Who Lives in Liberty Square?

In reality, Liberty Square is comprised of a handful of rather large buildings: the Hall of Presidents theater, Liberty Tree Tavern, Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe, Columbia Harbour House, Haunted Mansion. Structures of this size, while necessary for a theme park, would dominate the area and look completely out of place for the period.

Disney's Imagineers solve this problem by breaking up the buildings' facades and creating the appearance of a whole community of structures grouped together. In the case of Liberty Square, the facades give the impression of numerous homes and businesses. Notice how props, details and architectural elements are different from one to the next, helping tell the individual stories of the people who "live" here.

There are front porches and stoops, storm cellars and flower boxes (with red, white and blue flowers, of course!). One family has a kettle ready to mix a stew. Still another has just made some bricks of lye soap and set them out to dry.

This home front, around the corner from the entrance to the Hall of Presidents, is one of my favorites. One can almost imagine the father of the house arriving here from a long day, stopping to scrape the dirt from his boots before entering:

Having cleaned his soles from the unpaved streets of the town, he strides through the front door and into the waiting arms of his young daughter, the girl who placed this doll in the window to watch for her daddy's return. He holds her tightly, thinking about the storm of war on the horizon and the hope of a new nation in which she might grow up and be happy.