Ichabod's Landing Has Been Demolished Beside the Haunted Mansion Gates, and Frontierland's Boardwalk Is Now Walled Off End to End

The gift shop that stood beside the Haunted Mansion's entrance gates is not closed for construction. It is gone.

WDW News Today, in a Thursday photo report from Magic Kingdom, says the former Ichabod's Landing gift shop has been torn down as Piston Peak National Park is built. The Mike Fink Keel Boats landing next door was torn down earlier, in May. This week, the construction walls were pushed out far enough to seal the Frontierland boardwalk completely, and Disney has begun dressing those walls with vintage style Frontierland advertisements that reference old Disney films and other Walt Disney World locations.

Disney has announced none of the demolition.

Ichabod's Landing as it stood in June 2025, the pale yellow building with the green shutter and the shed roofed doorway, a few steps from the Haunted Mansion's Lightning Lane entrance arch at right. Image: WDW News Today

What came down: Ichabod's Landing, which WDW News Today notes was originally the Keelboat Shop. The outlet says the shop "ultimately closed due to the long queue for The Haunted Mansion." The second, lower building of the pair survived and was actually given an extension. It still stands at the edge of the cleared site, behind the construction walls.

The keel boat side of the site went first. WDW News Today reported demolition of the Mike Fink Keel Boats landing beginning on May 1, and had aerial photos showing it gone by May 16. The attraction itself had been closed far longer than that. It opened with Liberty Square, took its theme from the Davy Crockett series Disney ran in 1954 and 1955, and stopped carrying guests in 2001. Its upper level then spent several years doing duty as overflow queue for the Haunted Mansion, and walls closed in around it early in the Rivers of America teardown.

The boardwalk is now sealed from Liberty Square to Big Thunder

Roughly half the Frontierland boardwalk had been closed since early July, and for the past few weeks guests could still reach a small section near the old Westward Ho site. That is over. WDW News Today reported on Wednesday that the walkway is "now completely blocked off," with the wall line now stretching the whole way between Liberty Square and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

The boardwalk itself is not expected to disappear. It appears in Disney's own Piston Peak concept art, and WDW News Today reads the closure as a refurbishment window rather than a demolition.

The new wall line seen from the Liberty Square side. WDW News Today says Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is "now easily visible from this spot." Image: WDW News Today

Two other details from Thursday's report are worth noting. The ground level across the site has been visibly raised over the past few months, and the blue tower in the foreground of one of the outlet's photos is only the base of a tower crane installed back in July. The rest of that crane still has not arrived.

What the new wall posters advertise

Rather than the standard quote panels, long stretches of the extended wall now carry period style advertising. The films they reference span from 1948 to 1977.

A rodeo poster advertises "The Amazin' Slue-Foot Sue, the one and only catfish riding cowgirl," dated 10 to 11 August out of Pecos River, New Mexico. Slue-Foot Sue is a character from the Pecos Bill sequence in Disney's 1948 feature Melody Time. Her poster is already peeling off the wall.

Beside it, a black and white handbill sells "world renowned" remedies and miracle cures from Doctor Terminus, the snake oil villain of Pete's Dragon (1977), with a small tin sign above it advertising a "Wonder Heart Cure."

The Slue-Foot Sue rodeo bill, peeling at its lower corner, next to the Doctor Terminus handbill and a Wonder Heart Cure tin sign. Image: WDW News Today

The rest of the set, per WDW News Today: notices hiring gold miners for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a yellowing Hard Times Cafe advertisement, a bill for the Hoop Dee Doo Revue over at Fort Wilderness, and a second Doctor Terminus card beside a land sale poster for "Hundreds of Acres," a nod to the Hundred Acre Wood of Winnie the Pooh. That land is in Silver Hill, Colorado, where Snowball Express (1972) is set.

Another cluster is made up of replicas of signs inside Tiana's Bayou General. WDW News Today lists Terrebonne Molasses, Makin' Groceries, C'est Beau, a hardwood oil soap, Dr. Miga's Moustache Wax and Julius & Co laundry soap among them.

The walls are not fully covered yet. Plenty of stretches still carry the standard construction wall quotes, and WDW News Today expects more to go up, including Piston Peak concept art.

What Disney has not said

Nothing about the demolition has come from Disney. There is no Disney Parks Blog post, no statement, and no confirmation of what, if anything, replaces the two buildings. Piston Peak National Park is the Cars themed land going in at Frontierland, replacing Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island, and the boardwalk does appear in Disney's released concept art for the finished land. The structures that came down were never part of any announcement, and WDW News Today has noted that the keel boat landing site does not show up in the Piston Peak fun map or concept art either.

One thread does point forward. WDW News Today reported that Imagineering filed a January permit for general construction at the keel boat landing site, naming MLC Theming as the contractor, a firm that does scenic painting, artificial aging, facade fabrication and rock carving.

Sources

• WDW News Today, "Ichabod's Landing Demolished, Posters Added to Piston Peak Construction Walls in Magic Kingdom"
• WDW News Today, "Frontierland Boardwalk Completely Closed at Magic Kingdom Due to Piston Peak Construction"
• WDW News Today, "BREAKING: Mike Fink Keel Boat Landing Demolition Begins at Magic Kingdom"
• WDW News Today, "Aerial Photos Show Mike Fink Keel Boat Landing Gone as Piston Peak Construction Progress Continues in Magic Kingdom"

Image credits: All photographs WDW News Today.