(optional background sounds for Maple Grove)
As guests to Americana 1900 approach the main entrance to the first Township in the park, they see before them a pedestrian underpass that leads beneath a solidly-constructed wooden railroad trestle. The pavement beneath them changes subtly from the carefully-crafted historic bricks of Heritage Plaza to more rustic paving stones and a rough, gravelly surface that shows they are entering a time and place where paved streets are unknown and a heavy rain could turn the roadway into a muddy quagmire, where elevated wooden sidewalks are a necessity and where a steam locomotive is the fastest way to travel more than a few miles from your home. Of course, guests to Americana don’t have to deal with muddy streets, but as they approach this underpass and the massive, rough-hewn wooden timbers that support the tracks crossing overhead they might notice a quote burned into the timbers overhead:
“Americana 1900 is not just a place, a thing- it is an idea, a concept, a dream that has become real...the history of Americana 1900 has just begun!” ...Jonathan Cahill, Founder of Americana 1900
Located conveniently yet unobtrusively beneath the railroad’s supportive embankments flanking this underpass are restrooms servicing Maple Grove, men’s to the right (west) and women’s to the left (east). These spacious restrooms are themed with general rustic railroad accents.
As guests pass under the railroad trestle and emerge on the far side, they find themselves entering a village, a village far from the hustle and bustle of even “small-town America.” This is a rural village not far removed from the days of the first pioneers who settled the wilderness, a village of self-reliance and hard work, where the simple joys of life abound and the quieter pace of life as it used to be can be discovered and enjoyed.
The village of Maple Grove was a village that time- and Alabama- forgot. There was never much there in the first place, and the residents of Maple Grove liked it that way. Settled by devout Quakers, a deeply-religious people with even deeper pacifist beliefs, Maple Grove’s inhabitants wanted nothing to do with the approaching Civil War, or the War Between the States, or whatever the rest of the world wanted to call it. To them, war of any kind was a sin, and even worse, a waste of time. Maple Grove was spared the ravages of the war by a cunning bit of trickery- all four roads leading into the village had barricades built across them far enough away that the village itself couldn’t be seen, and large signs stating “Quarantine! Epidemic outbreak!” were prominently displayed on these barricades. For added effect, just beyond these barricades were dozens of tombstones rising from obviously freshly-dug graves that filled the roadways leading into the town, giving the appearance that Maple Grove was a death trap for anyone entering it. The approaching Union troops decided that it was easier to skirt around the town on other roads than to try and enter a town that was nothing more than a plague-ridden smudge on the map. No railroad line, no river, not even a telegraph line could be found in this unimportant backwater of a town. Nothing that seemed to be of any use to the Union troops was in Maple Grove, and it survived the devastation that left most of Northern Alabama a smoking ruin.
There was no epidemic. There was no quarantine, or plague-infected bodies hastily buried in the roads leading to the town. The graves were quickly-fabricated fakes, as were the wooden gravestones, painted to look like stone. The residents of the town decided to “play dead,” and it worked so well that it was nearly a year after the War was over that anyone decided to venture out beyond the barricades to find out what was happening in the outside world.
During the years that Maple Grove had withdrawn from the world, like the legendary Scottish village of Brigadoon, it realized that it had become completely self-sufficient. It had skilled craftspeople who could create anything they needed, nearby farmers that kept them fed, and a peaceful population that didn’t see any reason to change with the times...until two things happened. First, in 1880 the Gulf Coast & Santa Fe railroad decided to run a new rail line through northern Alabama, and that line took it directly to the north edge of Maple Grove. Second, the young people of the town did what so many young people do- they wanted to see the world. Maple Grove, like it or not, was dragged into the future. They never forgot their past, nor how they survived the war and the years after. The craftshops of the town continued to thrive, to create high-quality hand-crafted leather goods, pottery and furniture, to bake the best breads and pastries in the bakery and create mouth-watering sweets in the candy shop, and to preserve the arts and crafts of the South. Now this sleepy little town that time forgot welcomes the nation and the world to Americana 1900, to rediscover those arts and crafts that were never totally lost, just forgotten nearly everywhere- except in Maple Grove.
Maple Grove is the antithesis of what would be expected in the introductory space for a major theme park. The dramatic International Streets of Kings Island and Kings Dominion, the art-deco opulence of Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure, even the Victorian elegance and striking colors of Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World might be appropriate for a park that wants to welcome guests into a place of excitement, fantasy and imagination, but Americana 1900 is a different place, a different kind of park. Maple Grove welcomes guests to a different time, an era that moved slower, when most people knew how much horsepower was moving their means of transportation because they knew how many horses were pulling their buggy or wagon- or were underneath their saddle. The colors here are softer, the buildings are simpler in design and construction- even the sounds are different. No piped-in music blares too-loudly from carefully-hidden speakers- any music comes from the band playing in the village green bandstand, or more often the music of Maple Grove is nothing more than the rhythmic clip-clop of a horse’s hand-wrought horseshoes striking the cobblestone surface of the street. The only sound that interrupts this historic quiet is the arrival of the train at the Maple Grove Station, where the clanging of the train’s bell, the whooshing of its brakes or the tooting of its whistle reminds us that the modern technology of the nineteenth century is just now arriving in this quiet little village, its way of life barely changed since its founding date decades before the War.
