B&B Carousel #1 (From Chic Silber)

As a part of Coney Island’s makeover, the B&B Carousel was dismantled and restored at a facility in Ohio. “The herd’s coming home,” said Todd W. Goings, a carousel restorer in Marion, Ohio. For five years, the 50 horses of Coney Island’s historic B&B Carousel had been his charges. Now, the antique wooden animals are back in Brooklyn with new coats of paint, new tails and refurbished joints. For decades, Coney Island was something of a carousel headquarters. In the late 1800s, carousel makers set up shops there and by the turn of the century two dozen merry go rounds were operating on the island. There even evolved a Coney Island school of carousel design, distinct from the more staid Philadelphia and County Fair styles. The Coney Island style was characterized by flamboyant, aggressive looking horses. The B&B was built in Coney Island, with a frame dating to 1906, and at some point it operated in New Jersey, although it is unclear for how long. In the early 1920s it received a new set of horses that were carved by Charles Carmel, one of Coney Island’s celebrated carousel makers. The carousel returned to Brooklyn by 1935.