June 1957 – December 1967
LOCATION
Tomorrowland – The Monsanto House of the Future sat right near the front of Tomorrowland. When guests entered from Main Street USA, they found the house on the right, roughly where Pixie Hollow stands today.
BACKGROUND
In the park’s early years of operation, Monsanto conceptualized a number of exhibits and attractions in Tomorrowland. Monsanto wanted to promote its plastics and Disney Imagineers wanted to incorporate a full-scale futuristic home into Tomorrowland, so these ideas merged together to form the House of the Future. After just four months of construction, the 1,280 square foot home opened to the public and became an instant hit, hosting over 400,000 visitors in its first six weeks of operation.
EXPERIENCE
Guests arrived at the House of the Future from its lower level, and climbed up stairs to reach the main floor, creating the illusion that the house was floating above Tomorrowland. On the upper level, the home tour began with the state-of-the-art living and dining room, complete with ultra modern furniture and imagined future appliances. Next, guests saw the high-tech kitchen, which previewed the microwave oven. The tour continued through the children’s bedrooms, bathrooms, and the master suite. Finally, the tour ended in the sophisticated sitting room, with an extremely futuristic wall-mounted television. After the tour, guests could walk through the scenic gardens surrounding the home, or continue on their exploration of Tomorrowland.
CLOSURE
Despite its popularity and notoriety within the park, the House of the Future became less and less feasible as time went on. Eventually, Monsanto no longer saw the house as an actual projection of future home technology, and instead wanted to focus its efforts on its new attraction, Adventure Thru Inner Space. So in 1967, the House of the Future finally closed its doors.
However, demolition was much more complicated than anticipated. Due to its incredibly sturdy structure, the House of the Future couldn’t be demolished with wrecking balls, and instead required two weeks of hack sawing to finally come down. After its closure, the landscaping and water features remained, creating a new, quieter space called “Alpine Gardens”.
TRIVIA
The concrete foundation for the house still stands today. Now painted green, the foundation is embedded within Pixie Hollow, covered and disguised by plants and scenery.
The Monsanto House of the Future proudly boasted of its heavy use of plastics, in everything from the furniture to the walls.
Like the rest of Tomorrowland, the House of the Future was meant to represent life in 1986.
I have seen this in World of Disney as art and had no idea what I was looking at. A very cool exhibit, but I think it would be very out of place in today’s Tomorrowland.
I tend to agree. I would’ve loved to see it, purely for the nostalgia factor, but I get why it’s gone.