Birthday parties begin at Fairytale Town. Fairytale Town provided a decorated cake with candles, ice cream, punch, utensils, a card for the birthday child to be signed by party goers, and a recreation leader to conduct the royal birthday party. Today, Fairytale Town still hosts magical birthday parties that children remember for a lifetime!

Photo Credit: The Sacramento Bee

The magical land of Fairytale Town opened in William Land Park! More than 17,000 people visit during opening weekend. Among the original play sets on the grounds: The Crooked Mile, The Cheese Stands Alone, Farmer Brown’s Barn, Owl’s House, Cinderella’s Carriage, King Arthur’s Castle, and the Children’s Theater. Opening weekend was a success, but there was still more work to be done at Fairytale Town.

Photo Credit: The Sacramento Bee

Construction continues through the summer of 1959 on classic playsets such as Farmer Brown’s Barn, King Arthur’s Castle, and The Cheese Stands Alone.

Photo Credit: The League Lite

Construction begins with the help of local school children who grabbed their shovels and broke ground on Fairytale Town.

Photo Credit: The League Lite

Friends of Fairytale Town., Inc., is formed as an advisory board to the City of Sacramento on the project. The board commissions miniature scale models and seeks donations. The first brochure explains that the new park would “…depict classics in children’s literature and be among the child’s first contacts with life and human relations.”

Photo Credit: The Sacramento Union

Disneyland opens to great fanfare in Anaheim, California. A few hundred miles north, ideas are stirring with the Junior League of Sacramento, a civic-minded women’s service group. Studying the success of both Disneyland and Fairyland, a children’s storybook park in Oakland, the JLS begins laying the groundwork for a project called Fairytale Town in William Land Park.

Photo Credit: Unknown