The Monsanto House of the Future – Disneyland, 1957 – 1967
March 2, 2010
The Monsanto House of the Future was an attraction at Disneyland built in 1957. The attraction featured a conceptualized home of the future from the year 1986. The house featured kitchen appliances such as microwaves (that had yet to be commonplace in most homes) The attraction was unfortunately torn down in 1967.
The floor plan below from an article in “Popular Mechanics”:
Below are some of the original concept sketches for the interior. You can see the influence of Charles and Ray Eames, Nelson, Miller, Knoll and others.
Above concept art via JustinSpace
The Invisible Agent 
This is ghastly. When do the inmates get to receive visitors? Before or after shock therapy?
I thouight Ikea was minimalist. Yikes.
Gorgeous….love all of the sleek white design, though it borders on hideous once all of the non primary colours are brought in…still very cool design concept
In 1957 this was WAY OUT in the future. Looks strangely familiar now…many of the things this predicted have come true. Including the boring stacked-boxes-on-to-of-each-other house concept.
the purity of the design is what is appealing; that is, everything is sleek and plastic, sparse and minimal.
were it to have existed in a tract, it would be cluttered up with the amalgamated hodge podge of later decades ‘trends’ (eventually receiving the most hideously 909 of all: granite countertops).
nevertheless, i think i would like to see a tract of these homes over the endless tracts of neo-spanish brutalism that stretches like a never ending developer vomited carpet over most of where i live (orange county).
and, more to the point of why i bothered to post this at all…
perhaps apocryphal, but supposedly when they went to demolish the house of the future at d-land the wrecking ball just bounced off it (with a fantastic vibration i imagine) and so they had to demolish it by cutting it apart with hack saws.
if you’re curious to know where it was, if you go the little mermaid’s fountain (unless they’ve removed that too) you’re standing in the ‘yard’ of the house. like so many other hopes and promises of the 1950’s, the ghost is all that remains.
great, great site invisible. it is very much appreciated.
Kevin,
Are you familiar with the Eichler tracts in OC? There was a period of time recently when they were featured in many a commercial.
The pure ’60’s minimalist designs are now “cluttered up with the amalgamated hodge podge of later decade ‘trends'”. The word hideous comes to mind in some cases, but some granite looks better than ’60’s gold flecked Formica.
I have always enjoyed seeing “visions of the future” from the past. I remember the first “picture phone” shown at the Seattle Worlds Fair in 1962 (“Century 21” was the motto of teh fair) and now we have them. I also remember that food would be replaced by pills, and flying cars and space clothes. The jury is still out for the latter two.
Nice site.
i was just looking at your site because i loved the bowties (but too expensive for me sadly) – and then i saw this about the house of the future. I’m the one who found all those concept art images, color corrected them, and put them together – and i see along the way someone cropped my (very discreetly placed) website stamp off the photo. That makes me sad. But you have a nice blog and make nice ties.
Hey Justin,
Didn’t realize you had found them…I found them on a different website. I’m happy to link back to you!
I.A.
I did a post on my blog about the Monsanto House of the Future. I linked my post to your website as you have the best overall display of the house that I have found.
I am enjoying your site very much. I would like it if you put a Google search box to access topics quickly in your enormous archive!
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