‘The Greatest Ride of Your Life’

SALISBURY BEACH — Children and parents pressed their noses last week against the glass of the new Carousel Pavilion hoping the painted horses and other animals inside would come to life.
Like generations of beachgoers before them, they hoped to be allowed inside the Salisbury Beach Carousel for “The Greatest Ride of Your Life.”
Not yet, but as the sign on the door said, “soon.” The Salisbury Beach Partnership, like the children, eagerly awaits the State Department of Public Services approval of its operational license, which it hopes will come any day.
The carousel, one of only 300, features 44 hand-carved and painted wooden animals, including horses, giraffes, camels and goats, was called by its promoters “the greatest ride of your life.” Based on the hundreds of social media comments about the carousel, that hype may not have been far off the mark.
Many waxed poetic as they recalled riding the Carousel as a child.
The latest attraction to the beach revitalization effort is an antique carousel handcrafted by the same artisans who created the original Broadway Flying Horses that delighted young and old for six decades at the beach before it was sold in 1976 and carted off to Santa Monica, CA.
Built in 1909 by W.F. Mangels at the Looff Factory in East Providence, RI, the animals of this Carousel were purchased by the partnership and moved to Salisbury Beach from Harvey’s Lake amusement park in Pennsylvania where the Looff carousel was the main attraction.
To house the carousel, the partnership built an “authentic” looking pavilion to house the carousel on land owned by the partnership’s president Wayne Capolupo family. It is at 7 Broadway across the street from town’s new beach welcome center and will also house a micro-bank for the Newburyport Bank
The pavilion will be available for special events.
The partnership through its Campaign for the Historic Carousel has raised more than $3 million toward a goal of at least $4.2 million. That included a donation from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism of $250,000. Newburyport Bank also made a $250,000 contribution.
The Partnership also launched an Adopt a Horse program that businesses, organizations and families can sponsor a carousel animal for 20 years. And patrons can Buy a Brick that will be engraved and placed as part of a sidewalk outside the pavilion.
The carousel arrives in the midst of significant changes in Salisbury, not only at the beach, but along Lafayette Road, where a new sewer is expected to attract new businesses. Before the Conservation Commission is a proposal to create the Big Block, a mixed-use development of 235 housing units and 7,000 square feet of retail shops.