Shop Full o' Details

Head inside Osh Popham's Main Street Emporium, and you'll discover a wealth of Victorian-era design. Every detail, from the sconces and furnishings to the columns and fine filigree work on the ceiling, tells the story of the finest department store in town.

It's especially fun to see how period display pieces have been utilized to showcase the decidedly-modern merchandise that's actually on offer. Setups like the gold frames with turn-of-the-century photographs (above a selection of Disney frames) and the Vinylmation figures stacked inside candy jars, are all the work of the park's Visual Presentation team.

The Imagineering Architects and Interior Designers who worked on the Emporium also did their part to set the stage. Details like doorknobs and velour wallpaper may blend into the background, but they're important elements in creating a sense of place and a feeling of quality.

Then there are those details so full of story, you may not even realize it. Take these brass chandeliers, for example. The town of Main Street, U.S.A. exists at a crossroads in time. It's a period when progress is being made, but the old and new can often still be found side-by-side. The upward-pointing fixtures on the chandelier are traditional gas-burning lamps. You can even spot the little key at the bottom of each arm used to turn on the gas for lighting. These chandeliers have been retrofit, though, with modern electric lights. They're the fixtures that point down.

So why have both? At this point in history, electric lighting was relatively new. Insistent on being the finest shop in town, the Emporium simply had to have electricity. Since it was new, though, it wasn't the most reliable. Maintaining a gas backup ensured the shop could remain open, even in the event of an outage.