Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Weathervane Wednesday - More from the Magic Kingdom!

Last week I featured seven weathervanes from inside Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom park at Disneyworld in Florida.  This week's post has seven more weathervanes we found at the Magic Kingdom, from Main Street to Liberty Square.



Even if you have never been to Disneyworld, you might guess that this weathervane was found on the Haunted Mansion ride.  In fact, we found there were THREE weathervanes in the area of this building (see below).  Perhaps the Disney imagineers think that weathervanes are only found in spooky places? This first weathervane is on the mansion itself, and is a two-dimensional bat (of course) with a large arrow.

 

This weathervane is right next to the Haunted Mansion. It is above a cupola over the Haunted House gift shop, with the creative name "Memento Mori".  As a New England genealogist, I frequently see this Latin epitaph carved into 17th century tombstones.  The translation is "Remember Death".  There is no creative figure above the arrow on this weathervane.  I was imagining that the Disney corporation vetoed a few ideas from the imagineers such as skulls, ghosts or maybe even a coffin or tombstone. 

 


In front of the Haunted Mansion is a carriage shed with a horse weathervane.  Horses are popular weathervanes for barns and carriage houses.  This little building is used to store wheelchairs and scooters for the handicapped patrons.  I only noticed it because I was using a scooter, too, and a kind staff member let me charge up my scooter here in the carriage house while we took a ride inside the haunted house.  I'm sure that most patrons walk right by this little building and never even notice it, or the weathervane! 



Right inside the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, before you start walking down Main Street, USA, is the "fire station".  This building has an upstairs secret apartment for Walt Disney.  Downstairs used to store an antique fire pumper, but it is now an art gallery.  This weathervane is a simple arrow. 



This banner style weathervane is the type usually seen on 18th century buildings in New England. It is very appropriate that it is located above the Federal style building in Liberty Square that houses the attraction called "The Hall of Presidents".  This is one of my favorite attractions, and this weathervane can be seen from quite a distance around this part of the Magic Kingdom.  This banner has some cutwork on it, and it was very popular with birds since it was one of the highest points in the park other than Cinderella's castle or Space Mountain.



This traditional rooster weathervane is above the Liberty Tree Tavern restaurant.  Such a traditional weathervane is fitting above a traditional colonial style building.  So far, none of the weathervanes seen in the Magic Kingdom (including most of those from last week) are especially creative or unusual, which is surprising to me since Disney imagineers have come up with such interesting designs for other parts of the parks.  






Here is another very traditional weathervane.  I suspect that the Disney imagineers wanted traditional styles in Liberty Square to reflect the historical nostalgia of their theme.  This one is more detailed than most of the Disney weathervanes, with a three dimensional sailboat complete with rigging and even little flags on the tops of the masts. It is located above a very traditional cupola over the Riverboat Landing.  This is where passengers embark and disembark the old fashioned Mississippi style river boat The Liberty Belle for a half mile excursion around Tom Sawyer's Island. 





Click this link to see the entire Weathervane Wednesday series of over 400 weathervanes:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/Weathervane%20Wednesday 


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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday - More from the Magic Kingdom!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 10, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/04/weathervane-wednesday-more-from-magic.html: accessed [access date]). 

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