Restoration

After being in storage for almost half a century and two years of extensive restoration, the Woodside Park Dentzel Carousel has found a new home at Please Touch Museum.

Restoration of the animals, paintings, and center support system of all the mechanical parts of the carousel took approximately 20 months with three teams in California, Ohio and North Carolina working on different parts of the extensive project. The team, made up of Todd Goings of Carousels & Carvings in Marion, Ohio, Ed and Adriana Roth of Long Beach, California, and Rosa Regan of North Carolina, has more than 80 years of experience in the care, restoration, maintenance, operation and manufacturing of carousels.

All repairs and applied colors are based on the color palette of similar Dentzel carousels from the 1920s. The 52 intricately hand-carved, multi-colored wooden animals were individually restored along with two chariots, and 18 beveled mirrors which are each surrounded by a clown head, decorated with acanthus leaves. Hand-carved roses, cherubs, jewels, beads and intricate latticework which ornament the carousel also needed to be repaired and painted. Please Touch Museum’s Senior Exhibit Designer, Lorna Kent, painted the eight drum panels for the carousel over a period of three months. The panels show images of Woodside Park as it appeared in the 1920s.