Dentzel Carousel (Burlington, North Carolina)

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The Burlington City Park Carousel is a 3-Row Dentzel Menagerie Carousel built around 1906-1910 at the Dentzel Carousel Company on Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Carousel was purchased by the City of Burlington in the summer of 1948 from Mr. Carl Utoff, the owner of Forest Park Amusement Park in Genoa, Ohio. Mr. Utoff purchased the machine in about 1924 from Locust Point Amusement Park in Oak Harbor, Ohio.

No one knows the exact date of our Carousel or where it first ran, but the mirrors are stamped March and April of 1913, and on the bottom of the wooden platform were penciled May 1914. One of the rounding boards is a copy of a 1903 Remington painting. Our frames and rounding boards are similar to one in the 1906 era. Our chariots are numbered VIII and IX, meaning that at one time they were together, in a pair, on a larger carousel. The early 1900's were known as the "Golden Era" for carousels and many were sent back to be refurbished or made into different carousels. Parts made in different years were put together and perhaps our Carousel was one of those.

The Animals and Mechanics of the Carousel
There are 46 hand-carved wooden animals including 26 horses, 4 each of cats, ostriches, rabbits, and pigs; 1 each of a deer, giraffe, lion and tiger, and 2 chariots. These animals are hand carved out of bass and poplar wood and are a hollow series of boxes and wood pieces glued together with hide glue into the basic shape, and then carved by hand. The Dentzel carvers were noted for their realism with carving of the veins and muscles of the animals. The eyes are glass with pupils, and the tails are real horsehair.

The mechanical make-up of the Carousel is unique, as it contains many unusual types of bearings and gears, as well as an unusual clutch system. The many who ran the carousel while in Locust Point remembers going out in the mornings and attempting to start the single cylinder gas engine that once powered the Carousel. It was later changed to an electric motor prior to its coming to Burlington.
www.burlingtonnc.gov/index.aspx?NID=232