Inside Walt Disney’s Magical History in His Hometown of Marceline, Mo. (Exclusive)

Walt Disney had a special place in his heart for his hometown.

While many people might associate Disney’s magic with Orlando, Fla., or Anaheim, Calif. — or any of the other picturesque theme parks around the globe — the talented animator and world builder first found his spark in Marceline, Mo., where he moved with his family at 4 years old.

PEOPLE spoke with Sumner Nesbitt, Operations Manager at the Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline, as well as Walt Disney Hometown Museum executive director Kaye Malins, about how the area helped shape the man who has helped shape so many childhood experiences.

“Marceline was very important to Walt, and he was very involved with Marceline as an adult, even after he had moved away. He himself started school here. His first year going to school was at a brand new school called Park School,” Nesbitt explains.

Disney didn’t start school along with his peers, interestingly enough. The second-youngest of five children, Disney was often tasked with keeping an eye on his little sister, Ruth.

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“She was three years younger than Walt, so when it was time for Walt to start school, his parents decided, ‘Well, why don’t we just wait until Ruth is old enough to start school, and that way Walt can walk to school with Ruth,’ ” Nesbitt says.

Disney found the decision to be “the most embarrassing thing that could happen to a guy,” per an audio recording available to visitors at the Walt Disney Hometown Museum.

Still, he enjoyed his experience at Park School, where he was first introduced to theater.

“They were doing a school play, and Walt had seen his very first play here in Marceline, at a place called Decatur Opera House. He had seen a traveling production of Peter Pan starring Maude Adams, who had originated the role on Broadway. When he found out his own elementary school was going to be doing their own version of Peter Pan, of course, Walt very much wanted to play the lead role,” Nesbitt says.

Disney followed his ambition and nabbed the part, deepening a lifelong love for the character.

“Not only would he make an animated film about the story, but also that idea of not wanting to grow up is very much a Disney-fied philosophy. That was also kind of Walt’s personal and professional philosophy in many ways, too.”

Disney even reflected on that time in his life when the animated Peter Pan film came out in 1953.

“In the article, he said that when he played that part of Peter Pan, no actor ever identified with the part he was playing more than himself,” Nesbitt shares.

“So Park School had very fond memories for Walt, and when he found out that it was going to be closed and a new, bigger elementary school was going to be built in Marceline, it was actually his suggestion to name it the Walt Disney Elementary School.”

Disney’s generous spirit extended to his hometown, with Nesbitt noting, “He was never one to come to Marceline without bearing gifts.”

“Walt had a lot of gifts for the new elementary school. One of those was all the playground equipment, which was Disney-themed playground equipment,” he continues. “There are a lot of really cool photos of Walt in his suit playing on the playground equipment. There are also Disney murals with Disney characters all throughout the school. An artist named Bob Moore, who worked at the Walt Disney Studios, came to Marceline to draw all the murals, which are still there today.”

The Walt Disney Elementary School was dedicated in October 1960. As another present to the town, Walt donated one of the flagpoles he had saved from the 1960 Winter Olympic Games in California.

“To go on the flagpole, he had also donated two flags. One flag is a Disneyland flag that flew above Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, and the other flag is an orange flag with Mickey Mouse’s face on it. And that flag used to fly above the firehouse at Disneyland, which the firehouse is where his personal apartment was. Those flags are actually now in our museum and not in front of the school anymore, but the flag flagpole is still there,” Nesbitt shares.

During his time there, dedicating the school, Disney was rewarded an honorary high school diploma.

“Throughout Walt’s life, he received a lot of honorary accolades, honorary PhDs, master’s degrees, things like that. But he only ever received one honorary high school diploma, and that was from Marceline High School,” Nesbitt explains. “Walt himself did not finish high school. He only went to one year of high school before he joined the Red Cross to be an ambulance driver during World War I. So he didn’t finish high school, but he did get an honorary high school diploma, which was on the wall at his office all the way up until the day he passed away in 1966.”

Kaye Malins was there for the dedication, which fell on her birthday — October 16, 1960. This was also the date that the Walt Disney Company was officially founded in 1923.

