As soon as i knew we were going to be close to Missouri, I started planning a side trip to Marceline. For those who don't know me, I am a big fan of Walt Disney, and Marceline is Walt Disney's hometown, the inspiration behind Main Street at Disneyland and the other Disney theme parks. Main Street is one of my favorite areas at Walt Disney World; the sounds, the smells, the details of a small town from the early 1900s.
When we first drove into downtown Marceline, there wasn't a "Wow, I can totally see this!" reaction. But once we got out of the car and walked the few blocks of Main Street Marceline, we could see where Walt got his inspiration for the design and what to include! If you go thinking you'll find a replica, you won't. What you will find, though, are buildings with character, and people with character. As we've been doing, we took time to talk with local residents and shopkeepers about life in Marceline, and we found that the folks like living there - several we talked to had left but came back to raise their families; after having gone out to "see the big city", they decided they would rather raise their children in a small town atmosphere.
The town has several murals painted on the sides of buildings. Some of these have been here from Walt's day, like the Coke one (recently restored) while others have been added to honor the town and the man.
Marceline has a beautiful city park donated by E.P. Ripley in 1898. Mr. Ripley was the president of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (ATSF) railway at the time, and donated the land by the train tracks to the city for use as a park. The park features a few trains, a pond, and the old Midget Autopia track that you can walk a loop on and pretend you're driving one of the Midget Autopia cars from Disneyland. (Walt and Roy donated the Midget Autopia to the City of Marceline when it was decommissioned at Disneyland to make way for another attraction.)
Another prominent building in Marceline is the U.S. Post Office. This post office was named the Walt Disney Post Office in 2003. Inside are pictures of Walt as well as pictures of Disney stamps lining the walls. You can get your postcards and letters hand-cancelled during business hours. They'll still go to Kansas City and get another cancellation, but it's pretty cool to have the hand-stamp on the mail. (We've been sending ourselves postcards from along the way.)
One of my favorite buildings in Marceline was the Carnegie Library. It's still used as a public library today, and I've been following them on social media. This library has a lot of good programs for the community, and during the short time we were there, it was obvious that it is a well used library and the library staff know their patrons. They'll even come out and greet you at your car so you don't have to make it up the steps if you're dropping off material.
The library must be used to tourists coming in because they do have several Walt Disney things set up to see. One of my favorite things they have were View Masters! They have a few with Disney travel/geography reels that you can use. I remember having those as a kid, so that was a nice trip down memory lane.
We had lunch on Tuesday at a corner diner named Ma Vic's. It was a pretty popular lunch place (we weren't there to see the breakfast crowd but understand it's pretty busy then, too). We went there on the recommendation of the ladies at the Walt Disney Hometown Museum, plus we had a coupon for a free Dusty Miller dessert there. I'd never heard of a Dusty Miller, but a mom at the library had mentioned to me that we should be sure to try one and that she thought the museum would give us a ticket for one (she was right).
There aren't many lodging options in Marceline, but we stayed at the Marceline Hotel which is really more of a motel. It had been bought and redone a few years ago (during Covid) and the rooms themed to Disney. The furniture is even from Disney hotels (our room was Animal Kingdom themed). We didn't have a lot of expectation for it - but it was clean which sometimes is all that really matters. The room was dark with just one window, but when we opened the door, it let in more light which brightened things up. The way the rooms are set up, each has a front porch area where they have thoughtfully placed chairs to sit. The weather was in the 70s so it was pleasant to sit outside, and it stays light so late this time of year, that we had daylight until close to 9 PM. Our recommendation for lodging in Marceline is to check out an Air BnB or stay in another town and just drive in for the day. (When we were first looking for lodging options, I didn't find any Air BnBs, but we saw a few that have opened in the last year or so.)
Side Note: We have been leaving reviews for our lodging on TripAdvisor to hopefully help other travelers in learning about places to stay.
And here are a few other sights from downtown Marceline. I will have a separate entry about the Walt Disney Hometown Museum and other Walt-centric things, so if you want to read about that, check back soon.
We enjoyed our time in Marceline, not just for paying homage to Walt Disney and learning about his early life, but because it was a friendly place, low-key, and a place where you could just be. I won't say it's a quiet little town, though. They have over 70 trains a day pass through, so it's quite noisy! You can see how Walt developed his love for trains there.
~ Cindy D.
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