at least one ADA-accessible caboose in service at all times.​

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Each enclosed coach car has a conductor on board who presents an oral description of the sights that passengers will be passing on their journey between the three stations in Americana 1900. The rail line takes visitors through parts of the Americana Park that they would not be able to see in any other way- past the base of the Great Pacific Northwest Scenic Railway, through the haunted wilderness where Vulture soars and dives, under the entrance to the Theodore Roosevelt Hotel via an underground railroad tunnel, and even past the ruins of an actual Alabama town, Attica, a small hamlet destroyed during the Civil War and only rediscovered during the creation and construction of Americana Park. Passengers are welcome to board and disembark at any of the railroad’s three unique stations- Maple Grove, The Pike and Courthouse Square/Green Springs.
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The Gulf Coast and Santa Fe Railroad at Americana 1900 is not just a means of transportation- it’s a trip back in time.

 

[James G.]

Town and Country Carriage Rides

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This simple one-story square brick building with a cupola roof, proudly displaying the 45-star American flag of 1900 and once a storage shed for carriages, is now the ticket booth for Town and Country Carriage Rides. Here guests can arrange for a variety of horse-drawn carriage rides and experiences through Americana 1900. These hour-long tours take guests through six of the park’s Townships (Keystone Studios and Green Springs are not included, as horse-drawn carriages would be incongruous to their particular historic era atmosphere), and are conducted by knowledgeable drivers who serve as tour guides while keeping passengers entertained with fun facts and trivia about the park.

There is an extra charge for these private carriage rides, based on the number of passengers and any special amenities or packages requested (prices subject to change). ($5 discount/passenger with Heritage Pass)​

Tea for Two- A two-person Hansom cab, a two-wheeled vehicle with a retractable awning roof and pulled by a single horse with the driver sitting above and behind the passengers. $60 for two passengers.

Family Excursion- A four-to-six person, four-wheeled open-air carriage with the driver sitting in front of the passengers. $80 for four passengers, $20 for extra adult passengers, $15 for extra passengers under the age of ten.

Westward Ho!- A rustic open-air freight wagon has four rows of double, forward-facing seats, and is capable of carrying up to eight passengers. $18/person, minimum of six passengers/tour.

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Special packages and tours are available, such as “The Gardens of Americana”, “The Architecture of Americana”, and “The Romance of Americana.” “Picnic in the Park,” where passengers are provided with special picnic meals in one of Americana 1900’s many gardens and picturesque locations, are especially popular for marriage proposals. Twenty-four-hour advanced notification is required for special tours.​

Reservations for carriage rides can be made in advance on the Americana 1900 website, by concierge at one of the resort hotels, or in person, all based on availability and weather conditions.

Morrison Covered Bridge

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Not an attraction, not a ride or a craft shop, the Morrison Covered Bridge is a tribute to a concept that was vital to the development of America’s transportation system in the earliest days of the nation. Many bridges, especially rural bridges over waterways and deep valleys, were constructed of wood, and wood was susceptible to the ravages of the environment. Rain, snow and the beating of the sun’s rays all led to the deterioration of the wooden surface of these bridges. To prevent this, or at least delay it, the concept of covered bridges was devised. Wooden structures, sometimes just roofs while other times with solid- or -semisolid walls, protected the wooden planks of the bridges’ surface from the elements, and kept them usable for much longer with less maintenance needed. The Morrison Covered Bridge crosses the mill stream leading from Century Plaza towards the Pioneer Milling Company grist mill nearby, and with its open sides offers visitors beautiful vistas of Americana 1900 from both sides of the bridge. Originally, many of these bridges were toll bridges, to help pay for their upkeep in the days before the local government took over this responsibility, but the Morrison Covered Bridge only charges tolls in spirit- and for the fish food that is available to feed the hungry fish that congregate near the bridge, hoping for a snack from the many visitors that stop and enjoy the experience of crossing one of Americana’s most historic features- a covered bridge.​

 

[James G.]

