A not-so-new carousel coming to Canalside

A rare park style carousel is coming back to life at Canalside next summer. This carousel is different--because of the history behind it. 

It's not brand new carousel but a restored carousel from 1924. For 60 years the carousel was held in storage and wasn't running until The Buffalo Heritage Carousel found it. They decided they wanted to bring this piece back around to Buffalo as all 34 pieces were manufactured at The Herschell Spillman Company in North Tonawanda. 

"It's a local manufactured carousel with modern technologies," Laurie Hauer-LaDuca, President of the Buffalo Heritage Carousel, said. "Its very special in and of itself that we are able to bring it back to life a street away from where it was born." 

The restoration process began six years ago. Volunteers have worked countless hours sanding, priming, and painting the wooden animals to be as much as the original as possible, Helen Ronan volunteer coordinator for the restoration project said. 

"This is going to be our legacy," Chris Kasprzak a volunteer painter said. "Most of us are older and we have no idea how long we are going to be here but we are doing it for our children and our grand children and just for the love of children in general." 

The volunteers are making sure every detail is perfect and that the animals will look as close as possible to the original adds Ronan. 

People and businesses can sponsor a horse or animal and name the wooden figure if they would like. For more information head to the Buffalo Heritage Carousel website. 

The plan is to have the carousel up and running by the summer of 2019, if all the funds and the building to house the carousel are complete. 

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