Side Trips Down Side Streets

Main Street, U.S.A., may be the name of the land, but it's certainly not the only street in this town, especially in the French version. Various side streets intersect with Main and offer fascinating discoveries for those willing to explore.

Heading east from the center of Main is Flower Street, its name inspired not only by the beautiful horticulture on display but also by the address of Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters in Glendale, California. WDI is situated at 1401 Flower St. Here, 1401 Flower is the site of Walt's: An American Restaurant.

Bisecting Main St. near the Central Plaza is Edison Avenue, appropriate as this is the path one might take toward Discoveryland. Edison Ave. also passes by several façades which are part of the story of Main Street, if not actual places we can visit: All-American Sporting Goods, the Music Hall, Crystal Ice Co. and Main St. Savings & Loan.

Perhaps the most elaborate and detailed of the side streets, though, is Market Street. Turning west from Main St., Market Street is a residential section of town, albeit one where citizens have opened businesses in their homes. Listen up, and you may hear some of the people going about their daily lives or taking piano lessons.

There are inviting porches and colorful awning all along Market St. If you're looking for a place to stay, there's a vacancy at Beulah's Boarding House. Beulah was the name of the town in the 1963 Disney film, Summer Magic. Other names appear on the guest list of the boarding house at 1221B Market St., including one Doc Sherwood, a gentleman from Marceline who was the first to compensate a young Walt Disney for one of his drawings.

Further around the corner is the entrance to the Main St. Marketplace farmers' market and a Chinese Laundry, Mr. "Lucky" Tailor Shop, featuring a mah-jongg parlor upstairs.

There's one other upstairs business in this corner of town, and it's a bit of an homage to an early tenant on Disneyland's Main St., the Intimate Apparel Shop. Here, it's Cinch's Corsets, promising "Fashionable Styles," "Proper Support" and "Genuine Whalebone Stays." They may not be the "Wizard of Bras," but Cinch's seems to carry just what today's girl might be looking for!