Disney Villas question/THV/SSR

[simba20]

My husband and I took our first trip to Dinsey World together when we were in college along with my mom and dad. For some reason, if I remember it had to do with my dad's health issues, we decided to stay at the Disney Viilas -- oh wait my mom was taking classes at the Institute..............

Anyway, sadly the Villas were torn down and they built SSR. We learned about SSR on our honeymoon in 2002 while riding the boat from POR to DtD...........

Now I do remember during our bus trips around the Disney property when we stayed at the Villas, the bus going through the treehouse area and dropping people off. But I also remember that there was HOUSES (I think only 3 of them) somewhere nearby that people could also rent......we had a chatty bus driver who shared lots of trivia about the Disney property and he told us that Bill Clinton had rented one while President (1996 or so).

My question is this.........
What happened to the houses? Are they still there? Did they get torn down? Any ideas?

 

[5forDiz]

iirc, few months back I think it was mouseplanet.com site, I read history of area which mentioned houses you're asking about; I don't recall exactly what happened with them - I think some remain & are being utilized for operations purposes. Anyone ?

 

[DisFlan]

Yes, there were houses - the Fairway Villas or Homes that were available for nightly bookings. No long-term residents. They were torn down to make way for SSR (I'm pretty sure they're all gone now). I may be wrong, but I think they were used to house International Program employees for a while prior to being torn down.

DisFlan

 

[simba20]

Yes, there were houses - the Fairway Villas or Homes that were available for nightly bookings. No long-term residents. They were torn down to make way for SSR (I'm pretty sure they're all gone now). I may be wrong, but I think they were used to house International Program employees for a while prior to being torn down.

DisFlan

I have a book about Disney World caled "Since the World Began." Really good coffee table book, that shares information about the development at Disney World. Don't quote me exactly, but I do know from this book that the Disney Villas/SSR area was started as an on-site residental community, until the powers that be realized that residents would have to have voting rights and therefore would also be deciding on plans for the Disney area......the project was scrapped and later the resort (first Disney Villas) was built in this area.

Also the book needs to be updated. i think I bought it at a Disney store back in 1997/1998 or so..........but it has a lot of great bits of trivia about the building of Disney World. Also my parents lived in Melbourne in the late 60's. When Walt was buying up all of the land for DW, my parents and many believed that it was related to the aerospace industry/space program (my parenst worked for an aerospace company at the time). My mom remembers the articles that were published in the paper and then later the announcement of Disney World.

 

[simba20]

Yes, there were houses - the Fairway Villas or Homes that were available for nightly bookings. No long-term residents. They were torn down to make way for SSR (I'm pretty sure they're all gone now). I may be wrong, but I think they were used to house International Program employees for a while prior to being torn down.

DisFlan

Oh and everytime we drive by the Treehouses on our way to SSR, in our car or by bus. I crane my neck and look and look to see if the houses are there. Of ocurse you are goign by so fast....... But I guess they were torn down.

 

[stopher1]

I have a book about Disney World caled "Since the World Began." Really good coffee table book, that shares information about the development at Disney World. Don't quote me exactly, but I do know from this book that the Disney Villas/SSR area was started as an on-site residental community, until the powers that be realized that residents would have to have voting rights and therefore would also be deciding on plans for the Disney area......the project was scrapped and later the resort (first Disney Villas) was built in this area.

I've got that same book, and as I remember from reading it several times, yes, the homes were there as part of the long-term model for living on site. Kind of mixed use when factor together with the Treehouses. They were supposed to be "models of efficiency" since they had solar panels, their own carports and other such "modern" stuff from the late 70's, including being built in clusters to preserve the land, and reduce concrete needs, etc - kind of like prototypes for what housing "could" and "should" be in the future.

They were all torn down when SSR came into the picture.