For Christmas I received a great book,
Weird U.S.: Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman. Immediately I flipped through it to find anything about San Diego, and soon came across the legend of Midgetville.
Midgetville refers to the legend of a town consisting of scaled-down houses built for little people. Midgetville is said to exist in various places throughout America. As Moran and Sceurman note, the most credible rumor locates such a town in
Jefferson Township, New Jersey, on the former estate of circus mogul Alfred T. Ringling. There really is a collection of small-sized houses there that could conceivably have once been home to a colony of midgets. However, another
very persistent legend locates a Midgetville in San Diego.
Moran and Sceurman don't go into much detail about the San Diego Midgetville, but I realized that I had heard this legend before (my wife had also heard it). This is how it goes: back in the 1930s a group of little people who had made a lot of money in Hollywood appearing in movies such as
The Wizard of Oz supposedly came down to San Diego and built a collection of miniature houses on Mt. Soledad where they could live in comfort together. But of course, nobody seems to know exactly where on Mt. Soledad this group of small houses was or is, though everybody has heard of a "friend of a friend" who once accidentally found the houses (though this FOAF can never remember how to get back there).
Determined to find the houses, I did a google search and came across
an article from 2003 written by Kenneth Smith for the
Daily Aztec detailing his own efforts to track down San Diego's fabled 'Munchkin Houses'. After many false starts, he finally discovered that they were most probably "a group of four cottages on Hillside Drive in La Jolla... built by
famed architect Cliff May." Although no midgets or little people were ever known to live in these houses, Smith says that, "The houses do indeed have smallish features, accentuated by an optical illusion. The steep road that passes them makes them seem even smaller than they actually are." Unfortunately only one of the four cottages remains standing, but Smith provides directions to find it: "take Hillside Drive from Torrey Pines Road. The house will be on your left-hand side. Look for the crazy midget handwriting." He also mentions that if you peek through the window (the house is unoccupied) you'll see "cobblestone-like tiled floors and a little round fireplace."
Of course, I had to see this for myself, even if no colony of Wizard-of-Oz midgets had ever lived there. So on New Year's Day I convinced my wife to accompany me on a search for the Munchkin House. The results were mixed. It was no problem finding Hillside Drive, but as it turns out Hillside Drive is fairly long. We were driving up and down it (as a line of cars formed behind us) wondering 'exactly which house on the left did he mean.' None of the houses leaps out at you and screams 'Munchkin House.' But finally we settled on one house that we figured must be it: Seventy-Four Seventy-Seven Hillside Drive. It had
small windows and a small door. Plus, the address written beside the door looked a bit like
'crazy midget handwriting' (though I think Smith was joking about this). Ignoring the
'No Trespassing' sign (even though part of the legend of Midgetville is that the midgets who live there fiercely defend their land from the Bigs), I peeked through the window and saw the
cobblestone-like tiled floors and a little round fireplace. So I think I found the Munchkin House, though I'm not 100% sure. It's certainly not anything that would catch your attention if you weren't specifically looking for it since it's really not that small, which made the trip a bit disappointing. But the weird thing is, I've already forgotten how to get back there.
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"A video camera has been installed to watch you and your dog! If your dog defecates here we will unleash a gang of murderous midgets upon you. Turn back now, Mr. Big!"
http://www.tinytownrailroad.com/
http://www.gibtown.com/town.htm -or-
http://www.culturallyflausa.com/path/region.php?region=3&page=11
Among many memorable features of this extravaganza, there was a "midget town," or was it "midget village"? This was a group of houses built to a miniature scale, and the fair organizers hired a few dozen very small people to live in them, and basically be on public display, during the course of the fair. I'm not sure what was supposed to be so amusing about these people except that they were small, but I guess (I hope, anyway) they were well paid for their time.
My Mom told me all about this and other wonders when I was a pre-schooler, but I have since seen it mentioned in histories of the Texas State Fair (which is still held every year, but without the freak shows of old).
Of course, this was a temporary "Midgetville" built as a deliberate tourist attraction, not any kind of permanent settlement.
