California Marketplace

When they could finally afford it, they bought their first 10 acres. They christened it Knott's Berry Place. And the first permanent building was built to house Cordelia Knott's tea room, the berry market, and a plant nursery. The tea room was a popular roadside stop for hungry travelers.

It was a boysenberry that eventually put the Knott family on the map. Walter's friend Rudolph Boysen was the Anaheim Parks Superintendent. He had been experimenting with a new strain of berry in the early 1930s - a cross between a loganberry, red raspberry and blackberry. But the plants kept dying on the vine. Walter took the plants from his friend and with his knowledge of horticulture nursed them back to health. The first successful crop of "boysen" berries were harvested in 1934 and they quickly became the family trademark. All boysenberries in the world can be traced back to Knott's.

1934 was also an important year for the Knott's for other reasons. It was then when Cordelia served her first chicken dinners!

In 1939 daughter Virginia set up a souvenir table in the Chicken Dinner Restaurant founding the Park's first souvenir shop, Virginia's Gift Shop. Eventually other stores opened up in the Marketplace: Marion and Toni's (daughters) Sport Shop, The Farm Market and the Berry Market. Some of the other shops on the farm that were operating as of 1955 were the Weaver's Cottage, Red's Leather Shop, Woodcraft Shop, The Rock and Book Shop, The Candy Kitchen, The Sockmaker's Shop, Art Glow Studio, The Antique Shop, The Old Knifemaker, The Basket Shop, The Glass Blower Shop, Candle Kitchen, and Harry's Gun Shop. Amazingly, there is still a knife shop in the Ghost Town!

Wishing Well (Fern Grotto)

In 1937 Walter and Cordelia expanded their tea room into a genuine restaurant complete with separate kitchen, dining rooms and parking lot. Despite serving 1,774 dinners on Thanksgiving Day, Cordelia insisted she wasn't in the restaurant business.

In 1954 1,444,177 Dinners were served including 13,476 Dinners and 1,850 Pies and 59,140 Biscuits on Mother's Day!

The Chicken Dinner Restaurant is still in business and seats up to 900 guests at a time. They serve more than 1.5 million guests a year. Even if you do not eat at the restaurant, do take a walk through to see the interior waterfall feature. Also take the time to glance at the guest book to see all the famous people that have dined here: Elizabeth Taylor, Connie Stephens, Lucy Arnez, Donnie and Marie Osmond, John Wayne, Harriet Nelson, Burt Reynolds, Jane Russell, Natalie Wood, Charles Bronson, Amos and Andy, Eddie Fisher, Jonathan Winters, Chuck Norris, and many more…

The Steak House next door to the Chicken Dinner House (now Auntie Pasta's Pizza Palace) featured rustic furnishings and a Western Atmosphere along with an Indian Room with portraits of the great Indian Chiefs painted by the famous artist, Paul Klieben.