The Lakeside Park Carousel is a historic carousel located in

Port Dalhousie, Ontario Port Dalhousie is a community in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Known for its waterfront appeal, it is home to the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta and is historically significant as the terminus for the first three (19th century) routes of th ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, a community in the city of St. Catharines.

History

The Lakeside Park Carousel was carved by Charles I.D. Looff between 1898 and 1905 in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. The animals were carved by Looff's factory workers, including

Marcus Illions Marcus Charles Illions (1871–1949) was a master carver of wooden carousel horses and other figures at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City in the early 20th century. ''The New York Times'' referred to him as "the Michelangelo of carousel c ...

, who worked for Looff at the time. The carousel's rounding boards and scenery panels were built by George William Kremer, and are similar in appearance to those found on the

Knoebels Knoebels Amusement Resort () is a family-owned and operated amusement park, picnic grove, and campground in Elysburg, Pennsylvania. Opened in 1926, it is America's largest free-admission park. The park has more than 60 rides including three wooden ...

Grand Carousel, which is the only other Kremer carousel still in operation. In 1921, the carousel was moved from its original location in

Scarborough, Ontario Scarborough (; 2021 Census 629,941) is a district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is situated atop the Scarborough Bluffs in the eastern part of the city. Its borders are Victoria Park Avenue to the west, Steeles Avenue to the north, Rouge R ...

to its current location in Port Dalhousie. At the time, Lakeside Park had 58 attractions. The Lakeside Park Carousel is the only remaining attraction at Lakeside Park, and is now owned by the city of St. Catharines.

Description

The carousel has 68 hand-carved wooden animals, including horses, lions, camels, goats and giraffes. The carousel also has four chariots. The animals on the carousel still have real horsehair tails.

Friends of the Lakeside Park Carousel

The Friends of the Lakeside Park Carousel are a group of dedicated volunteers who have carefully and fully restored the carousel, and continue to care for and maintain the carousel to keep it in perfect working order.

Frati & Co. Band Organ

The Lakeside Park Carousel is home to a late 19th century

band organ A fairground organ (french: limonaire) is a French pneumatic musical organ covering the wind and percussive sections of an orchestra. Originated in Paris, France, it was designed for use in commercial fairground settings to provide loud musi ...

built by Frati & Co. of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and is located in the centre of the carousel. The organ was originally played by a pinned barrel, but was converted by

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

at some point between 1927 and the 1940s to their Wurlitzer 150 scale. The organ is equipped with automatic stops, percussion instruments (also known as "traps") and a duplex roll-frame, which allows for continuous music. When one roll is finished playing, the next one starts playing while the first one rewinds to begin again. Employees from the municipal government change the music rolls every two days. On very hot and humid days, carousel employees usually opt to play recorded carousel music, due to the fact that the high temperature and humidity de-tune the organ. The band organ was restored in 1985, and again in 2005, and is continuously maintained by the city of St. Catharines.

References

{{Reflist Carousels Tourist attractions in Ontario Buildings and structures in St. Catharines