The Magic Kingdom’s Gas Street Lamps

There are those who will tell you that the gas street lamps used on Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom are exact duplicates of the lamps used in Disneyland.  This is not true.

On February 7, 1817, Baltimore, Maryland made history with the installation of the very first gas street lamp ever used in the United States.  Standing at the junction of North Holliday and East Baltimore streets, it dutifully illuminated that corner for 180 years before being replaced with a replica in 1997. 

When the Disney Imagineers were designing the gas street lamps they would use on the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street, U.S.A. in Walt Disney World, they could have chosen a design from any one of the hundreds of gas street lamp designs which were in use all across the country during the turn of the 20th century.  However, they decided to chose a design with historical significance.  The gas street lamps guests see lining the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street, U.S.A. are exact duplicates of the first gas street lamp used in Baltimore in 1817, the very first gas street lamp ever lit in America.