Round and round we go
There are seven notable carousels in the Bay Area; three are in San Francisco. All were built around the turn of the 20th century. The carousel at the San Francisco Zoo was designed in 1921 by Gustav Dentzel, son of the famous German wagon and carousel maker, Michael Dentzel. In Golden Gate Park, behind Kezar Stadium, is a Herschell-Spillman carousel, built in 1914. It was originally steam powered and was a popular novelty in the 1939 World’s Fair on Treasure Island.
And then there is the most glorious of the city’s merry-go-rounds, forever spinning at the Children’s Creativity Museum, in Yerba Buena Gardens. The LeRoy King Carousel was crafted by Charles I. D. Looff, the father of American carousels and the designer of the first carousel at Coney Island, in 1876. It was built in Rhode Island and originally intended to anchor a small amusement park on Market Street in San Francisco. But the earthquake in 1906 changed everything and the carousel ended up in Seattle’s Luna Park. In 1913 it finally came to San Francisco, and for fifty years was the heart of Playland-at-the-Beach, which was the city’s true Disneyland. After Playland closed in 1972, the carousel was snapped up by a collector and sat in storage until it was sold to Shoreline Village in Long Beach, California, in 1983, and eventually reappeared at Yerba Buena in 1998, where it remains housed in a glass rotunda to this day.
Info
Address 221 4th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, www.creativity.org/visit/childrens-creativity-carousel | Public Transport Bus: 14, 14L (Mission St & 4th St stop) | Hours Daily 10am–5pm| Tip At the small Cartoon Art Museum (655 Mission Street) you’ll find art ranging from early Peanuts drawings by Charles Schultz to the work of local contemporary cartoon artists.
The carousel’s recently restored collection of animals includes galloping horses, camels, leaping giraffes, rams, a lion, and two gilded chariots with blue and green dragons in the front. All the animals are distinguished by the ornate hand-carved artwork that marked carousels of the period. The horses, with their flowing manes, wear colorful bridles studded with bright jewels, and their tails are real horsehair. The cost for two rides is $4 per person or $3 with museum admission.
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