Main Street, Centerville, Massachusetts
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo! What would you do if Walt Disney wrote Fantasia while staying at your house?
That's the story behind this 1880 Massachusetts mansion built around a water tower that became a writer's retreat.
When Disney visited in 1941, the house was part of a larger estate known as Fernbrook. The three houses on the estate were later divided into separate properties in the 1960's, but they still share the original curved driveway.
Today the house in the foreground is still known as Fernbrook, and it's been more of the attention-hog, as you'll see later.
Here's an overhead view of the three houses:
Here's the same view from an 1880 map of "Centreville":
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In 1880 they were officially owned by ship captain Russell Marston, but actually his son and daughter-in-law Howard and Ella Marston were living there. Captain Russell was living down the street, here at 454 Main, which bears some resemblance to the other houses:
Sparing no expense, Howard and Ella Marston hired the architectural firms of Henry Hobson Richardson and Stanford, Mead and White to design the houses, while Frederick Law Olmstead created the gardens. There apparently was a distinctive heart-shaped garden or water feature on the property, but it's difficult to see if it's still there.
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We're also more interested in who owned the property after the Marstons, a man Walt Disney knew as Mr. Technicolor, Dr. Herbert Kalmus. What a perfect place to create Fantasia, in Mr. Technicolor's tower.
The rest of the house is pretty inspiring as well, light and bright and in a fresh, nautical style:
It has six bedrooms and five bathrooms in 5,050 square feet.
I mentioned before that the universe keeps sending me images of nautical home offices (nauffices). I would update the room above to look more like this:
(Of course, if it turned out that Disney had used that old wooden desk, then I would keep it instead.)
That brings us to the basement home theater/media room:
Mr. Technicolor and Mr. Fantasia would be disappointed by this media room. If it were mine, it would be a little more fantastic:
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That's what I would do if I owned a home with such a great Disney connection. (That said, we were told that Leonard Nimoy had been a guest in our house, but I'm not keen on decorating with a Star Trek theme because of it. Mr. If It Were Mine might feel differently.)
Meanwhile, the current owner of Fernbrook has taken a slightly different approach to that house, but that's a story for a different day. Now it's time to say goodbye.
