Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn, New York, USA

© Grzegorz Gill/Shutterstoc

Feeling merry. Take a ride to yesteryear

Here on the Brooklyn waterfront in New York, Jane’s Carousel, built 400 miles away in Idora Park, Ohio, has been delighting riders for nearly a century. Its story begins in 1922, an era of speakeasies and flappers and a booming time in merry-go-round history, when the rides were a symbol of a community’s prosperity. Like many merry-go-rounds produced in that time, the ride fell into disrepair. It was damaged in a fire and Idora Park closed to the public in 1984. That’s when New York couple Jane and David Walentas bought it at auction and shipped the ride to Brooklyn for a waterfront restoration project. The merry-go-round was painstakingly restored over a period of 27 years – a project overseen by Jane herself. It’s now housed in a glass ‘jewel box’ pavilion designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel at Brooklyn Bridge Park, a testament to the love that America has for these nostalgic rides.