Historic Carousel Spins Again For Public In Seaside Heights

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ — It has been more than five years of hard work and painstaking effort, but the historic Dr. Floyd L. Moreland Dentzel/Looff Carousel is set to reopen to the public just in time for the July 4th weekend.

The carousel is set to open from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3 at its new home at Sampson Avenue on the Seaside Heights boardwalk, the Seaside Heights Historical Society announced.

Beginning July 4th, the carousel will spin daily from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., according to the society, which has been one of the groups leading the restoration efforts. Fall hours will be announced in August.

The Seaside Heights Historical Society did a soft launch, with its members and supporters getting to enjoy the first rides on the carousel last weekend.

The carousel was moved from its previous location on Casino Pier as part of an agreement between Casino Pier, owned by the Storino family, and the Borough of Seaside Heights that was finalized in 2019 in a controversial land swap.

The Storino family received a 1.37-acre parcel of beachfront at Sheridan Avenue to expand Casino Pier, and the borough got the carousel and a parking lot at Carteret and Sampson avenues, along with a 67-acre piece of property on the west side of the Garden State Parkway in Toms River.

The deal wound up in court, with environmental groups challenging the borough's decision to give what they viewed as public land to a private developer, under state Green Acres rules. An appeals court later upheld the swap. The New Jersey Supreme Court in January refused to hear an appeal of the decision, NJ.com reported.

The Dentzel/Looff Carousel was valued at between $2.3 million and $2.5 million in 2019, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press. It was built in 1910 and moved to Seaside Heights in 1932. It is one of four remaining wooden carousels in New Jersey and one of about 150 still operating in the United States, from an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 that existed during their heyday, Seaside Heights Borough Administrator Christopher Vaz said in a 2016 report.

The Storinos had planned to sell the carousel because maintenance had become so expensive, the Press report said. The borough sought to preserve the carousel because of its historic nature, a move that was supported by the state Department of Environmental Protection, Vaz said at the time.

The work to repair began with the removal of its Wurlitzer Band Organ,which was sent to York, Pennsylvania, for repairs in early 2019, the Asbury Park Press reported. The carousel itself was disassembled that fall and all of the elements restored and adjustments made to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act access.

The restoration project was not the first for the carousel. In the 1980s Dr. Floyd L. Moreland oversaw restoration of the then-badly deteriorated carousel, the Asbury Park Press reported. It also was damaged in a fire in 1928 and repaired before it was moved to Seaside Heights.