Big-kid fun on the carousel at Grand Rapids Public Museum

Like a lot of kids, I love macaroni and cheese, so guess what I ordered for lunch when we stopped for lunch at the cafe in the Grand Rapids Public Museum? You got it! I ordered mac 'n' cheese from the kiddies' menu, a meal that came with a free ticket to ride the museum's beautiful 1928 Spillman Carousel.

Tim was laughing too hard to remember to take photos of me on the ride, so you'll just have to make do with my photos of some of the beautiful carousel animals I took during my ride and on a subsequent visit to the museum. I think you'll enjoy those better than a photo of me, anyway!

This carousel, manufactured in 1928 by Spillman Engineering Company of North Tonawanda, New York, operated at Pennsylvania's now-defunct Lakewood Amusement Park until it closed in the early 1980s.

Many people in Grand Rapids remembered childhood days spent on the carousel and other rides at East Grand Rapids' long-gone Ramona Park, and those fond memories apparently sparked the idea to acquire the Lakewood carousel for Grand Rapids.

Peter Cook, Grand Rapids businessman and benefactor, led a community campaign to bring the carousel to the city, restore it, and construct a pavilion to house it as the Grand Rapids Public Museum constructed its Van Andel Center building in 1994.

Restoration of the carousel took many years as workers spent about 300 hours on each of the wooden carousel animals, carefully restoring them to their original colors and design with enameled acrylic paints.

It wasn't unusual to see a mix of figures from several different carvers and eras on a single platform, and the museum's carousel follows that tradition with a mix of figures from different carvers and various iterations of companies established by amusement ride pioneer Allan Herschell, including Herschell-Spillman, Spillman Engineering, Looff and Carmel.

Carousel manufacturers often substituted a few horses with different animals or an ornate, carved seat ("Neptune's chariot"), as a mark of distinction. The Grand Rapids carousel is a menagerie-style carousel with three rows of animals that include 40 jumping horses, four standing horses, six menagerie animals (tiger, goat, deer, camel, lion, and giraffe) and two chariots.

The carousel's original ticket booth, 1,200 lights outlining the canopy and decorative panels, carved decorative details, polished brass poles, and Wurlitzer band organ music complete the picture of the ride in all of its restored glory.

Today, the carousel operates year round in the museum's Cook Carousel Pavilion, just off of the first floor Galleria and overlooking the Grand River.

Cook died at the age of 96 in late 2010, and the museum offered free carousel rides to visitors on one day that December in his memory. In 2011, museum officials started a new tradition of an annual day with free carousel rides for visitors to celebrate Cook's birthday each May 9.

Nearly half of the almost 150 antique, hand-carved wooden carousels still in operation in North American today are products of Herschell-related companies in North Tonawanda. A handful of them currently operate in museums like the Grand Rapids Public Museum and metropolitan Detroit's Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford.

Machinist and molder Allan Herschell began manufacturing carousels and other rides in 1873. In the early 1900s, he started the Herschell-Spillman Company with his in-laws, making larger carousels, more realistically detailed carousel animals, and developing many safety improvements. Herschell split off on his own in 1915, competing with the Spillman company as tough economic times during the 1930s killed a lot of the demand for large, ornate carousels. Herschell's company remained in business through the 1960s and beyond by developing a lot of small-scale kiddie rides and thrill rides like Twister, Hurricane, and Sky Wheel for adults.

In 1983, Herschell's last factory in North Tonawanda became the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum (yes, that museum uses the variant spelling of "carrousel" in its name). It includes exhibits about the history of various Herschell-related businesses, the art of carving carousel animals, and the history of carousel development over the years.

Want to learn more about carousels and carousel animal carving? Check out Carousel Animal Carving: Patterns & Techniques by Bud Ellis and Rhonda Hoeckley or Flying Horses: The Golden Age of American Carousel Art, 1870-1930 by Peter J. Malia.

Curious about some of the old amusement parks mentioned in this story? Check out Western New York Amusement Parks by Rose Ann Hirsch, Lakewood Park by The Guinan Family and Grand Rapids: Community and Industry by Thomas R. Dilley. All three of these books have some vintage photos of the Herschell/Spillman carousels operating at the parks.

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