The homes, shops and services of Maple Grove are laid out in the form of a large block “O”, with the beautiful tree-shaded Village Green and its central bandstand filling the center of the town. Early in the town’s history, homes and businesses filled the site of the Village Green, but a fire in 1857 spread quickly through the wooden structures and destroyed nearly everything on this site, and only the wide streets separating it from the rest of the town saved the remainder of Maple Grove from burning to the ground. The community decided not to rebuild this central area, but instead to turn it into the Village Green, with a beautiful wooden bandstand to be used for concerts, political speeches and community gatherings. The only remnants of the buildings that once stood on the site are a few foundations still visible above ground level, now used as the borders for flower beds. Unlike many small-town village greens, there is no memorial to any specific military conflict, because at a town meeting after Maple Grove was rediscovered by the outside world, it was decided to simply plant a memorial garden for all people, soldiers and civilians, who suffered from any military conflict. The Memorial Garden, surrounding the flagpoles used at the daily raising of the flags, is one of the most beautiful floral gardens in Americana.
Walk-Through of Maple Grove
Some guests upon entering Maple Grove might be enticed to veer a bit to the left, led there by their noses. The smell of fresh-baked bread, bacon frying, warm cinnamon rolls and even maple syrup and chocolate gently wafts from the east side of town, where a row of simple one-and-two story storefronts and even a converted frame home make up the “business district” of Maple Grove. The first structure, standing parallel to the railroad track, is the Harvey House Restaurant- Maple Grove. Turning south onto Maple Grove East is a row of retail merchants, the J.D. Elliott and Sons’ General Store, Millie’s Millinery and Maggie’s Unmentionables Shop, and A. Gurnock’s Bakery. Just past the alley beside the bakery is the operating craft business of Robert Niles, Printer. Approaching the southeast corner of Maple Grove, where Pike Road meets Maple Grove East, is Miss Emma’s Sweet Shop, a simple, two-story frame home surrounded by a picket fence, lots of flowers and the enticing aroma of chocolate and butterscotch. Turning onto Pike Road, but still part of Maple Grove, stands a one-story, one-room schoolhouse and playground, Clinton School.
On the south side of Maple Grove stands the stately Home and Medical Office of Dr. Q.B. Smith, with his aromatic medicinal herb garden. This also serves as one of Americana 1900’s first aid and emergency services centers, with modern first aid wagons and a completely-equipped ambulance on hand in the stable to the south of the home. Two rustic operating craft shops, the J&R Pottery Works and Opperman’s Woodworking Shop stand to the west of Dr. Smith’s office, separated from it by North Maple Grove Road (which leads to Century Plaza). Morrison Road, which leads to the Morrison Covered Bridge and Morrison Farm, meets Maple Grove West at the southwest corner of the village. Turning back north along Maple Grove West is found the entrance to the Pioneer Milling Company, an operating water-powered grist mill where much of the flour used by many of the Americana 1900 restaurants is ground from locally-grown grains.
The west side of Maple Grove could be considered the “transportation center” of both the Township and of Americana. This entire side of town, from the Pioneer Mill to the main entrance from Heritage Plaza, is the location of the craft shops, services and attractions that make transportation in and around Americana 1900 a memorable experience for all guests. The rich smells of leather from Bud Havoc’s Leather Goods and Saddlery Shop, the scent of burning coal and hot metal from P. DeGroot’s Blacksmith and Farrier Shop, and the unmistakable-yet-not-unpleasant aromas of the horses being cared for in the John C. Howard Livery Stable are a welcoming, unusual but historic contrast to the more domestic smells that dominate the east side of Maple Grove. Just north of the stable is a brick building, once a storage shed but now the location of the Town and Country Carriage Rides ticket office, where guests can reserve horse-drawn carriage and wagon rides and tours through all of Americana 1900.
The passenger station for the Gulf Coast and Santa Fe Railroad fills the northwest side of Maple Grove and completes a quick circumambulation of Maple Grove. A quick walk around this Township, though, does not do it justice. This is a time to slow down, stroll, explore the stores, craft shops and restaurants of a town that time and the twentieth century bypassed, and perhaps rediscover what our great-grandparents took for granted.
