Throwback Thursday: Pop Century – The Legendary Years

Before it was the new Art of Animation resort, that land was set to be the Legendary Years section of Disney’s Pop Century Resort. This sister half to the Classic Years that we all know would feature buildings highlighting 00s, 10s, 20s, 30s, and 40s. Situated across Hourglass Lake this section of the resort was to be connected to the existing section of Pop Century via a foot bridge over the lake. Each section, the Classic Years and the Legendary Years, despite being a single large resort would have their own check-in and registration desks as well as their own food courts.

This resort made it much further than the drawing board. Construction had actually begun on this resort when a series of events led to the halt of construction. While this was supposed to be a temporary halt, as time went on it became clear that Disney was not resuming construction anytime soon. For a long time the shell of the Legendary Years was visible from the lake (and some of the guest rooms in the Classic Years) affording many curious Disney fans a glimpse of the abandonded project.

Eventually Disney came up with new plans for the land and scrapped the Legendary Years altogether. Now on the site of what was supposed to be the other half of Pop Century (although it only contains 50 years), is Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – Disney’s 5th value resort and this one features primarily family suites. The beautiful new resort is certainly an upgrade over the so-called “ghost hotel” of the Legendary Years but I can’t help but wonder how the Legendary Years would have looked in all it’s glory. I guess like so many decades before – this too has been glanced over only to have the page turn on history.