Seaside Heights Carousel To Get $750K State Grant

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ — Efforts to preserve and permanently display the historic Dentzel/Looff Carousel in Seaside Heights have gotten a boost from the state: the Preserve New Jersey Historic Preservation Fund has recommended a $750,000 grant for the carousel.

The grant recommendation, announced by the New Jersey Historic Trust Board, is among $11.9 million in grants anticipated to be approved Tuesday by the Garden State Preservation Trust, the Seaside Heights Historical Society said. It is a matching grant, meaning the borough will receive funding up to $750,000 based on how much it raises on its own.

The borough had applied for a $1.5 million Green Acres grant in the spring. It has an ongoing FundRazr campaign for direct donations, and updates the Seaside Heights Historical Society Facebook page with other fundraisers.

The effort to preserve the Dr. Floyd L. Moreland Dentzel/Looff Carousel has been under way for months. Seaside Heights acquired it in 2017 following a public outcry over plans by the Storino family, which owns Casino Pier, to sell it because maintenance costs had become too expensive.

It became part of a controversial land swap agreement between Casino Pier and the borough that gave Casino Pier a 1.37-acre parcel of beachfront at Sheridan Avenue. The borough got the carousel and a parking lot at Carteret and Sampson avenues, along with a 67-acre piece of property on the west side of the Garden State Parkway in Toms River. The parking lot is slated to become home to the new carousel building.

The Dentzel/Looff Carousel was built in 1910 and moved to Seaside Heights in 1932, and is one of four remaining wooden carousels in New Jersey, and one of about 150 operating in the United States. It is valued at between $2.3 million and $2.5 million, Seaside Heights Borough Administrator Christopher Vaz said in a 2016 Asbury Park Press report.

The carousel was shut down in April in preparation for the preservation and restoration work. In March, its Wurlitzer Band Organ was sent to York, Pennsylvania, for repairs, the Asbury Park Press reported.

The carousel itself is scheduled to be disassembled in late October by Ohio-based Carousel & Carvings and will be stored in a temporary workshop for needed repairs. The new carousel pavilion-museum must be constructed and ready for occupancy by the end of 2021.

Created in 1910 by the Dentzel Studio, the carousel was originally located in Burlington Island Park, Burlington, and moved to Seaside Heights in 1932. It has nearly 1,000 named parts, more than 2,000 electric sockets and light bulbs, and a massive number of fasteners, pegs, brackets, and other devices to hold everything safely together.

According to the historical society, the carousel has 35 "jumping" horses, 18 stationary horses, five other stationary animals (including a lion, tiger, donkey, and two camels), and two chariots. All of the 18 outer-row figures, including the lion and tiger and 16 horses, are G.A. Dentzel figures created between the 1890s and 1909 in Germantown, Philadelphia, PA. Dentzel was a pioneer maker of American carousels. Many other figures were crafted by Charles I.D. Looff, another pioneer carousel manufacturer. Other horses are in the style of three major Brooklyn-based carvers: M. C. Illions, Charles Carmel, and Stein & Goldstein, who all carved figures for W. F. Mangels Carousell Works, maker of the frame and major mechanical elements of the Moreland Carousel.

In addition to the figures, eighteen upper inner façades retain their original scenic oil paintings. The style and subjects are typical of carousel makers in the early 20th century, including mountain trails with Indians and cowboys, elegant boats on the high seas, and beaches and icy streams.

"The project goal in the broadest sense is to totally repair and restore the Moreland Carousel and return it to the Seaside Heights Boardwalk in excellent working order, with its historically accurate aesthetic," the historical society's Fundrazr campaign says.

Funding for the grants comes from a voter-approved constitutional amendment that created the Preserve New Jersey Historic Preservation Fund, which is supported by income from the corporate business tax, and is dedicated to save and promote historic sites throughout the state.

The grant will require a legislative appropriations bill and the governor’s approval before funds become available.

"Historic structures and places are a foundational part of our towns that serve as community gathering spaces, heritage and tourism attractions, and places of recreation and respite - they are the places we love and they are so vital to improving New Jersey’s economy and quality of life," said Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver, who serves as commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, which oversees the historic trust boards. "Preserving our treasured historic places through these trust grant awards will also help to ensure that future generations will benefit from knowing and experiencing their rich and storied past."

Established in 1967, the New Jersey Historic Trust is the only nonprofit historic preservation organization in New Jersey created by state law. The Trust became a DCA affiliate in 2002.

The restoration would not be the first. According to an Asbury Park Press report, the carousel bears the name of Dr. Floyd L. Moreland because he oversaw a 1980s restoration of the then-badly deteriorated carousel. The report said it also was damaged in a fire in 1928 and repaired before it was moved to Seaside Heights.

Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Toms River Patch on Facebook.