Jane's Carousel

If you go to DUMBO, sitting on the bank of the East River between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, you will see a beautiful carousel in a glass case (technically an acrylic pavilion) - it looks a bit like a jewel box.  That is Jane's Carousel.  It was created in 1922 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. The original home of this carousel and its 48 horses was Youngstown, Ohio.  It delighted children in the then prosperous steel town's "Isadora Park," but in the 1970s a fire came and consumed the park.  Luckily it spared the beautiful Carousel. 

 Jane and David Walentas bought the Carousel for $385,000 and then went through a very long labor of love restoring it.  They hacked off years of bad paint jobs with and x-acto knife and hired detailers from Mercedes to restore the original detailing.  It actually took 30 years to restore the Carousel and it was finally places in Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2011.

You can ride it Wednesday-Mondays now in Brooklyn Bridge Park for only $2.  

It had a scary moment during Hurricane Sandy when they thought it was going to wash into the East River!  I don't like to use photos that are not my own in this blog - but you can see a beautiful and harrowing image of the carousel during the storm here.  

I have ridden the Carousel and it's a lot of fun!  I would highly recommend it!:)

Here is their official page.  

Here is a photo of me riding the Jane's Carousel!  As you can see - I'm having a lot of fun!  I recommend it to kids and adults alike!  (And I know there are adults who like carousels because there are carousel conventions!!!!)