Bud Havoc’s Leather Goods and Saddlery Shop

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The first shop on the west side of Maple Grove, a gray shed-like structure constructed from stones cleared from surrounding fields, and with an aroma best described as a cross between musk and saddle soap, houses Bud Havoc’s Leather Goods and Saddlery Shop, where leather goods are handcrafted using techniques handed down for centuries. Bridles, saddles, horse feed bags and other items needed for the care of the animals that call Americana 1900 home are crafted here from the finest quality leather. Other leather goods such as buckets, leather mugs and even boots and shoes are crafted here. Leather purses, wallets and belts created here are available for purchase in Elliott and Sons’ General Store, along with leather care products such as mink oil and saddle soap.​

P. DeGroot’s Blacksmith and Farrier Shop

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Walking down a path past a corral brings visitors to a frame building connected to the large brick livery stable beside it, where a small, steady trail of smoke escapes from a huge stone chimney. The acrid odor of burning coal and the much more welcoming smell of freshly washed and groomed horses shows that this is the location of P. DeGroot’s Blacksmith and Farrier Shop. Here blacksmiths create horseshoes, nails and household goods from wrought iron and steel, and where a farrier keeps the hard-working horses that pull Americana’s carriages, trolley cars and wagons properly shoed.​

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While many visitors are familiar with the craft of the blacksmith, even if only slightly, many more are unfamiliar with the job of the farrier. Here in the corral, which is connected with both the livery stable and the rest of the extensive equine care facilities of Americana 1900, the village farrier cares for the horses' hooves, cleaning them, trimming them and affixing the hand-crafted shoes that make their workday much more comfortable. The farrier, along with the blacksmith, the leatherworker and other animal care experts, combine their talents to keep the dozens of horses that are a part of the Americana 1900 family in top physical condition.​

John C. Howard Livery Stable

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This solid, rather imposing brick structure, the largest building in Maple Grove, is entered either from the attached blacksmith shop or directly from the town square. Here the horses, wagons, carriages and trolleys that comprise such an important part of Americana 1900’s transportation system are housed and maintained. A large corral located adjacent to the livery stable is where the final preparations are made for the horses and their vehicles to begin their workday. Further corrals, pastures and stables, not open to the general public, are located behind the main stable, to give the horses some rest away from the crowds of Americana 1900.​

Note: The original John C. Howard Stable, located on G Street between 6th and 7th in Washington D.C., is believed to be the location where John Wilkes Booth either kept his horse or rented one on the night that he assassinated Abraham Lincoln, and where Booth’s co-conspirator John H. Surratt is known to have kept horses. This reconstruction was built not for that reason, but for the voluminous historical and architectural information available about the original structure, which rather incongruously also housed the Howard Restaurant. This restaurant was omitted from the reconstruction.

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[James G.]

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It is important to note that all animals at Americana 1900 are cared for under the supervision of veterinarians and highly-experienced experts in animal care. Adequate rest, careful diet and sanitary conditions make the horses housed and employed at Americana 1900 some of the best cared-for work animals at any such facility in America. The Alabama Department of Agriculture and the Alabama Equine Enthusiasts (a division of the Alabama Farmers Federation) all make regular inspections of the horses and their facilities, to ensure that the horses are cared for at the highest standards possible.​

A sanitation crew is always on duty to clean up after the horses that are such an important addition to the historic ambiance of the entire park. While each horse working in the park is fitted with a bag to catch their manure (sometimes called a “bun bag”), there are occasionally spills, and these clean-up crews work to clean up any spillage and prevent visitors from accidentally stepping in any “history”.​

 

[Suchomimus]

Five engines are available for use by the railroad: the Northwest Territory, the Gadsden Purchase, the Red River Basin, the Louisiana Purchase and Seward’s Folly. All of the locomotives are identical in design and construction, but are unique in their ornamentation and details.

What liveries comes with the engines?
Unrelated to this is that the "coal cars" are just called tenders, even if there’s just coal in them and the locomotives were to have all their water in tanks.

 

[James G.]

What liveries comes with the engines?
Unrelated to this is that the "coal cars" are just called tenders, even if there’s just coal in them and the locomotives were to have all their water in tanks.

I was unaware that the paint scheme on a locomotive is referred to as its livery. I didn't learn that while doing my research. Thank you for sharing that. I didn't decide on the livery for the GC&SF Railroad locomotives.

The names "tender" and "coal car" (or "coal-car" (I've seen it spelled both ways)) are interchangeable. I did learn- but didn't feel it was necessary to include in this presentation- that tenders often carried both coal and water for the steam engine, and that they were often semi-permanently attached to the engine to allow water to be transferred to the engine, thus increasing the distance they could travel without refueling. As with much in this world, there is rarely a hard and fast rule about anything.

