Belchertown, MA – CA 1915 Stein & Goldstein Carousel

Ca. 1915 Stein & Goldstein Carousel – Belchertown, Mass.

Circa 1915 Stein & Goldstein carousel. From Forest Lake Amusement Park Amusement Park, Palmer, MA, to Belchertown State School. Auctioned intact by Norton Auctioneers in 1993. Shortly after, the carousel was broken up and sold off horse-by-horse.

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Photos courtesy of Norton Auctioneers of Michigan spring 1993 catalog.

Belchertown, MA – The Ca. 1915 Stein & Goldstein carousel was known to have operated at Forest Lake Amusement Park in Palmer, MA, in the 1930s. Then, a Dr. Arthur Westwell helped bring the carousel to the Belchertown State School in 1947 where it operated through 1978. From 1978 until the State School officially closed in 1992, the carousel was badly neglected.

In the spring of 1993, the carousel was auctioned “intact only” by Norton Auctioneers. But, by the summer of 1993, plans for the carousel to operate again had already deteriorated, and by fall of ’93 the horses were off the platform for good, and sold off individually.

Unlike the dozens of carousels sold piecemeal at auction before it, the breaking up of the Belchertown Stein & Goldstein would not turn a big profit – it broke about even.

Only one more grand “Golden Age” carousel would be lost to auction after Belchertown, that would be the 1909 Looff menagerie at nearby Whalom Park in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, which was sold on April 15, 2000.

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