Living at Disneyland might seem like a dream for some Disney fanatics but alas, apart from the fact that it would be fairly expensive, it’s also impossible. However, in the past, one couple, Owen and Dolly Pope, actually managed to live on the Disneyland premises for 16 years without any visitors ever noticing.
In 1950 in Anaheim, California, Walt Disney was working on what was to become one of his biggest projects, the opening of the first-ever Disneyland theme park. As is to be expected, Disney surrounded himself with a team of capable employees to make sure everything went according to plan and one of them, Disney Imagineer Harper Golf, attended a horse show by Owen and Dolly Pope at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles. As he was impressed by their craftsmanship, he suggested Disney go and see the show for himself.
After having done so, Walt Disney asked for a meeting with the couple for “a project he was working on”, which turned out to be Disneyland. More specifically, he wanted to integrate small ponies and other animals and everything that came with them in the theme park. The couple accepted his offer and moved into the Walt Disney Studio in Burbank in 1951, in order to be next-door to set up everything for the animals and to take care of them.
As the opening of the park was approaching, the couple was asked to actually move to the Disneyland premises to be even closer to the ponies. They got to pick a prefabricated Disney house of their choosing and eventually went for a 176 square metres ranch known as the Witherill Bungalow to which they moved three days before the opening of the park. It was located just behind the Pony Farm and even though they would live there until 1971, when they moved to Florida, no visitors ever noticed the house was being lived in.
Nowadays, the Pony Farm no longer exists and the Pope’s house can’t be found anywhere in the park. However, it sits in the backstage area and is sometimes used for events. Owen and Dolly Pope would become one of the first employees to retire from Disneyland in 1971 and according to SFGate, Owen Pope still has an honorary window on Main Street U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom.
