History of the Magnificent Ca. 1905 D. C. Muller and Brother Co.
Pen Mar Park Carousel
The Pen Mar Carousel, Hanover, PA to Palmer, Alaska
… A Sad End for a Beautiful Machine
By Marianne Stevens
Reprinted from the Sept. 1992 Carousel News & Trader – online
CLICK PHOTO FOR THE PEN MAR CAROUSEL GALLERY
In 1871, Col. John M. Hood, President of Western Maryland Railroad, purchased a site in the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Baltimore, for the purpose of developing an amusement park to promote passenger business between the more populated areas and the park. When the park opened in 1877, it was very popular, with as many as 20,000 people arriving on weekends.
Eventually, over one hundred hotels and boarding houses sprung up near the park. Two magnificent Victorian hotels, the Blue Mountain House and the Buena Vista, were built to offer summer luxury. Because the state boundaries of Maryland and Pennsylvania bisected the park, it was called Pen Mar.
Trolley service brought customers from nearby Hagerstown, Maryland and Wayne, Pennsylvania. It was a lovely pastoral setting with many trees around it, and soon thousands were going to the mountains to escape the summer heat.
In 1907, Pen Mar could boast of a lovely carousel, Ferris wheel, pool, bowling, movie theatre, dance hall, ad a large dining hall where a chicken dinner could be bought for fifty cents. In 1907, William Walsh Ubby and August Karst brought a beautiful carousel to Pen Mar, and set it up for business. Libby was largely responsible for the development of the park, and owned many of the attractions. Libby & Karst were probably able to purchase the machine very cheaply. Or, perhaps they only bought the stationary figures and had the mechanism fabricated by the Lusse Brothers. We’ll probably never know for sure.
Virginia Bruneske, who worked in the park for many years and ran the carousel several summers, recalls her mother telling the story of the carousel being so busy during World War I, when all the soldiers from nearby Camp Ritchie wanted to ride, that the money was just swept to the floor, to be picked up after closing. The usual fiction about the carousel figures “being made in Germany” still is heard occasionally, but they were carved in Philadelphia not too far from Pen Mar. But not in the Dentzel factory, as most people believe, but the Muller Brothers factory.
I personally have a great deal of respect for the beauty and lifelike quality of the Dentzel figures, but their poses were very limited. A customer could choose from only three or four poses of outside horses, with only the trappings and the colors changed. The Muller brothers seem to try to make each horse different, and changed head position and angle, and varied the leg positions and trappings so there was much more variety in their work. Even today, groups of Muller carvings are turning up in unusual places like Mexico and Alaska.
The Mullers apparent desire to make each horse better than the last one, is probably the reason that the factory failed, after producing only about a dozen and a half carousels.
We’ll probably never know if the four Dentzel outer horses which were on the Pen Mar carousel at the end were original to the machine, or were put on after it left Pen Mar. It seems logical that the Pen Mar carousel, which was an all stationary machine, was traded into the Dentzel factory about 1905 for a newer and more modern carousel, with the new jumping action.
Pen Mar remained popular until the Thirties, when the trolley line and Western Maryland Railroad ceased operating lines to the park due to the popularity of the automobile. By 1943, America was at war, and most civilian activities were curtailed. When the Army Special Forces took over the park, and demolished the remaining buildings, Pen Mar ceased to exist.
The carousel was sold to August and Dorothy Karst of Forest Park, Hanover, Pennsylvania. Photographs of the carousel while in operation at Pen Mar are rare indeed. It was in a dark building and cameras then were not as sophisticated as they are today. Color form was not in general use and neither were flashbulbs. One photo, taken by a professional photographer who was trying to photograph the park staff, used the carousel as the background. It’s very dark, but it shows a Muller deer on the left and a beautiful Muller horse the right. This photo was generously given to me by Virginia Bruneske of Cascade, Maryland, whose home is one of the former hotels in the area, Point View Hotel.
Mrs. Bruneske also did a painting from memory of the Pen Mar carousel, which is reprinted here. This painting tells us a lot about the carousel. It was a stationary, menagerie machine, with a lion, goats, deer, as well as exquisite horses.
The signature panel reads “Libby & Karst, CAROUSEL Builders, 2521 Mascher St., Philadelphia, Pa.” Karst sold the still-beautiful carousel to L. E. Eagleston of Alaska, a colorful character known as “Scrap Iron Slim,” because he would buy anything he thought he could make a profit on, for a mere $1,500. He had it shipped to Anchorage for another $1,500. He set it up on East Fifth Avenue, but it never operated there, due to the lack of electricity that far out. Later, the mayor of Palmer, Alaska, Alfred Hage, put the machine into operation in Wasilla. Whether by ignorance or laziness, the carousel was apparently never put together properly after it left Pen Mar. The photos shown here, courtesy of Carroll Spitzer (author of A Pictorial History of Pen Mar Park), show that by 1954 the carousel had been altered dramatically. Although it still had a roof over it in 1954, by 1960 it was gone, and the menagerie were arranged in a haphazard manner; there was a row of small horses, then a row of large elaborate ones. It still had a goat, deer, camel, zebras, two giraffes on it then, as well as many beautiful horses.
During the war, the carousel had been loaned, gratis, by L. E. Eagleston, for the use of the children of Elmendorf Air Base personnel. Mr. Hagen died in 1967, and part of his property was condemned by the State of Alaska for a new highway.
The parts of the Pen Mar carousel that were stored on that property were considered not worth moving and were condemned and bulldozed into the road bed. This included all the painted scenery, carved wood mirror frames, chariots, etc. Everything not in use was destroyed. The remainder of the carousel figures were put up for auction by his widow. These were purchased for a proposed Children’s Museum.
