For two days, lines stretched around the block as hundreds of visitors waited to enter the small cottage of an 1893 World’s Fair worker. Perhaps they came because his son, Walt Disney, was born in this home at 2156 N. Tripp Avenue in Chicago.
Long lines of visitors stretched around the block to get into the newly opened Walt Disney Birthplace Home on October 14-15, 2023.
The Walt Disney Birthplace Home opened to the public for the first time during Open House Chicago on October 14-15, 2023. Walt’s father, Elias Disney built the modest house and moved his family here in early 1893. The promise of the upcoming World’s Fair had pulled Elias to Chicago in 1890. A carpenter by trade, he stablished himself in the booming construction business of the rapidly growing city. Soon after arriving, Elias worked on projects for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, although the exact nature of his work on the fairgrounds is not recorded.
Elias Disney purchased property on Tripp Avenue on October 31, 1891. On November 23, 1892, he obtained a building permit to build a two-story, eighteen-by-twenty-eight-foot wood cottage on the 12-by-125 corner lot. The house, now surrounded by the residential neighborhood of Hermosa, was typical of workers’ cottages built in that era. Elias, his wife Flora, and their two children, Herbert and Raymond, moved into the home in early 1893. Roy Disney was born here on June 24, 1893, and Walter Elias Disney was born in a second-floor bedroom on December 5, 1901. The Disney family lived here until 1906, when they moved to Marceline, Missouri.
A transom window over the front door reminds visitors of the famous family that built and lived in this home around the time of the 1893 World’s Fair.
Although the house now has a raised foundation and western addition, the original structure remains intact and is undergoing careful restoration and renovation. Learning that the historic house had fallen into disrepair, Dina Benadon and Brent Young purchased it in 2013.
The Walt Disney Birthplace Home currently is only open for special occasions, but its sponsoring organizations hosts several neighborhood events throughout the year. Ambitious plans to develop the interior space as a museum sound promising. Although our tour did not include discussion of Elias’ carpentry trade at the Fair, the pop-up gift shop sold a lovely pin featuring the Disney house in front of the Ferris Wheel. More information about the Walt Disney Birthplace can be found at https://www.thewaltdisneybirthplace.org/.
A pin sold at the pop-up gift shop features the Disney house in front of the Ferris Wheel with “W.D.B 1893”.
While the legacy of Walt Disney and the entertainment empire he built is certainly the main draw, but Columbian Exposition enthusiasts may also find this site an interesting window into one of the countless and relatively unknown workers who helped build the 1893 World’s Fair.
