The already bittersweet story of the last remaining gem from Youngstown's Idora Park came close to epic tragedy. After decades of decline, the park burned to the ground in 1984, with the last major remanant, an amazing carousel bought by the wife a wealthy NYC developer. Finally, fully restored and placed a few feet from the water's edge in a small park under The Brooklyn Bridge.
From The Daily Beast
The 48 horses and four chariots that make up what’s now called Jane’s Carousel—after Walentas—brought delight to children at Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio—then a prospering steel town—in 1922. After the city declined along with the steel industry in the 1970s, a fire consumed the park, but spared the historic carousel—in 1974, it became the first one ever listed on the National Register of Historic Places—which went up for auction in 1984.
The Walentases scooped up the bruised and battered carousel for $385,000, and it was shipped in parts to New York City in 1984, and the horses were stored for much of the next few years in individual stalls in the basement of David’s building at 45 Main Street.
Told by experts, the Carousel would be safe from a 100 year storm, Sandy a mere category 1 Hurricane almost washed it away.
There, in Brooklyn Bridge Park, on a three-foot high pavilion that usually stood 30 feet from the river’s edge, the waters whipped up by Hurricane Sandy were engulfing the carousel she had cared for over decades.
The last significant remnant of Idora Park may never come back to Youngstown but it sure will be a big star in the bright lights of NY.
"It’s a pretty dramatic location, between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges, and the carousel will be sheltered in a pretty ritzy pavilion, a $9 million transparent acrylic jewel box by the French architect Jean Nouvel. The horses, originally installed in a theme park in Youngstown in 1922, are now looking pretty good themselves: Their glass eyes glitter; they have brass tags denoting their fine lineage, the Philadelphia Toboggan Company; they’re costumed in sweet sherbet colors of peach and tangerine. There’s a palomino here, a bay there, a line of ponies. Each is different: one, perhaps an American Indian pony, has two feathers on its decorative, or what carousel aficionados call its “romantic” side, the one that is visible to spectators. Another has a shawl across its back and a clutch of roses at the saddle. A Gypsy woman’s horse, no doubt."
Let Youngstown become the really livable, affordable, creative place NY once was. We take the people and the energy and they get the shiny museum pieces in plastic boxes for tourists too look at. Fair trade.
Well, the bittersweet moment has come for lovers of one of the last remaining pieces of Youngstown's lost Idora Park.
The wealthy woman who bought the wonderful, historic carousel and painstakingly restored it has finally gotten her wish and is placing it in a concrete and glass pavilion almost under The Brooklyn Bridge.
This should be a happy tale, but partly because the park is so small and needs no further attraction beyond the views of New York and the Brooklyn Bridge itself, many resent this addition--underlying this is a lot of subtext about gentrification. It's all worthy of a book or a documentary.
Here are my two earlier posts about the carousel and Idora Park.
I may be crossing a bit of a line in publishing this email I received about the Idora Park Carousel, the last major fragment left of a beloved local amusement park. Read my earlier post about it. I replied to the email with a request to post it but haven't heard back. I am taking a shot at publishing it. It's the only small thing I can do to try to make something happen. It's up to the people of Youngstown to show they want it back and can realistically show it the love it deserves.
Hopefully this will catch someone's eye and spark some movement.
"Hello , I am a proud resident of Youngstown Ohio. I was loking for some information on the Beautiful Idora Park Carousel. I call her " Idora" . I do realize that she has been beautifully restored, and resides under some bridge, in Brooklyn, NY. I have also heard that she is not particularly wanted there In her new( hopefully temporary) home. My heart aches, just thinking that Idora ( the carousel) is not wanted there, and we sincerly want her back. Idora belongs in Youngstown Ohio. OK she was put on the auction block. I was pretty young when the Idora Carousel was auctioned off. Not that I had the money to purchase her,but I believed, like I know many here in Youngstown, felt that one of our more well to do, residents would step up and rescue " Our Beloved Carousel" Unfortunatly that did not happen, and we lost Idora. It is a great loss for our area, and we still feel the loss today. We want her back. I realize that a Jane Walensa bought, and restored her, and that is something to be thankful for. Knowing that Jane loves her also help a little. However Idora belongs here in Youngstown Ohio, It's her home. Perhaps Mrs. Jane Walensa can offer to give her back to her hometown. I am sure that even Jane would want The Idora Park Carousel , to be settled in a place that truly loves her , and wants her back. It was a huge mistake to let her be auctioned off so easily, without fighting for her. It was a bad time for our city, at that particular point in time. We had lost our steel mills,and our economy was hiting theskids. We were in shock. Trying to figure out what happened to our economy, and where do we go from here. then the fire hit Idora Park, and the owner decided to auction off what was left. Our town has finally after long last had some great breaks lately, and we are on our way back, hopefully, thank God. all I know is, that whenever Idora Park is mentioned, The next words words are always the same. The Carousel should never have been on the auction block, and let go the way it did. Help us get her back."
Thank you.
It's a strange, sad situation with the potential for a very happy ending.
A little context might help which I might give in a later post. Just like the reader of the letter, what upset me most is that it's mostly not wanted in NY, or at least in the place Jane wants to put it.
This is similar to the Mellon Arena, Lower Hill story, in that you can't easily separate an object or buildings value or meaning from it's historical and cultural setting.
I imagine if your from Youngstown or have any memories of Idora Park, this video is very bittersweet. The truth is that I find this almost too upsetting to post about and I know almost nothing about this.
However, I can tell you as a former New Yorker, Your Carousel is very much alive--or at least perfectly restored and housed almost in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge cause i've seen it.
"The park (Idora) opened as Terminal Park on May 30, 1899 which was Decoration Day. At that point in American history, it was common for trolley parks, or amusement parks, to sprout up at the end of trolley lines to generate weekend revenue. Without an admission fee, anyone who had the money for the trolley fare could go. The park's first season presented its guests a bandstand, theater, dance pavilion, a roller coaster, a circle swing, and concession stands. By the end of 1899, it was renamed "Idora Park" as a result of a contest.
When a bridge spanning the Mahoning River opened on Youngstown's Market Street on May 23, 1899, the entire South Side was unrolled for development. The trolley line linking the downtown to Idora Park ran south on Market, west on Warren, south on Hillman Street, Sherwood west to Glenwood Avenue, then cruised through Parkview Avenue (west) into the Idora terminal."
And then it died slow and ugly like a lot of things around those parts. But never forgotten.
Even more sad is that a lot of folks in NYC, don't even seem to want the Carousel--which to them is little more than an object, now so apart from the place that gave it meaning. Is there even a remote chance it could come back to Youngstown--perhaps as a centerpiece of it's downtown?
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