Tradition & Progress

The story of Main Street, U.S.A. is a story of progress. It's set in a time in America during the early-1900s when there was tremendous excitement about the future, and new technological innovations were propelling people into that future faster than ever before.

On Main Street, traditional horse-drawn transportation operates side-by-side with modern horseless carriages. Automobiles became commercially available in the 1890s, and Oldsmobile introduced affordable production-line models starting in 1902. The vehicles seen on Main Street are replicas, resembling cars from 1903 and 1915.

Gas street lamps are still in use around the Town Square and up Main Street, but electric lighting is definitely coming into vogue. The electric light bulb, made available starting in the 1870s, became the first widely-adopted public use of electricity. At the St. Louis Expo of 1904, electric lights were used extensively for illumination and decoration, lining many of the pavilions just as they line the buildings along Main Street, U.S.A.

Even the entertainment in town is newfangled, with the Main Street Cinema. Purpose-built movie houses started appearing in the first decade of the 20th century, primarily as nickelodeons showcasing an ever-changing menu of silent short films. When the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the Cinema featured silent classics. These were replaced with Mickey Mouse cartoons (not silent, just portrayed that way... except for Steamboat Willie), all in honor of Mickey's 50th birthday in 1978.

The Cinema was transformed into retail space in the late-90s, but still maintains its facade as a part of the story of Main Street.

Moving pictures, electric lights and horseless carriages are great, but nothing beats the tradition of dancing in the street to the tunes of the Main Street Philharmonic. As much as the citizens of the town are happy to embrace the future, they're also quite content to keep one foot in their past.