Carousel

The carousel at the Palisades Center Mall will be closing in a few weeks. (The lease isn't being renewed.) I've been taking my son there to ride on it for as long as I can remember ― we'll often go there for no better reason. So this is bittersweet news.

This carousel is just over a hundred years old, having originally been built in 1907 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. According to the information on this page, through the years it's been in Akron, Ohio, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Portland, Oregon (though that was only for storage), and Vancouver, British Columbia, among a few other locations. I wish I could say that this is a handsome antique, that it's worn it's history well, but that just isn't so. I suppose it's been as well cared for as a working carousel would allow ― but the horses, and many of the details have been replaced through the years with parts that are beneath so many coats of polyurethane they seem more plastic than wood. Or perhaps the incongruity of the setting takes something away from it's charm.

Plans are, I'm told, for a double-decker carousel of some sort to replace it. (I believe there's one at a nearby mall in Danbury, though I've never seen it.) I expect that will appeal greatly to my six-year-old.