The historic Chase Palm Park carousel will move to a new home in Oregon come early December, after nearly 20 years of operation on the Santa Barbara waterfront.
The carousel’s owner is breaking its lease early with the city because operating costs exceed the revenue it brings in, said Jill Zachary, director of the city Parks & Recreation Department.
“It’s unfortunate,” she told Noozhawk. “It has been popular with a number of Santa Barbara families and visitors, but it hasn’t experienced the kind of walkthrough traffic to make it economically viable.
“Over the last number of years, the popularity of the carousel has declined.”
The owner, Historic Carousels Inc., will be removing the merry-go-round, and transporting the hand-carved mini-horses and carriages to its home base of Hood River, Ore., where it will be installed in a museum for historically significant carousels.
The carousel was built in 1916 and originally installed in San Diego. It was moved to Santa Barbara in 1999.
“It’s a historic carousel,” Zachary said. “It represents the birth of community recreation, and carousels were found throughout urban areas in the United States for years. There aren’t many left.”
To celebrate the merry-go-round’s last weekend in Santa Barbara, the Parks & Recreation Department and Historic Carousels are hosting a carousel carnival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 2 at Chase Palm Park, 323 E. Cabrillo Blvd.
The event includes free carousel rides, music, giveaways, a photo booth, carnival games, a bouncy castle, balloons and face painting.
Carousel rides also will be free of charge Dec. 3.
“We want to make sure that Santa Barbara gives the carousel the best send-off,” Zachary said.
The city owns the building that houses the carousel and the surrounding park land.
“We haven’t finalized our plans for what will happen, but the structure will remain, and we anticipate to find a way for it to be integrated into the park and another community feature that we will be able to enjoy,” Zachary said.
Brad Perron, president of Historic Carousels, explained his plans for the carousel and museum in Hood River, a recreation and tourist mecca on the Columbia River, about 60 miles east of Portland.
“This carousel has enormous sentimental value to our family” he said. “It will be the first part of our development plans for a Carousel Museum next to an outdoor amphitheater and destination hotel.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
