Flushing Meadows Carousel

Description

The Flushing Meadows Carousel is a carousel located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. It contains four rows of figures, including 64 jumping horses, 7 standing horses, 1 menagerie animal (a lion), and 2 chariots. It was created to serve patrons of the 1964 New York World's Fair by combining two earlier carousels, both of which were carved in Coney Island in the first decade of the twentieth century by renowned carver Marcus Illions. During the fair, it stood on a nearby site within the park, and it was moved to its present site in 1968, where it has remained in service ever since.In 2016 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.Coney Island predecessorsThe two predecessor carousels were the Feltman’s Carousel and the Stubbman Carousel, both of which were created for amusement operators in Coney Island. 47 horses and the frame are from the Stubbman Carousel, and 24 horses are from the Feltman’s Carousel.While Coney Island has seen resurgence since 2000, it had been busy during the Great Depression and had over twenty carousels spinning at once. The Feltman's Carousel had a restaurant and beer garden that occupied the site where the Luna Park currently sits, approximately between Jones Walk and West 10th Street. The carousel was indoors but faced Surf Avenue. The “Flying Horses” catalogue issued in 1970 by Rol and Jo Summit noted that some of the horses on Feltman’s carousel were left over from an earlier Looff carousel that caught fire, probably around 1899 or 1900. Feltman's carousel is regarded by some as Marcus Illions' masterpiece.