Forest Park Carousel

About this property

The Forest Park Carousel is a historic carousel at Forest Park in the borough of Queens, New York City, United States. The carousel, one of two known surviving carousels built by Daniel Carl Muller, was built circa 1903 and contains 52 figures and its original band organ. Originally located in Dracut, Massachusetts, the carousel was relocated to Forest Park in 1972, replacing an earlier carousel on the site. The ride, operated by NY Carousel since 2012, is part of a seasonal amusement center called Forest Park Carousel Amusement Village. The Forest Park Carousel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and has been a New York City designated landmark since 2013. The carousel is on Forest Park Drive, just west of Woodhaven Boulevard, and is housed in a one-story pavilion designed by Victor Christ-Janer. Its figures include 36 moving horses, 13 stationary horses, three menagerie figures, and two chariots. The horses, animals, and chariots are placed in three rows on a two-level rotating platform. Each of the horses has a different hand-carved design, and the horses also have realistic features such as glass eyes and genuine horse hair. Although Muller designed most of the horses, one horse is credited to William Dentzel, while two others are attributed to Charles Carmel. Two other horses were made of fiberglass and may date from the 1980s. The platform rotates around a wooden cabinet with a band organ designed by the Andreas Ruth and Sohn Band Organ Company. The organ is surrounded by 18 panels with murals, which were installed in the early 2000s and were designed by Jonathan Lev. The current Forest Park Carousel is older than the structure that it replaced, which was built c. 1916 and burned down under suspicious circumstances in December 1966. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) attempted to procure a replacement carousel for several years, and it gave Restaurant Associates a concession to operate the ride. Restaurant Associates bought Lakeview Park's carousel and reopened it in November 1973; the ride continued to operate until the mid-1980s. Carousel Parks Inc., led by Marvin Sylvor, leased the ride in 1988 and reopened it the next year following an extensive restoration. Sylvor operated the ride until 1993, and NYC Parks reassigned the concession to Carlos Colon the next year. After the carousel closed in 2008, various community groups began advocating for the ride to be designated as a New York City landmark. NY Carousel reopened the ride in 2012 following an extensive restoration, and it renovated the carousel again in 2014.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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