 

[spacemt354]

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A sanitation crew is always on duty to clean up after the horses that are such an important addition to the historic ambiance of the entire park. While each horse working in the park is fitted with a bag to catch their manure (sometimes called a “bun bag”), there are occasionally spills, and these clean-up crews work to clean up any spillage and prevent visitors from accidentally stepping in any “history”.​

@b-wolf95 and @Honey Bee (Rebooted) for you both lol

I've heard of trashcan descriptions - but a detailed description of the sanitation crew is just next level

 

[Chaos Cat]

@b-wolf95 and @Honey Bee (Rebooted) for you both lol

I've heard of trashcan descriptions - but a detailed description of the sanitation crew is just next level

Okay, so I forgot I'd made a joke earlier in the thread about trashcans, so for a second, I was very worried about what you thought my "private pleasures" were.

 

[Suchomimus]

The names "tender" and "coal car" (or "coal-car" (I've seen it spelled both ways)) are interchangeable. I did learn- but didn't feel it was necessary to include in this presentation- that tenders often carried both coal and water for the steam engine, and that they were often semi-permanently attached to the engine to allow water to be transferred to the engine, thus increasing the distance they could travel without refueling. As with much in this world, there is rarely a hard and fast rule about anything.

Even when it’s not about the park, you’re taking the entertainment aspect to heart including with synonyms. Tenderly, one might say.

 

[James G.]

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Maple Grove is a community that takes great pride in itself, and it’s the little things that make it extra special for the visitors who both pass through it on their way to explore the other Townships of Americana 1900, and to those who stop and discover the simple joys of rural America and the crafts that make all the other Townships in Americana possible. The fences, be they the rustic split-rail fencing that surrounds the horse corrals or the neatly-painted white picket fences around Miss Emma’s Sweet Shop or Dr. Smith’s home and garden, are always well-cared-for and appropriate for the structures they surround. ​

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The cobble-stone surface of the streets has been worn smooth from the many decades of horse hooves and wagons rolling across them, so that even though the individual stones can be seen, the surface is comfortably smooth for man and beast to traverse. Streetlamps stand at regular intervals along the perimeter of the village and the Village Green, casting a warm glow across the town every evening. Every shop and store is lit in the evening with candles (electric for modern safety concerns) and lanterns, and any extra modern lighting needed has been carefully concealed to be as unobtrusive as possible while taking all safety issues into consideration.​

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Drinking fountains are located in several convenient spots around the Village Green, and appear to be either adapted from hand-pumped wells or can actually be pumped to draw the water for drinking (this is only in appearance, as all water is, of course, potable and from properly-treated water facilities). ​

Wooden barrels, labeled for waste and recycling, are conveniently located throughout the village.

Many of the Township’s benches for relaxing (and for munching on some of Mr. Gurnock’s cookies or Miss Emma’s candies) are reused and reconditioned wagon benches, with smooth wooden seating and backs, and frames of cast iron.

Maple Grove, for all its emphasis on historical accuracy and reenactment, is not a museum. It, like all the Townships of Americana 1900, is a living village of that era, a village that invites visitors to both journey back in time and to begin their other journeys of discovery into the rest of…

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Americana 1900 spreads out to the south of Maple Grove like an elegant fan. Three roads lead visitors deeper into the park from the south end of Maple Grove. Pike Road begins at the southeast corner of the Township, and guides visitors directly to The Pike, with side roads branching towards State Fair and Keystone Studios. North Maple Grove Road starts in the center of the south side of Maple Grove, between Dr. Q.B. Smith’s home and medical office and the J&R Pottery Shop, and heads south through Century Plaza (the physical heart of the park) to Courthouse Square. The southwest corner of Maple Grove marks the beginning of Morrison Road, where the covered bridge guides visitors to Morrison Farm and Green Springs.​

 

[James G.]

Since we’ve already visited the Morrison Road Covered Bridge, let’s continue down this country lane, pass through the covered bridge, perhaps throw some food to the fish or the ducks that tend to hang around the placid pond that feeds the mill stream and which powers the nearby Pioneer Mill, and discover where much of the food served in the restaurants of Americana 1900 is grown and raised.
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Roll up your sleeves, pull on your boots and let’s get the “back forty” plowed. We're headin' to Morrison Farm!

 

[Disney Warrior]

Wooden barrels, labeled for waste and recycling, are conveniently located throughout the village.

Yes! Trash cans! (that sounds very sus lol)

 

[Knight2000]

Is that lamplighter Lin Manuel Mirandas great Grandfather?

 

[The Excavator]

This is a masterclass in creative writing.