A nearly century-old carousel has risen on the Buffalo, New York, waterfront. After a four-year, $2 million restoration paid for by public and private funding, the Buffalo Heritage Carousel began spinning on Memorial Day weekend 2021, offering rides for $1 a pop. Originally commissioned by a New England amusement park owner and built in 1924 by the Spillman Engineering Corporation in North Tonawanda, New York, the carousel had operated in Massachusetts and then spent 65 years in storage before arriving in Buffalo.
“The challenge was to make this once-beautiful carousel beautiful again,” says Helen Ronan, who co-led the project with Laurie A. Hauer-LaDuca. It entailed the return of more than 30 hand-carved animals to North Tonawanda, where master carver and carousel restoration specialist Patrick Stanczyk oversaw volunteers who stripped, sanded, and primed the whole menagerie. Rosa Patton, another well-known carousel expert, instructed volunteers on the proper painting technique, and the team used what was left of the old paint layers to get as close as possible to the original hues.
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