Seaside Heights Carousel

Auction Could Be Undoing of New Jersey Carousel That Survived Hurricane and Fire Seaside Heights stands to lose its last carousel, the historic, wooden one, which dates to 1910 and features horses from some master carvers. The owners recently announced they would put it up for sale in the fall. Guernsey’s, the auction house, would like to keep the carousel in one piece, estimating its potential market value at $3 million. But failing that, it could be sold off piece by piece to collectors of carousel figures. The carousel, one of only about 150 antique wooden merry go rounds left in the United States, is unusually large, with 58 figures arrayed in four rows, mostly of horses, but including camels and a stray lion and tiger. It was moved to Seaside Heights in 1932, and has an authentic Wurlitzer military band organ from 1923. It was made by a noted carver, Gustav Dentzel, a German immigrant and cabinetmaker who settled in Philadelphia and soon had a flourishing business. While the earliest American carousels date to the 1870s, the heyday of the carousel trade was from 1900 to the late 1920s, when two dozen carousels graced Coney Island. Over the years, some of Dentzel’s figures on the Seaside Heights carousel were replaced by those of other master carvers, including the studios of Charles I. D. Looff, Charles Carmel and Marcus Illions.