CA 1909 Looff Menagerie Carousel – Whalom Park, Lunenburg, Mass.
Lost Historic Carousel Photo Gallery – Whalom Park, ca. 1909 Looff Menagerie Carousel. Individual figures auctioned off machine on April 15, 2000.
The Whalom Park Circa 1909 Charles I. D. Looff Menagerie Carousel was sold off piece-by-piece on April, 15, 2000. Whalom is the last grand American “Golden Age” carousel to be broken up at auction and sold off figure-by-figure. Other grand historic carousels have been to auction since, but all have sold intact.
Whalom Park Videos:
Whalom Park was created in 1893 by the Fitchburg & Leominster Street Railway. It was the 13th oldest Amusement Park in the US before it closed in 2000, and the second oldest of all remaining trolley parks at the time, credited with 107 years in operation. The park was iconic in Massachusetts. Saturday morning commercials would call out to kids [to call out to their parents] and “Come to Whalom Park for a whale of a time!” They had their own jingle even and the commercials ran often on TV and radio.
In addition to the Looff carousel, Whalom Park had an all-star line up of traditional classic rides, Tilt-a-whirl, Tumble Bug, Scrambler, Ferris wheel, an Allan Herschell Looper (restored and now at Knoebels Grove in PA), Octopus, Satellite Jets. Their train was a Allan Herschell Iron Horse, Bisch Rocco Flying Scooters, Hrubetz Paratrooper, Mangels Whip, and atop them all, the PTC Philadephia Toboggan (Coasters) Co., ca. 1940 Flying Comet roller coaster, a figure 8 double out-back designed by Vernon Keenan. It was demolished in 2006.
Whalom Park on Wikipedia
