NEW YORK—A beautiful restored vintage carousel made its debut at Brooklyn Bridge Park on Thursday afternoon. Mayor Bloomberg and visitors from all around the city gathered to celebrate Jane Walentas’s nearly three decades of hard work dedicated to renewing the carousel.
Jane’s Carousel is located between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge at the center of the park, and is a gift from the Walentas family to the city. Parents and their children stood by to wait for the cutting of the ribbon. Numerous officials spoke at the event, thanking the Walentas family for its generosity.
“This is a magical city, this is a magical carousel, and this a magical gift that the Walentas have made to New Yorkers and will be treasured for generations,” said Bloomberg.
Though nearly 90 years old, the carousel has been restored to the point of perfection. Jane spent 27 years rediscovering the original colors and designs by scraping off layers of paint from the 48 horses and 2 chariots on the carousel. Then she painted them by hand, restoring the original details and carvings. The horses were given glass eyes and embellished with pure gold leaf.
Jane hired workers from motor company BMW for the delicate pinstriping. David Haraska, a custom pinstriper who worked on the carousel for one year, said, “It was a fun project and a great experience.”
Nouvel designed the $9 million pavilion to be a 72 feet by 72 feet square and 27 feet tall, with the 50-foot diameter carousel placed at the center under a circular skylight. Four cylindrical poles support the structure. The exterior of the pavilion is made of acrylic panels.
In the evening, screens come down four sides of the pavilion and light projects from the carousel’s center, creating a light show.
Jane’s Carousel was originally constructed in 1922 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company and installed in Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, becoming the first carousel to be listed.
The Walentas family purchased the carousel at an auction in October 1984 and saved the carousel from being sold off piece by piece.
In total, the Walentas family contributed $15 million to the site including the price of the carousel, the pavilion, and $3.5 million for the construction of Brooklyn Bridge Park funded by David Walentas, founder of Two Trees Management and husband of Jane Walentas.
The carousel will open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. from April 6 to Nov. 5 every day except Tuesday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Thursday to Sunday from Nov. 6 to April 5. The fee to ride the carousel is $2 per ride.
