Yesterday, Saratoga Springs celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Congress Park Carousel opening. It’s hard now to imagine the park without it, but the carousel had quite a long history before settling here in Spa City!
Created by the renowned master carver of wooden carousel horses Marcus Illions in Coney Island, the carousel first appeared in Saratoga County in 1910. From then on, it moved from Rexford, Ballston Lake, Round Lake, and Saratoga Lake, where it settled in Kaydeross Park. After the park was sold, the carousel came up for auction, and then Department of Public Works Commissioner Thomas McTygue formed a committee to bring the carousel to Congress Park. His passion for this project involved working with Spa citizens, committees, businesses, and local and state officials to raise funds. On the auction day, McTygue and Finance Commissioner Ted Butler negotiated a deal to buy the carousel. After some much-needed restoration, the carousel was installed in Congress Park on June 29, 2002.
You may not know that we lent a hand in the carousel’s building. We handled the construction and topping of the carousel’s dome and the glass underneath. The dome topping was more special since Sonny himself was part of the crew! See him in action in the pics below:
