How one Colorado town inspired Disney’s Main Street U.S.A.

DENVER (KDVR) — If you’ve ever been to both Main Street U.S.A. in any of the Walt Disney Company parks and downtown Fort Collins, you might have noticed a few similarities. These aren’t entirely coincidental.

While the iconic Main Street U.S.A. in each of the parks is made to harken back to almost any turn-of-the-century main street, there were two historic inspirations, and one of them was Fort Collins.

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Fort Collins helped inspire Main Street U.S.A.

One of Main Street U.S.A.’s main designers was Harper Goff, who was born in Fort Collins.

The Fort Collins History Connection dug into the story and found that Goff had photos of Fort Collins taken to show to Walt Disney when he was working on the park.

Goff said in an interview that the city hall and bank in Disneyland were copied from Fort Collins, along with a few others.

Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri, also served as inspiration for the street.

The first Main Street U.S.A. to open was at Disneyland in Anaheim. Since then, the same concept has been used in several other parks across the world.

Old Town Square one of the best nationwide

With this sort of notoriety, it may come as no surprise that the Old Town Square in Fort Collins is considered one of the best in the country.

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USA Today published a list of the 10 best public squares in the country, with Fort Collins coming in at No. 4. It was originally on a shortlist curated by USA Today staff, after which the public voted to put it at the No. 4 spot.

The listing pointed out the district’s buildings, with its over 20 restored historic buildings.

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