After the 1936 Exposition, it is said that many of the same performers went on to play Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz movie (which was made in 1939, if I remember correctly). I doubt that any of them made huge amounts of money at it, though. Remember, this was the Great Depression, and there wasn't exactly a surplus of jobs for people of very diminutive stature, and it was also the era when movie studios were all-powerful and regarded actors as pretty much interchangeable.
The urban legend states you have to pass 4 bridges or the like. I'd sworn I found it once, but wasn't really sure and could never find it again. It's been years and the directions are still hidden in my car somewhere (even though they don't really take me to the same place I thought it was). Anyway, me and a friend mine had recently gotten "curious" again... and I'm just thankful someone's actually taken pictures! THANKS you've saved me a tank of gas! :cheese:
My uncle had told me about several years back. Complete with the aggressive little people living there. I didn't believe him, but when the place came up on the market, sure enough there it was just like he had said.
What my parents told me, was the homes used to be chicken coops! (seriously) There were no midgets living there, only elderly handicapped people in wheel chairs.
It was really weird though, all the homes were very small and it was a secluded little area. I think this may be the source of the midget village myth. If you drove by this street, you'd look down it and see both sides of the street lined with teeny houses. It was like something from a kiddie land at an amusement park. The home I visited, I would say had to be only around 20 feet wide, 20 feet deep and around 6-7 feet tall (flat roof). The front door was like 4 1/2 feet tall. I was 9 and had to crouch to get in. It was as wide as a normal door though, and could accomodate a wheel chair. This was around 1980 or so.
Anywho, just thought I'd post this somewhere, as I've heard of midget towns for many years, and always hear they are a myth. Not so, in San Diego!
The myth also said that the people who lived at Midget Land were mean and defensive and could kick your ass.
The other urban myth was that there were four bridges on Mount Soledad and if you found the fourth you would warp away and never come back. I found one by accident one time and it was pretty exciting.
good luck.
http://www.lioddities.com/Bygone/tinytown.htm
The past labor day weekend my friend and I were taking a scenic drive through Montgomery, NJ and somehow ended up in what I would consider a Weird area. We had turned off 206 onto Dutchtown-(something) road.(at the intersection was a pretty white church)
Somehow we turned onto longhill road and then onto ridge road and then lindburg rd. It may have been in a different order but those were the 3 roads that we were on. This area is very desolate with long, windy roads and woods on either side. We were on either lindenberg rd or ridge rd when we saw the tinest houses that look like large shoe boxes. Tiny doors, windows and driveways. Regular cars in the driveways and dirt roads in between properties which read No Trespassing. We kept driving and did not try to trespass because we both are chickens! The weird thing was that it was such a gorgeous day out and we saw noone, yet the driveways all had cars in them. Not one other vehicle passed us the whole 30 minutes that we were checking out the area.
Is anyone familiar with this area? Has anyone seen these houses? I'm going to have to go back again soon to look around more. I'd love to know what lies in the woods behind the no tresspassing signs.
Let me know if you've been here!
Kris
I wanted to put these pocket pals in my pocket.
They are ruthless!
I have also searched all over mystic drive with google earth, and cannot see ANY sign of even a single shed in a field, let alone a whole village (unless under trees, but i doubt it)
so, i would be willing to put my head on it that it doesnt exist, but it's jsut supposed to keep all of us entertained, thus mostly being circulated during hig-school years.
Oh, also, here is a few pictures of the Texas World Fair, complete with midgets and village, via google images...
all in fun
One story was of someone who was driving off road and was confronted by a group of midgets who started throwing apples or crabapples at his car. "He has the dents to prove it." So I was told.
Another was that they even have a bar just for them in the town and my friend's friend was going to have her bachelorette party there. but for some reason they didn't. Also, for some reason no one I know knows how to get there.
There is also a Satan house in the area where the trees grow away from the house, and a truck will chase you and shot at you if you go near it. I have seen this house, and the trees do grow away from it, but I imagine its because they are on a small steep hill, and possibly grow towards the sun. (I'm no scientist) But no one chased me.