Big Returns from a Small Antique Carousel for McCormick-Stillman Railroad park in Scottsdale, AZ
A classic 1950s Allan Herschell carousel and Poligon building turning big profits in Arizona.
By Dan Horenberger Reprinted from The Carousel & Automatic Music News
I’m always given a bad time about how I work on so many small carousels. Some restorers won’t waste their time on a little 30 horse aluminum Allan Herschell. The truth is, many of those machines make a lot more money and have more riders then the fanciest carousels ever made.
When approached by cities and other locations looking for machines with a smaller budget but still wanting huge returns, this is the carousel that can make that happen.
One of those customers with a smaller carousel budget, seeking big carousel returns, was McCormick-Stillman Railroad park in Scottsdale, AZ. It was 20 years ago now. They had a train and a carousel, but neither did well. It was a nice park, but had become a little run down – so they made the commitment to clean the place up – fresh paint and new train station. But, what to do with the carousel?
The carousel they had at that time was a lease – they didn’t own it. They didn’t have much money to buy one of their own, and would need a carousel that could sit outside in the Scottsdale heat and desert sun. They ended up acquiring the 1950s Allan Herschell carousel originally from Benson’s Wild Animal Park in New Hampshire. Benson’s had sold it a few years earlier to the nearby Canaan Fair Speedway.
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Purchasing their own carousel was a big leap for the small railroad park at the time. They did it and now they owned their own carousel – no lease. But, how long would it take to pay for itself? They were hoping for no more than 4 to 5 years, at most, to get their investment back.
Instead of waiting that long, they learned a little secret – “Clean and fresh pays off”. With the park all clean and freshened up, attendance followed and they made their investment back, and then some, in the first year. The newly bought, classic carousel in the spiffed up park increased ridership over the old carousel by close to ten fold. Over the next 17 years, the classic Allan Herschell carousel did 4.7 million riders at $2.00 each!
Like most Herschells, it’s a simple but hard working carousel. The horses are plainly painted. It has new powder-coated rounding boards, simple fiberglass trim, and an aluminum platform. All of it restored with the idea of functioning in, and surviving the Arizona desert heat.
The income from the carousel has now paid for a new Poligon building to protect it, a new concession stand building to compliment it, a number of picnic gazebos to surround it and more. With the boost in attendance, the parking lot has been expanded to every extra inch of the property, and still – good luck finding a place to park on the weekends.
A lot of the bigger, fancier carousels should take a look at this simple success story, and listen and learn from it. Clean is good – clean is inviting – a funky, unkempt, run down atmosphere is bad and simply uninviting.
Smaller locations that could potentially benefit from the attraction of a carousel shouldn’t give up on their dream just because they don’t have the finances for a huge, fancy park-style machine. People love and support carousels, big and small. Even a simple, classic 1950s Allan Herschell will elicit memories of great carousels past – and create new memories – and keep all generations coming back again and again. It’s what you do with your carousel that counts. Carousels can make a profit all their own, as well as attract folks to the park or area and all that is around it. That is what carousels have always done, big and small, seasonal or permanent, dating back to the late 1800s, and nothing has changed since, (except now you can get historic landmark status and people will go even further out of their way just to ride your historic carousel). Just as it did 100 years ago — if properly operated — an antique carousel will draw crowds of all ages, create everlasting memories, bringing folks back again and again.
This small city had the positive attitude and persistence to make their park something to be proud of. That commitment paid off. It’s too bad many of the big cities don’t learn from their success and follow suit. It just seems there are way too many mismanaged carousels out there, not maximizing the built in magnetism of these great, timeless machines.
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