September 13, 2007
Coney Island's Carousel Comeback
According to Carousel News, "The New York City Economic Development Corporation (“NYCEDC”) is seeking a consultant or consultant team for restoration and reconstruction of the historic B&B Carousell."
Of the many wooden carousels that adorned Coney Island, this is the last remaining one -- and was purchased by the city for $1.8 million two years ago. When it was last operational, it stood near the old entrance to Luna Park, surrounded by furniture shops. To get it restored there's another $2 million pricetag, even though it was still running when it was dismantled and put in storage in Brooklyn in January 2006.
Once the 88-year old is back in tip-top shape, it may end up at Steeplechase Plaza, a proposed public park for Coney Island between the Boardwalk and KeySpan Park. Can a carousel and the Wonder Wheel survive amongst the Thor developments? It seems they'll at least have to co-exist. Dennis Vourderis, who as of now has no plans to sell the latter to the developer, says his father would have told him to make sure "The Wheel keeps turning in Coney Island.'"
Photo via Spatch's Flickr.
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Ooh, ooh, pick me! I'll restore the carousel by hand for free!
Yay carousel
-Ri L.
I was interning with the Parks Department at the time the B&B Carousel was being dismantled, and got to hang around during the process of packing up the horses and being unloaded into the warehouse in Brooklyn. Very sad to see this happen, and I know the family who owned it was just heartbroken. Its not really an issue of will someone restore this Coney Island icon, because there are those out there who would love to work on a project like this. The question is will the city pony up the additional money it will take to restore the carousel? These things aren't cheap. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
I think the carousel should be installed inside of Luna Park Furniture, and people should be forced to try out their easy chairs and new mattresses while rotating around.