ALBANY – The New York State Museum’s antique carousel has reopened after extensive repairs and upgrades, state officials announced this week.
Officials reopened the carousel with dozens of local elementary school students and their teachers in attendance.
The carousel is one of the museum’s most popular attractions. It’s more than a century old, carved around 1895 and built between 1912 and 1916 by the Herschell-Spillman Company in North Tonawanda.
The work included the carousel being disassembled, new parts fabricated and “meticulous repairs made by some of the few remaining specialized craftsmen in the country,” a state Department of Education release reads.
The upgrades included repairs to the center pole bearings, installation of new hardware and replacement of more than 700 incandescent light bulbs with new, energy efficient LED bulbs.
It was then reassembled over the past three years, officials said.
The carousel has been in the museum’s hands since 1975, when it purchased it from an amusement park in Cuba, N.Y. It had previously spent its life touring local fairs around the Southern Tier and Northern Pennsylvania.
The carousel can accommodate up to 50 riders at the time and is to be open to the public Tuesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“The State Museum Carousel is truly a work of art,” State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said in a statement. “Members of the Museum staff have worked diligently alongside craftsmen with highly specialized skills to painstakingly bring the more than 100-year-old carousel back to life for our visitors. It is gratifying that this labor of love is complete, and I encourage everyone to experience first-hand the nostalgic magic of this treasured artifact.”
Categories: -News-, Art, Entertainment, Life and Arts, Life and Arts, News, Schenectady County
