A Turning Point for Pier Carousel

The crowd chatter in the carousel house was interrupted by a loud and cheerful organ song.

The organ’s pipes blew, its base drum kept the beat and the carousel turned--its horses carrying laughing children and their parents.

The old Wurlitzer organ’s song Saturday announced the reopening of the historic Santa Monica Pier carousel, which was closed for two months for repairs.

The reopening of the carousel, originally built in 1916, was welcomed by many with long memories of happy moments.

“I love that sound,” said Mary Ferrier, 90, a longtime Santa Monica resident. “It makes me feel like I’m going to have a good time.”

The carousel was closed while the city refurbished its wooden floors--the latest in a series of renovations costing more than $500,000 over the last few years. More work is planned over the next couple of years, including painting the horses.

The carousel is an important part of Santa Monica that should be preserved for future generations, city officials said.

“It just brings back my childhood,” said Councilman Herb Katz. “I’ve been riding this thing since the ‘40s.”

The carousel’s history goes even further back.

It was designed and built by Charles I.D. Looff. The original merry-go-round was replaced in 1930. The current carousel was built in 1922 in Philadelphia and installed at the pier in 1942.

The carousel was restored in the 1980s and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Seen as the attraction that holds the essence of the pier, the carousel has attracted writers, photographers and movie directors.

The improvements over the last two months focused on returning the carousel to its original look. The original wood rail around it was stained and 10 horses in storage were repaired and reinstalled.

But the big attraction Saturday was the return of the original Wurlitzer organ--a colorful 5-foot box with base and snare drums and a cymbal mounted on the sides.

The organ’s pipes echoed in the room until 1935. A private company had owned the carousel building until then, and when the city took over the pier, the organ left with the private owners.

In the last few months, city officials learned the organ was at an auction house in Beverly Hills. The city paid $25,000 to bring it back home.