For the first time since it was constructed in 1895 by famed Danish carousel builder and one-time Riverside resident Charles Looff, one of East Providence’s most historic and celebrated landmarks will be taken down to its bare bones and given a fresh infusion of mechanical vigor.

The Crescent Park Carousel has been operating in its mostly original condition for 129 years — thanks in no small part to Ed Serowik Sr., who has been the carousel’s caretaker for over 65 years, and Tracy Johnson, who has been the Carousel Manager for the past 20 years.

“We believe this is one of the last carousels built in its original location with its original parts,” Johnson said on Monday during an interview to discuss Phase 2 of a restoration project that will involve a complete disassembly of the carousel, all the way down to its inner mast, in order to replace two essential central bearings that have begun to show signs of wearing out.

“Over the last few years, we’ve noticed some changes in the way the carousel runs,” Johnson said. “If you get on, you won’t notice. But we notice. There’s a little bit of shifting and swaying.”

The replacement of the inner bearings will complete work that began in 2020 to shore up the foundation of the carousel, which Johnson said was fortuitous timing, as normal operations were shut down during the pandemic.

But even with a rejuvenated foundation, the discovery of wearing to the original bearings and accompanying instability forced a reduction in ridership to the carousel to about 30% of its usual capacity, Johnson said.

“Last season, the signs were there that this project could not be put off any longer,” she added. “We had two choices. We could continue to run until the ride itself tells us to stop, or we ultimately bite the bullet and get it done.”

The reduction in capacity has led to long lines in the past couple seasons for those looking to take a spin, and some confusion as to why so many of the historic, intricately carved horses sat empty while they queued for their turn.

“When we have huge events, I walk the line and let people know why there’s a line,” Johnson said. “And they’re always very surprised to hear it, but glad that we’re trying to keep her running and keep everyone safe…The very sad part is that all of the time and all the money that will be spent over this winter, when you walk in the doors in the spring, you won’t really know anything happened.”

A unique set of skills required
At the Dec. 17 meeting of the East Providence City Council, Johnson appeared to request approval for a contract worth $346,815 to enter into an agreement with Todd Goings, President and Owner of Carousel and Carvings, Inc. out of Marion, Ohio.

And while the contract went through the required bidding process, according to Johnson, there wasn’t likely to be much competition for the sophisticated project.

“You need to have somebody who understands the way it was built in order to take it apart,” she said, adding that Goings and his company might be the only such team in the country who is qualified to do this kind of job. “There are no schematics. In 1895 they did not have blueprint drawings like that. And although carousels have a lot of similarities, they’re also all unique. That’s why you need someone like Todd, who knows how it goes together and comes apart.”

The city council approved the contract unanimously, as $300,000 was earmarked from two of the city’s capital expenditure accounts, and the remainder is coming from the fundraising efforts of the Crescent Park Carousel Preservation Association; aided by a Rhode Island Commerce grant that bankrolled expenses from their fundraisers last season, enabling them to save much more of the proceeds for the restoration project.

Still, even with that quoted amount and the financial backing of the city, Johnson said there could still be surprises and increased expenses ahead once the work starts.

“The city has not owned it since its birth, so it was repaired differently over the years between park staff when it was an amusement park. There is a chance that when we go to take things apart, they’re not going to want to go back together,” she said. “This project has the potential to be a half million dollars or more.”

Thankfully, one of the benefits of working with someone like Goings, Johnson said, was that his company can mold and fabricate any replacement parts necessary at their shop in Ohio. The bearings for which they are contracted to replace will be newly casted specifically to the original’s specifications.

“She’s 129 now and those are her original bearings,” Johnson said. “So if we’re recasting them, those bearings should hopefully keep us going another 100 years.”

City public works employees will also be chipping in, as they have already fabricated wooden structures to be used to temporarily store the hundreds of different elements that make up the carousel — from the carved panels and mirrors, the sweeps and cranks and, of course, the many artfully decorated horses. Each piece needs to be meticulously numbered and catalogued for when it is reassembled.

Timeline and importance of the project
While procedurally everything is set and ready to go, Johnson said that at this point, they were waiting on the team, led by Steve Yanosik from Amusement Associates out of Connecticut, to be ready to come to Rhode Island and begin the disassembly process. Once they do, Johnson said (while knocking on a wooden support beam) that they estimated being able to completely disassemble the carousel in 7-14 days.

“That would be wonderful but that’s assuming every bolt and screw comes out the way that it’s supposed to,” she cautioned.

Next, Goings and his team would begin the process of fabricating the new bearings (and any other parts they find that need to be replaced), with the goal for Yanosik’s team to start reassembly on May 1, meaning the Carousel will hopefully be ready to resume operations by mid-June.

Asked about the significance of this project, Johnson (who has been in her position as Carousel manager for over 20 years) said that her passion for the Carousel goes back to her childhood growing up in Bullocks Point.

“The first day of the season, I knew, because they turned the organ on and I could hear it from my bedroom,” she said. “I was raised by a single dad and we didn’t have a lot of money. The ride manager at the time would let me sweep the floor, and then I could ride.”

Someone else with happy memories of the Carousel, Jess Mazer, happened to wander into the open door of the building while our interview was happening to see if she could take a stroll down memory lane. Originally from Smithfield and now a resident of Portland, Ore., she worked the ticket booth at the Carousel in 1992 when she was 19 years old.

“It wasn’t just the kids that loved it, the parents got really animated about the whole thing too. It was really nice just to see everybody sort of get young for a minute,” she said. “At the end of the night when they shut it off, if you ever saw the movie ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’, at the end of the night they turn the carnival backwards and it makes people grow younger. So at the end of the night we would hop on and cross our fingers.”

Johnson said that the Carousel has provided joy and entertainment to generations of Rhode Islanders.

“It’s part of your heritage. The historic nature aside, this is something affordable local people can come and do,” Johnson added. “We try to put on a lot of free activities to make it some place you can come with your family and make a family tradition. It’s the best when you see great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and then their children. You can get four generations who come and have been doing this their whole life.”

More than just locally, Johnson said that the Carousel has been a gift to the world that brought widespread attention and acclaim to East Providence.

“Sometimes the Carousel gets lost because we’re in your back yard and you just know we’re here. But what people don’t always understand is we’re a tourist destination,” she said. “We have people not only from all over the country but all over the world who come here, because this was Charles Looff’s showpiece. This was his largest and most elaborate piece of carousel work that he did. And to have it here, that’s really special. It has us on the map around the world. I hope people remember that, and realize how special that is.”