The Alaskan winters had not been kind to the magnificent wood carvings. While stored behind a gas station in Palmer, the roof fell in, further compromising the integrity of the wood. In 1983, while in the middle of a total restoration of my large Looff carousel, I received a call from a young man who said he was a park ranger who lived 150 miles north of Fairbanks. My youngest son had just returned from the University of Alaska, so I knew there was nothing 150 miles north of Fairbanks.
He said he had some Dentzel figures for sale. When I asked for photos, he said they were all apart. I still had a lot of work to do on the Looff, and was paying for two full-time helpers. The thought of reassembling de-laminating Dentzels was not appealing. He also mentioned that an avid collector, whom I knew, had been there and not purchased anything. This further discouraged me from pursing it. Subsequently, I learned that a dealer friend had purchased nineteen of the wooden figures. A strange thing about the carvings; the paint had protected the carved romance side, so the delaminated inside was resting on the ground. This saved many of the figures, as it was a simple matter to put a new inside “skin” of new wood, and not touch the original outside surface. I later purchased two outer row standing horses with roses and flowers on their trappings.
The sorrel horse, Marianne said was her favorite horse she ever owned.
The sorrel horse with the flaxen mane is my favorite of all the carousel figures I have ever owned.
I have not attempted to write a history of Pen Mark Park; that has been done by people who lived it. It was important to tell the carousel’s history. If anyone out there has a figure from this carousel, I would love to hear from them. What a magnificent machine it must have been.
Many people have helped me in my search for photos and information about the Pen Mar carousel. Among these are Virginia Bruneske, Carroll Spitzer, and Murray Stephens, and his mother Elsie Libby Stephens (daughter of William Libby) who all live in the Pen Mar area. Also my friends in Alaska, who saved many of the carved animals from total destruction; Deborah Allen, Linda and Rae Walsh, and
Ca. 1905 Dentzel-Muller Thoroughbred. This noble, yet sensitive and alert and realistic style of facial carving, so distinctly Dentzel, is actually attributed by most experts to Daniel Muller.
Mike Lettis. Pam Hessey, the well-known carousel artist, has also saved two. These people have all been very generous and kind in sharing their memories and photos of Pen Mar, and without their help, this article would not be written.
I thank them all. The people who have rescued these precious artifacts from a gentler time have shown an uncommon devotion and dedication to the past. Through their dedication to preserving the memory of Pen Mar a lot of local people worked very hard to get the park reopened as a passive park, and some of the buildings rebuilt. One can drive up there now and enjoy the wonderful scenery. Long live Pen Mar!
— LIST REPRINTED FROM CNT 1992 ARTICLE —
D. C. Muller carousels in operation:
- FOREST PARK, Queens, New York – 3 row, formerly at Dracut, Mass. Has a lion, tiger and deer.
- CEDAR POINT, Sandusky, Ohio (Midway) – 4 row, all jumping. Formerly at Revere Beach, Massachusetts. Originally had an outside row of beautifully carved standing horses. Removed to make it all jumping. Location of standers unknown.
- ASTROWORLD, Houston, Texas – Only outer row are Muller. 3 row, menagerie, butting goat.
Former locations of D. C. Muller carousels:
- ARNOLDS PARK, Benezit, Iowa-3 row menagerie. Outer row cavalry horses, inner row , Indian ponies. Broken up in 1970s.
- WALBRIDGE PARK, Toledo, Ohio – 3 row stationary menagerie. Broken up in the 1960s.
- WILLIAMS GROVE PARK, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania-3 row stationary, menagerie carousel. Cavalry horses. Broken up in the 1970s.
- PEN-MAR CAROUSEL*, Anchorage, Alaska. Formerly of Forest Park, Hanover, Pennsylvania. 3 or 4 row stationary, menagerie. Broken up, sold at auction, 1971 . Some especially beautiful horses.
- CONNEAUT LAKE*, Conneaut, Pennsylvania – 3 row menagerie. Some outstanding figures. Butting goat. Broken up in late 1980s.
- ROCK SPRINGS PARK*, Chester, West Virginia- Horses only. Last carousel made by the Dentzel factory. Ou1er row slanders from an earlier (1907) Muller machine. Cavalry type horses.
- CHAPAULTEPEC PARK*, Mexico City, Mexico – 3 row menagerie. “The Mexican Muller”. Some outstanding carvings. Butting goat. Mechanism destroyed by hurricane.
- CENTRAL PARK, Rittersburg, Pennsylvania – 3 row jumping, all horses. Fate unknown.
* Photo galleries.
Marianne Stevens, noted restorer, co-author of Painted Ponies, and collector, spent two years gathering information on Pen Mar. Marianne bought two horses from the Muller machine, and became interested in learning more about its history. As she explains, she is single-minded when she has a task in mind. At first it seemed like a wild goose chase. Each phone call or letter led to another, and each contact knew someone else who remembered the carousel.
She knew there had to be photographs of the machine, in its original location and in Alaska, and was determined to find them. One by one she assembled the materials needed for this article. In all, she has tracked down 34 of the horses and animals.
The whereabouts of the goats and giraffes is still unknown. Could the horse with the armored blanket be the figure sold to a collector prior to the auction of the carousel?
It is amazing that any of these animals have survived. Marianne Stevens’ efforts will assure that the memory of this beautiful machine is not forgotten. Long live Pen Mar!
Full story above, reprinted from;
The Carousel News & Trader, September, 1992 – online
and see Marianne’s follow up story;
