I love those photos!! I worked for WDW in the mid-90s and have never even heard of these structures nor seen them so THANKS for sharing.

I've also just bought Mr Ridgeway's book and am thoroughly enjoying it, once more thanks for the great recommendation. With so many "Disney" books out there it is easy to buy something terrible so it's always nice to get pointed in the right direction.

Great pictures Jim.  Maybe in future Why For articles you could add one or two each time.

Sample room complex... what a colossal waste of money!  What a perfectly idiotic way to waste the time and energy of Imagineering.  I LOVE IT!  That totally sounds like something Walt would have cooked up!  And all these year I thought Eisner was a tight wad.  Who knew?!

;)

This article is great except for the last part.  I am not a big Eisner fan but I know for a fact that he never lost his enthusiasm for these things.  In fact he visited the Saratoga Springs mockup and approved everything.  He never lost his interest in the 90's or in the 2000's.  I don't know how that was presumed because when I worked back there they were always prepping and getting stuff ready for the big cheese.

By the way, this building is located in the service area of Riverside.  You can easily drive back there from the resort but there really isn't much too see except for this mockup and the Port Orleans service building.

And by the way it wasn't a colussal waste of money at all.  WDI always tested things like to see how it looked.  Not doing this would be a waste of money.....

Awesome story, Jim.  It reminds me of the sample room Col. Harland Sanders set up in his family restaurant in Corbin Kentucky so weary visitors to the first "KFC" could decide right away whether they wanted to also spend the night in the Sanders family's motor court next door.