Young and old enjoy Playland Pier Carousel at grand-reopening
Ron and Bonnie Douglas take a ride on the Playland Pier Carousel for their 38th anniversary on Friday. Ron was a ride operator at the carousel as a teen.
Taylor Stack enjoys her first ride on the new Playland Pier Carousel Friday morning in Coeur d’Alene. Around 70 major donors stepped up throughout the six-year process to bring the now 75-year-old carousel back to its old home. Photos: LOREN BENOIT/Press
LOREN BENOIT/PressThe carousel building features a naturally stained, wood ceiling and has half garage-door style windows, which allow the building to be better cooled and heated.
COEUR d’ALENE — It was about 50 years ago that a teenage Ron Douglas scrubbed sticky fingerprints from the poles of the Playland Pier Carousel.
"All the kids were eating cotton candy, they had all sorts of stuff, and those are brass poles. Every fingerprint showed on them," Douglas said. "Any time the thing wasn't going, you were there with the Brasso cleaning it."
He was about 15 when he worked as a ride operator at Playland Pier, and running the carousel was one of his main jobs.
"There was a big building right where Independence Point is, and the pier went out from that," Douglas recalled. "You had to come up a little hill and around a corner, and it was really cool because the little kids would be coming around there and the first thing they would see would be that merry-go-round. They’d all point and say, ‘Oh I want to go on that!’”
On Friday, Douglas got to enjoy that merry-go-round again during the grand re-opening of the historic Playland Pier Carousel in Memorial Plaza across from Coeur d'Alene City Park. It was an extra special day for Douglas and his wife, Bonnie, because it was also their 38th wedding anniversary.
"Even our daughter, when I told her it was opening today, she said, ‘Oh, Daddy used to work there,’” Bonnie said. "It’s been part of the family story, that Daddy worked at the carousel."
With three clangs of a bell and calliope music floating through the new pavilion, the first carousel ride began. The painted ponies gleamed in the early June light. More adults than children were on that first ride, but the way they happily waved at onlookers served as a reminder that the carousel magic they knew as youngsters has never left them.
"I grew up here," said Bud Ford, 87. "I rode on it when I was in high school, just after high school and before."
"He used to take us here to ride all the rides back when we were little,” said Ford's son, Charlie. "He’d take us to ride the rides, and he rode them, so it’s a second generation."
Bud was honored with cutting the yellow ribbon during the opening ceremony. His generous donation of $200,000 in 2015-16 toward the carousel project helped make it a reality.
"It gives me a great feeling,” Bud said. "Coeur d’Alene’s been good to me and I like to give back to the community. I like to support the ones who are having a hard time raising funds. I’m just happy to be able to do it."
Countless people of every age stood in line to have their turn on the historic carousel. The carousel was built by the Spillman Engineering Co. in New York in 1922, spent more than 30 years at Playland Pier and was sold to in 1974, disappearing into the unknown. In 1986, collectors Duane and Carol Perron, owners of the National Museum of Carousel Art in Oregon, found it intact at an auction, purchased it and lovingly restored it.
In 2010, Coeur d'Alene resident John Foote read about a group wanting to return the carousel to Coeur d'Alene and negotiated its purchase from the Perrons. He and his wife, Pat, purchased the carousel in 2011 and donated it to the Coeur d'Alene Carousel Foundation.
"I can’t even tell you how much this means,” Cari Fraser, president of the foundation, said during the ribbon-cutting. "It’s been so many years and so much hard work, and thanks to all of you who are here today. We’re just so happy we’re finally almost done."
As Bud walked around the carousel, right before the doors opened, he pointed out the beautiful artwork and spoke of his fond Coeur d'Alene memories. He said a brass ring mechanism is being worked on right now and will soon return to the carousel; another generation will understand the meaning of "grabbing the brass ring," an addition to the ride where riders pass by a stationary ring dispenser and hope for the brass one, which usually meant a free ride.
“They’ve done a beautiful job of restoring everything and it's a great attraction for the city park and downtown Coeur d’Alene," Bud said. "It sends shivers up and down my spine to see it again."
INFOBOX: The historic Playland Pier Carousel will begin normal business hours on Friday, June 16. It will be open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Rides will be $2.