Walt Disney was always fascinated with American History. Walt did his best to sprinkle bits of Americana throughout his Disneyland park, with Main Street and Frontierland showcasing various stages of America in it's development. It's also well known that he greatly admired President Lincoln, and was responsible for having his Imagineers create the first Audio-Animatronic Abraham Lincoln. This figure debuted to stellar reception at the 1964 New York's World Fair, and would later help to solidify Disney's future lifelike animatronic work within attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. Believe it or not though, Disney had larger plans for Disneyland prior to the development of the Lincoln project.



He originally wanted an additional street to run between Main Street and Tomorrowland, which would have been called International Street. This street was actually a small precursor to today's World Showcase at Epcot. In it you would have found yourself venturing amidst international architecture and eating foods from around the world. Plans to debut International Street were eventually set aside as the park opening neared so that Walt could focus on making sure Tomorrowland was ready to open (which still mainly consisted of half completed exhibits). There was even a banner up for the first year and a half promising that International Street would open in 1957. When the idea became too expansive, Walt decided it would be out of place on Main Street and instead would be better suited elsewhere inside the park (though it was never built).



Walt's next idea was to replace the concept of International Street and split it in half. These two new sections would have a focus on Americana, which fits Main Street's turn of the century feel perfectly. The first addition would have been Liberty Street. This area was to run halfway behind the length of Main Street buildings that are on the right side as you walk towards the castle. Inspired by the days of colonial America, Liberty Street would have included Paul Revere's Shop, a wharf complete with a docked colonial barge, a diorama on the Declaration of Independence, a recreation of the Libery Tree that stood in Boston, and the main attraction: The Hall of Presidents. The second area, a cul-de-sac known as Edison Square, was also planned to exist behind where the Corn Dog Truck sits near the end of Main Street today. This area was to have focused more on the dawning of the electrical age - and would instead find itself incorporated into several exhibits throughout Tomorrowland.









The Hall of Presidents (or One Nation Under God, as Walt referred to it) was an ambitious project in itself, but no project was too ambitious for Walt Disney. He envisioned a giant hall with wax figures of every President throughout American history. While Walt continued to dream, wax figures made way for possibilities of Presidents in animatronic form. What's more, he wanted each of them to showcase their personalities through their movement and speeches.



The Hall of Presidents and Liberty Street continued to get pushed back, as money was spent elsewhere and audio-animatronic technology became more viable. Years passed, and Imagineering continued to work on the ideas they had for this upcoming section of the park. Eventually Walt abandoned the project entirely. Instead, he focused on a revamped version of Tomorrowland which saw the addition of the Disneyland Monorail, the Matterhorn, and the Submarine Voyage in 1959.



Years later, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was so successful that it became a permanent show within the Main Street Opera House in 1965.



When Walt died in 1966, plans for Walt Disney World continued without him. As Imagineers attempted to craft an even larger version of Disneyland, they decided to not include New Orleans Square due to the real New Orleans's proximity to Florida. Instead, they looked back at design work done for Edison Square and Liberty Street, and after much revision, the outcome was Liberty Square.

(Various bits of information were gathered from around the web including Wikipedia, ImagineeringDisney.com, and http://www.mouseplanet.com/8167/The_Liberty_Street_Story_1959)