Why Jane’s Carousel Offers the Most Photographed Skyline Views in Brooklyn
By Chloe Bennett
The carousel was not built for New York City. Designated as Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel No. 61, the machine was manufactured in 1922 and shipped directly to Idora Park, an amusement grounds in Youngstown, Ohio. For sixty-two years, the carousel operated through economic booms, the Great Depression, and the Rust Belt’s eventual industrial decline. When a massive electrical fire gutted Idora Park in the spring of 1984, the amusement park shuttered permanently, leaving its surviving rides destined for the auction block.
Enter David and Jane Walentas. David Walentas, the visionary real estate developer whose firm Two Trees Management effectively created modern DUMBO by purchasing two million square feet of vacant industrial loft space in the late 1970s, envisioned a vintage carousel as the centerpiece of a transformed waterfront. At the October 1984 auction, the couple submitted the winning bid of $385,000 for Carousel No. 61, beating out secondary collectors who intended to dismantle the ride and sell individual carved figures to private decorators.
Relocating the massive wooden assembly to New York was merely the first hurdle. David Walentas’s early master plans for the waterfront faced years of regulatory battles with state agencies, park advocacy coalitions, and preservation boards. While the bureaucratic machinery crawled forward across three decades, the carousel sat disassembled inside an empty warehouse on Water Street. It was here that Jane Walentas initiated what would become one of the most obsessive private art conservation projects in modern city history.
Chloe Bennett explores the intersection of pop culture, streaming entertainment, digital trends, and contemporary lifestyle. Her weekly commentary reaches thousands of culture enthusiasts.
