A carousel built more than a century ago will finally arrive in San Francisco this weekend, but it took several detours and a lot of effort to get it here.
At the start of the 1900s, Charles Looff created the ride in his workshop in Rhode Island, but it was intended to head for the City by the Bay. It was designed to be part of a theme park planned near Market Street and Van Ness Avenue, but the earthquake of 1906 made it impossible to place the carousel on that site.
It wound up in Luna Park in Seattle instead, where it remained for 10- years, until a fire burned the park to the ground—with the exception of the merry-go-round.
After that, the ride did come to San Francisco, but to Playland-at-the-Beach. It stayed there until the park closed in 1972, then was taken apart and auctioned off. Fortunately, it was bought by Marianne Stevens, a collector, who moved the whole thing to her Roswell, New Mexico workshop for renovation. It finally came back to San Francisco in 1998, where it was installed at Yerba Buena Gardens.
Over the series of moves, and due to wear-and-tear, the carousel needed another renovation, which was begun at the start of this year. Happily, the merry-go-round is slated to open Saturday, May 17, and a huge celebration is planned.
Park officials could work with banner printers to create flags to hang near the carousel as part of the festivities, and to explain its interesting story.
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496 9th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
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