Disney World – Orlando, Florida
We started our day outside of EPCOT. From there we took the monorail to The Magic Kingdom.
This handsome Second Empire style building has a central clock tower with convex sided mansard roof. Corners of the mansard roof slightly projecting from main building. Dormers with round arch and a keystone detail are set within the roof. Decorative iron ridge cresting lines the uppermost part of the roof.
The organizing idea of The Magic Kingdom is presented in a plaque near the entry: “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.”
The main square at the entrance has strong symmetrical design.
Other areas are less symmetrical but have a consistent rhythm of two story buildings.
Another street view shows a building facing the main square just off of the entrance. Here paired slender cast iron capitols have decorated capitols on the second floor level.
The varying details of two story buildings is here. Different colors, materials, and detailing are on display. The mansard roof is a false front with no building behind it.
This handsome two-story building has a sign with the name “The Chapeau.” An oversized bracketed cornice has a smaller terminal cornice and pendants. On the first floor of the building is a loggia with spindled porch frieze. The second floor has French doors with a transom light and hoodmold. Octagonal windows are above each of the second floor doors. Finally, pilasters on the corners and between each set of doors divides the second floor into three distinct bays.
This building is an amalgam of Neoclassical and Second Empire details. The main entrance has transom and sidelights. A cantilevered rounded balcony with balustrade is overhead providing access to the second floor level. A modified Palladian window has a central entrance door and windows to either side, as well as the half-round window at the top. The corners of the entablature have decorative vases. A straight mansard roof on the building is interrupted by a squat central tower with a wall dormer over the Palladian window interrupting the roof line. Decorative iron roof cresting is atop the central tower.
The building to the right in the photo above has a pair of two-story bay windows. A fascia connects the two bays between the first and second floor levels, with a raking cornice over the entrance. On the first and second floor level are round arched windows in the bays. The center of the building on the second floor has a round arched window filling the second floor wall area between the bay windows. Finally, a raking cornice sits atop the building with molded panels below including one in a hexagon shape in the middle.
This building has an elaborately molded two story portico on slender clustered piers. On the first floor level beneath the portico is an arcaded loggia with raked cornice and balustrade. A mansard roof on the central tower has a pair of round arched windows. The walls on the ground floor level are filled almost entirely with windows.
“Main St Cinema” is in a building with Italianate details. The bracketed cornice is elaborately molded with diamond molding set within a molded border. The second floor windows are segmental with a window hood and surround. A rigid canopy and marquee projects over the entrance. On the ground floor are display windows that frame a recessed entrance.
Yet more Second Empire buildings with corner octagonal towers. The “Keepsakes” and “Toys” store to the left has a flat sided mansard roof with raking cornices. While the “Disney Clothiers” has an octagonal tower with concave roof.
The “Crystal Arts” building has a slightly projecting entrance pediment with recessed columns. The columns are reflected in pilasters dividing windows on the second floor level. Finally, a bracketed cornice is beneath a hipped roof. Rising from the hipped roof in the center of the building is a mansard dormer with a round arch window set within it, and a broken pediment overhead. Round arch dormers rise from the hipped roof to either side. Curved awnings are above windows on the second floor level. On the ground floor are close ended angular awnings to either side.
“Main Street Fashion and Apparel” is a two story building with elaborately molded central section rising above the cornice. A rigid cantilevered canopy extends above the entrance between the first and second floor. Above the second floor level is raking cornice over the central section that is slightly projecting from either side.
Snow White’s castle is at the center of the Magic Kingdom. The castle is a cacophany of towers with varied roofs and molding. The highest reaching tower is molded in Gothic tracery and has a golden spire.
While we do not have a good head on photo of it, the building to the left with wall dormers rising through the Mansard roof has a distinctive Dutch gable dormer.
One last building is the “Chamber of Commerce.” This blends together details from many other buildings including the entrance portico and porch. The raking cornice above the first floor is broken as it rises to the level of the balustrade, so as to not overtop it. Engaged columns on the second floor separate windows. There is also a raked cornice above the second floor level to give added clearance for the large round arched window in the center. Decorative window frames have stylized leaves of alternating pattern, set within the mullions.