Hello, MMD friends,  Jeff Bridges wrote, in 030919 MMDigest:

> Whalom Park, in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, has closed for good. ...
> Let's not let a piece of history, nor the carousel, go to waste!

The carousel was forced to auction by Commerce Bank in April 2000.
At the time of the auction, this Looff carousel was the oldest American
carousel still operating in an amusement park anywhere in the world.

However, at the time of the auction, it was erroneously believed that
the carousel dated to the early 20th century.  Subsequent research
I have done has it traced back at least as far as the Spring, 1898,
opening of Pleasure Bay Park in Long Branch, New Jersey.  The auction
was discussed in several postings of MMD at the time, search the
MMD Archives for key word "Whalom".

The carousel was broken up at the auction and I purchased the frame.
It was reopened at the park for the summer of 2000, with borrowed and
rented animals, and then the park closed for good on Labor Day, 2000.

I have single-handedly dismantled the carousel and put it into
storage for now.  It is my hope to get it installed somewhere at
some time in the future.  It is a beautiful 50-foot Looff frame with
carved mirror frames and paintings on the rounding boards, and a lot
of artwork concealed beneath white park paint.  As far as I know, it
is the second oldest American carousel with carving on the rounding
boards, the only older one, to my knowledge, being Crescent Park's.

There has been no band organ with the carousel since at least as
far back as the 1950s.  At that time, a reel-to-reel tape player of
German manufacture, mounted in a fake organ facade made of particle
board, was purchased.  By the time I worked the carousel, from the
late 1970s to the early 1980s, it used BMI tapes of band organ music
produced by Baptist Sound & Mfg. Co.  At the time I worked there,
I met only one customer who had any recollection of any band organ
having been there.

At some time between 1907 and 1914 the carousel was converted from
an all-stationary machine by the addition of a bull gear and crank
mechanism by Mangels.  It was brought to Whalom Park in 1914 as
a concession by band organ and amusement ride tycoon Louis Berni.
A Whalom Park brochure from that time period has a photo of the
building and a caption reading "Equipped with a Berni Organ."
This page is reproduced in the MMD Archives at
http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/whalom.html.

Lunenburg town financial reports for subsequent years list a variety
of licensees for the carousel permit, which I believe reflects the
carousel having changed hands several times.  The carousel was not
owned by the park until the mid-1950s, when it was purchased from the
last of a series of concessionaires, John Bregoli.  I strongly suspect
that, whatever organ(s) was/were used on this carousel, one of the
concessionaires removed the last of the organs prior to a sale of the
carousel at some point in time.

I now live in southeastern Pennsylvania, about five-and-a-half to six
hours from Whalom, but I have spent much time at the park over the last
four years and have been in every storage place and nook and cranny
throughout the park.  With one exception, noted below, no trace of any
band organ remains, and there was none to my knowledge even back in the
1970s.

Prior to the 1970s, this park was quick to dispose of anything that did
not serve a function within its amusement business.  From the 1980s on,
they seemed to throw nothing away.  However, during the past three
years, nearly everything of any value greater than scrap has been
purchased or simply hauled away for the asking.  I purchased all of the
remaining original 1890s vintage cast iron frame benches for $35 each,
for example.

I did find a single brass trumpet resonator, of the type from a Model
125 organ, up in the former band organ loft in the 1906 skating rink
building.  Early documentation indicates that this rink was equipped
with a Wurlitzer band organ costing $2500, if I recall.  That seemed
to be the last organ related piece left.  Had there been anything else,
I would have snagged it.

I am putting together a replica Wurlitzer 165 band organ for eventual
use on the carousel.  I have half of the pipework and some other wood
components, all of which are finely crafted, careful replicas by Steve
Lanick, and an original Wurlitzer Duplex 165 tracker frame and other
hardware.  But I still have a way to go and still need to find or
manufacture many more parts, including the other half of the pipework,
a vacuum chest, most of the pressure chest and register controls,
pressure pumps and reservoir, case and facade, and percussion beaters
and instruments.

If anyone has parts, or information such as measurements for Wurlitzer
165 parts, I would appreciate any leads.  I want the organ to be as
accurate a replica of what left the Wurlitzer factory as is humanly
possible.

I have purchased the park's former Web domain, www.whalompark.com, and
will put up a history page there in the near future, although nothing
is up yet.  I have done a lot of research for a future book and have
thousands of images from the 1880s to the present.

Several rides remain, including the 1940 Flyer Comet roller coaster,
one of only two remaining by Vernon Keenan, the designer of the 1927
Coney Island Cyclone, which, naturally, is the other.

Meanwhile, the park is still not sold and efforts to preserve it and
fight development at the site will continue until successful.  The sale
of the rides is of no consequence in the fight to save the park -- few
rides were irreplaceable.  The purchasers of some of the ones that were
irreplaceable have agreed to return them if the park is saved.  I plan
to reinstall the carousel there in that event.

Enough writing for now; I have to get back to Whalom Park to pack my
car for my return trip to Pennsylvania tonight!

Please contact me if there is anything you can do to help in the fight
to save this, the oldest trolley park in New England.

Best regards,

Mark S. Chester