“It was quite the event in Marceline. And prior to that, Walt had been here to dedicate the Walt Disney swimming pool and park, and he became friends with my family. Actually, he was our house guest on that visit,” Malins shares with PEOPLE.

“When he came back to dedicate the school, he was again as well. During the dedication of the school, Walt said, ‘You know I’m not a funny guy. I’m just a farm boy from Marceline who hides behind a duck and a mouse.’ His rural never really left him.”

“The dedication that day, of course, there were a lot of people here. Everybody wanted to see Walt Disney. But it was so heartfelt on his part because he was so honored to be here and had this school bear his name in his hometown. It was very, very emotional,” she continues.

Disney’s ties to the community continued through the school, as well as Walt Disney Municipal Park

“There was another thing that Walt was personally a part of, and there was an attraction at Disneyland called the Midget Autopia. As early as 1961, we have letters where Walt is talking to the city of Marceline about wanting to donate an attraction from Disneyland to Marceline. In 1966, it finally happened: they removed an attraction called the Midget Autopia from Disneyland and relocated it to Marceline. And to this day, it’s the only attraction to ever leave a Disney park and continue operation somewhere else.”

The entire town has always felt “special” for the distinction of being Walt Disney’s hometown.

“In 1968, so two years after he passed away, there was the Walt Disney stamp that was issued, the U.S Postal Stamp. Marceline lobbied pretty heavy to have that stamp because a lot of other cities wanted to lay claim to Walt as well — Burbank, Anaheim, Kansas City, Chicago, all these other places where Walt Disney had been or worked, wanted to be the place where the stamp was issued from,” Nesbitt shares.

“But Walt’s wife, Lillian, said, ‘If it’s going to be issued from anywhere, it needs to be from Marceline.’ And so, the Walt Disney stamp was issued here in ’68. And then that very post office that the stamp was issued was actually renamed the Walt Disney Post Office, dedicated in 2004. It is the only federal building in the United States named after Walt Disney. So we feel very special to have a lot of things named after Walt here in Marceline.”

Marceline continues to hold a special connection to both the Walt Disney Company and the Disney family in the decades since Walt’s death.

“D23 is the official Disney fan club that’s owned by the Walt Disney Company, and they usually bring a group out here every year, or if they have events out usually on either coast with the parks or at the studio or something like that, oftentimes we’ll get invited to come be a part of those events,” he says.

“So we do have a pretty active relationship with the Walt Disney Company, mainly through the Walt Disney Archives and through D23. And then, of course, the Walt Disney family was involved with the museum as well.”

The relationship with the Disney family, in particular, has made some special moments possible, both for the residents of Marceline and all who appreciate Disney’s tremendous life story.

“Walt Disney had a barn in his backyard as an adult. When he lived in California, he built his own scale railroad in the backyard, and he built a barn back there to be his workshop. The barn that he built in his backyard was a replica of the barn that he had here on the Disney farm as a kid. And of course, over time, that barn fell apart and was no longer standing,” Nesbitt shares.

“So for Walt Disney’s 100th birthday back in 2001, it was decided to rebuild the barn. And it was actually Walt Disney’s daughter, Diane Disney, that supplied those blueprints from the exact barn that Walt had in his backyard. So our barn that we have here is a replica of a replica, but it does stem straight back from Walt and his family.”

It’s all of these ties that warm the hearts of those in Marceline, knowing their town is part of history.

“Sometimes you don’t really realize the impact that Marceline has had, but Walt had a lot of first-time experiences here that would go on to play a part in the projects that he would do later on. The first time Walt Disney ever saw fireworks, it was actually over the 4th of July here in Marceline, and he referred to it as ‘the perfect kiss goodnight.’ And then, when of course he was building Disneyland, he wanted to thank his guests for coming by giving them that same kiss goodnight, having fireworks there at the park,” Nesbitt says.

“It’s just little touches like that. You see them all throughout Disney history and Disney culture, but they all stem back to Marceline. We feel very special that Marceline has inspired so many different things.”

Guests will have the chance to tour Marceline and visit Walt Disney Elementary School as part of the upcoming 2025 Dreaming Tree Gala festivities.