Phoenixville Group Seeks To Return World's Oldest Ferris Wheel To Borough

PHOENIXVILLE, PA -- You may have seen those little blue cages scattered around the borough, and asked, what is that?

They are the carefully preserved remnants of the world’s oldest Ferris wheel, the Phoenix Wheel, built at the Phoenix Iron and Steel Company in 1895 and giving rides for over 100 years.

And at a recent borough council meeting, Barbara Cohen, president of the Schuylkill River Heritage Center, reportedly asked the borough to bring the wheel back and have it stand again once more.

“Although the sponsorship of the wheel itself falls on our shoulders, this is something that can benefit the Borough of Phoenixville economically, culturally and historically,” Cohen said, according to the Pottstown Mercury.

The wheel worked for Palace Amusements in Asbury Park, New Jersey until 1989, and then at a Biloxi, Mississippi amusement park until 1988, the report states. The Schuylkill River Heritage Center bought the wheel in 2008 and began to restore its 16 baskets.

It would reportedly cost $360,00 to make the wheel stand again, and about $160,000 of that has already been raised by the Heritage Center.

It would be placed near the Phoenixville Foundry property by the sculpture garden.

Image courtesy Palace Amusements.