There is a delicious irony in the fact that the carousel, which has brought so much laughter and joy for young and old alike, has its origins in the deadly games of war. Knights in armor, Crusaders and other warriors, whose work it was to kill the enemy, have practiced their skills on what amounted to primitive carousels for centuries.
Before they actually fought wars or competed in murderous little war games, Crusaders honed their skills on warrior training devices the Italians called “Carosella” and the Spanish called “Garosello.”
In the 13th century, the English hung a ring using brightly colored ribbons from a tree or pole. One of the main events of tournaments became ring-spearing, in which a man would ride his horse or chariot full tilt, lance in hand, to spear the ring. The practice devices they used were actually primitive carousels and became more ornate with the addition of more realistic hand-carved horses and chariots suspended by chains from arms radiating from a center pole. The wooden horses would be rotated by servants or real horses, as the knights attempted to spear gold rings. These much tamer games replaced the more serious and often deadly tournaments.
The carousel eventually evolved into an amusement for everyday people and was popular all through Europe by the late 1700s. By the early nineteenth century, Americans were building primitive carousels. As immigration to America increased, skilled craftsman familiar with building carousels in their home countries practiced their trade in America. By the 1880s, their expertise and the adaptation of steam engines to turn the carousel ushered in the rapid growth of carousels in America. It was the Industrial Age. People had more money, and trolleys made it possible to get easily to places of amusement. It was the Golden Age of the Carousel in America and joyously ran from 1905 to 1925.
The influence of immigrant carousel makers had a dramatic and incredibly positive effect on the quality and the art of American carousels. There were three distinct styles of carousels. Each style had distinctive characteristics that made them easily recognized by carousel aficionados. The styles were County Fair, Coney Island and Philadelphia. All of them are equally ornate and beautiful. Fortunately, there is an outstanding example of a Philadelphia-style carousel alive and well and running in Hampton, Virginia.
It is officially registered as PTC #50. The PTC stands for Philadelphia Toboggan Company. More commonly, it is known as the Hampton Carousel. The National Register of Historic Places lists it as the Buckroe Beach Carousel. It was originally commissioned by the Newport News and Hampton Railway Gas and Electric Company to be built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC) in 1919. The carousel was completed and began operating in May 1920 as an attraction at the Buckroe Beach Amusement Park in Hampton. Trains brought people from Richmond and other cities to the park to enjoy family fun at the beach. The carousel was a great success from the start, with 32 jumping horses, 16 standing horses, and two ornate chariots. Even before seeing the carousel, one could hear the melodious sounds of its great player organ.
There is a story, according to S. Wallace Stieffen, whose family owned the park between 1944 and 1986, that the original carousel band organ was so loud it had to be replaced with a Bruder carousel band organ from Waldrich, Germany. There were cardboard music books that had to be replaced manually. It was later converted by the B.A.B. Organ Company of New York to play double-track paper rolls.
The National Register of Historic Places registration records describe the carousel this way: “The forty-eight bass-wood horses have fluid, muscular bodies, dramatic poses, and gentle eyes. Some have protruding veins, flashing teeth, flared nostrils, and windblown manes. They are painted in shades of brown, tan, gray, black, white, brown and white, black and white, and dappled gray. All have golden hooves. The saddles and blankets are shades of brown, green, wine, pink, blue, and gold. Gold leaf and jewels of amber, green, white, and gold adorn the trappings. The armor worn by two horses is silver, trimmed in gold. The 16 horses in the outside row are all standers, horses that do not go up and down. They are the most detailed and elegantly carved horses on the carousel, having both full and roached manes, large decorative blankets of varying shapes, and trappings featuring fleurs-de-lis stars, triangular designs, jewels, and tassels. The white-armored lead, or king horse, has its right rear hoof flat on the platform and fleurs-de-lis adorns its trappings. Fourteen jumpers, horses that go up and down, are located in the middle row of three rows. Smaller than the standers and less elaborately decorated, they are adorned with tassels, fringes, jewels, feathers, and medallions. The inside row consists of eighteen horses even smaller in size. Fourteen are jumpers and four are standers. Although four poses are duplicated, the blankets and trappings differ. Tassels, scallops, fringes, and keys are included in the decorations.”
An Italian immigrant named Frank Carretta carved the horses and other embellishments for the original PTC#50 carousel. He was hired in 1912 and became carving foreman of PTC in 1915. Amazingly, each of the 48 horses is a unique work of art with different facial expressions and body positions. No two horses are exactly alike. Daniel C. Miller carved the two chariots and became renowned for the patriotic themes of his horse-drawn chariots. The son of German immigrants, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and worked for both PTC and William H. Dentzel, another famous carousel maker.
On May 23, 1920, the summer season opened at Buckroe Beach with a brand-new attraction, the Buckroe Beach Carousel. It was described as “a most up-to-date carousel with jumping horses.” People packed the attraction. It was a great crowd pleaser from the start. On July 4, 1929, there were 15,000 visitors a day and 10,000 revelers at night.
The Buckroe Beach Carousel survived a terrible storm in August 1933 and Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Fortunately, the carousel was protected from any later storms and the elements by a glass-walled building constructed in the late 1960s. It did not, however, survive changing tastes, high maintenance costs and the competition from more exciting thrill rides like those at Bush Gardens.
In 1985, the Buckroe Beach Amusement Park closed and the carousel closed with it. In 1986, the City of Hampton purchased the land and the carousel. The carousel was dismantled and stored. Michael Cobb, a curator of the Hampton Carousel, recalled, “The carousel originally belonged to the Stevens family, who owned Buckroe Park. Then when the city bought it, the carousel was dismantled and stored in an old school, the horses were stored in the city hall on the ninth floor, and the organ was stored in another school in Hampton. Then what we called the ‘Roaring Restoration’ began. The carousel had been in storage for a number of years. The Roaring Restoration was a group of people who came together to raise funds for the restoration. To earn money, they sold dedication plaques for horses, paintings, chariots, etc. The funds raised were in excess of a million dollars for the restoration. A gifted restorer named William Finkelstein was commissioned to restore the carousel. Before the carousel was shipped away, we had a going-away party for the horses.”
Once the restoration was complete and upon its return to Hampton, the carousel was reassembled in a new octagonal shaped, weather protected pavilion right across from the Virginia Space Museum. It is now a fully working carousel with all the sights and sounds of the original when it was built during the Golden Age of the Carousel.
Thanks to the efforts of Ms. Elizabeth Panzer, who initiated the idea of saving the carousel, along with Hampton Mayor James Daeson, the Hampton Carousel remains for generations to come to enjoy as one of the most outstanding examples of the Philadelphia style. It is an outstanding example of a dwindling number of Golden Age carousels still in operation today. We are extremely fortunate here in Virginia that we have one of the finest examples of a Golden Age carousel in pristine operating condition.
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For more information about the Hampton Carousel visit http://www.hampton.gov/Facilities/Facility/Details/1 or google Hampton Carousel. Better yet, take the whole family, young and old, for a glorious ride on a working, beautiful piece of history. It is a joy to behold and a bargain at just $1 a ride. Like generations of families before, in good times and bad, they will thrill to the music of the carousel band organ and relish a ride on the jumping painted ponies.
Note: There is an old legend known to carousel aficionados about how to find the lead horse on a carousel. The lead horse or king horse is usually the most beautifully decorated horse and generally is a war horse or other military horse. On a carousel with chariots, the lead horse would be the first horse on the right behind the chariot on the outside of the platform.