Walt Disney began developing the concept of a haunted mansion nearly 20 years before it was actually constructed. Versions of a haunted house attraction appeared in early concept art, during the initial planning of what would become Disneyland. Walt had planned to build a small "theme park" on a parcel of land across the street from his Burbank studios. Disney's art director, Harper Goff, created a sketch called "Church, Graveyard, and Haunted House", which depicts a gothic haunted house on a hill.Plans for the new Disneyland outgrew Walt's eleven acre lot, so he purchased a much larger plot of land in Anaheim. He used the talents of artists from the motion picture industry to create the highly imaginative park. These artists and engineers became known as "imagineers".
Originally, the haunted mansion was going to be located on an off-shoot of Main Street, at a dead end. Then it was going to be built in Frontierland (shown left in an early concept drawing). But eventually the whole concept was put on hold.
Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, without a haunted mansion. Within three years, Walt decided to expand Disneyland, to include a new land called "New Orleans Square", which would contain new shops, restaurants, and a haunted mansion. The foundation for the façade of the Plantation style mansion took place in 1962. Early concepts for a neglected looking house were replaced with Walt's preference, a clean, well-preserved façade, which matched the pristine look of the rest of the park. Walt said "We'll take care of the outside and let the ghosts take care of the inside".Even though the façade was completed, it was an empty shell for years, due to storyline problems, and other distractions such as the 1964 New York World's Fair, where Disney built the first version of "It's a Small World", among other state of the art attractions.
