The beauty of New Orleans Square lies in the details; every railing, every garden, and every window is ornate and precisely decorated. Everything seems to fit together perfectly…except, perhaps, for one strange waterfront detail.
If you walk along the lowest-tiered path in New Orleans Square, toward Critter Country, you’ll notice a small archway built into the wall, with a plaque marking “1764”.
This mysterious hidden gem is the 1764 Crypt, the only remaining artifact of an early concept for New Orleans Square. In the early stages of development, Imagineers envisioned a crypt-style tunnel leading from the Haunted Mansion to Tom Sawyer Island, filled with pirate treasure and ancient skeletons. The tunnel would have been a walkthrough attraction, including an arcade, saloon, and a pirate hideout.
Though the Crypt concept was eventually abandoned, many of the attraction’s elements are now part of Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. On the other side of the river, the 1764 Crypt serves as a reminder of what might have been…and of the dark secrets that lie within New Orleans Square.
The story and all the comments about the New Orleans Square 1764 keystone are wrong, but they do amuse the Imagineer who created it.
Would that be you? Haha. If so I’d love to know the story behind it – because the one shared here is all I’ve been able to find in books about the park’s history!
In 1764, French fur trading interests founded St. Louis in what was then known as the Illinois Country. The Spanish referred to St. Louis as “the city of Illinois” and governed the region from St. Louis as the “District of Illinois”.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_(New_Spain)
Walt Disney’s Riverfront Square was a planned theme park in St. Louis, Missouri that would have been the second Disney park, after Disneyland. The park was in development between 1963 and 1965.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney%27s_Riverfront_Square
The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot (192 m) monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.(..) Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States,[5] and officially dedicated to “the American people,” the Arch, commonly referred to as “The Gateway to the West” is the centerpiece of Gateway Arch National Park
“(C)onstruction began on February 12, 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965[7][8] at an overall cost of $13 million[9] (equivalent to $80.6 million in 2018[2]).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Arch
I wonder if they could create a virtual version of that to it can be experienced with vr goggles?
Of the crypt? I think that would be amazing!
So is there actually a crypt under there?
Nope! This detail is just a nod to an idea that never came to fruition.