New Orleans Square opened at Disneyland on July 24, 1966 — five months before Walt Disney’s death on December 15, 1966. It was the last themed land that Walt personally supervised from concept to completion, making its opening-era materials among the most historically significant in all of Disneyland collecting. The land then became home to two of the park’s most beloved attractions: Pirates of the Caribbean (1967) and the Haunted Mansion (1969).
The 1966 Opening Era
New Orleans Square opened before its signature attractions were ready — Pirates and the Mansion required years of additional Imagineering work after the district itself debuted. Early New Orleans Square merchandise focused on the 19th-century New Orleans aesthetic — wrought iron motifs, jazz imagery, French Quarter architecture — without any Pirates or Mansion branding. This makes truly early New Orleans Square items particularly distinctive: they are from a window that closed when the attractions opened and gave the land its permanent identity.
Surviving 1966 Opening Materials
- Press materials from the July 24, 1966 opening: $200–$1,500
- Original NOS merchandise without Pirates or Mansion branding: $75–$500
- Promotional photographs from the opening ceremony: $100–$600
- Walt Disney-signed materials referencing New Orleans Square: Potentially $10,000+
Club 33 opened at 33 Royal Street in 1967, adding the most exclusive address in New Orleans Square — and its own layer of extraordinary collectibles — to the district’s already rich collecting history.
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