iJump Feature
The Wooden Horse Legacy of a Determined Woman
by Kathy Hobstetter
homeless and forlorn looking and ready to be sold to any interested bidder. “We purchased the Carousel on October
J
21, 1984 at the auction in Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio,” said Jane. “Built in 1922 by The Philadelphia Toboggan Company, it was labeled (PTC #61) and is a classic 3-row machine with 48 horses and 2 chariots. The outstanding carvings are attributed to Frank Carretta who was one of the country’s best master carvers in the 1920’s”. “After acquiring the Carousel,” she
laughingly says, “I spent an entire year doing research, and I decided to restore the Carousel myself. With tremendous eagerness, I spent several more years here in Dumbo, New York working on the restoration. Using an x-acto knife, decades of layers and layers of paint were carefully and lovingly scraped off to reveal the original designs and colors with the original factory paint and stencil designs embellishing the Carousel. I disciplined myself to work on everything but the horses until I perfected my technique and learned more about the Carousel. I took it piece by piece and was astonished by the huge amount of design I uncovered. I was able to document my findings with careful tracings, color matches, photographs and detailed drawings.” “The Philadelphia Toboggan Company’s horses and chariots”, she
continues, “are considered among the finest ever made. In addition to the chariots and horses, the rounding boards, crestings, scenery panels, center pole, and platform are all original to the Carousel. Eventually,
Photos Courtesy Jane Walentas
iJumpSports.com 47 |
ane Walentas is a remarkable woman by any standards; just ask the magical imaginary souls of 48 wooden horses whose future was in question in 1984 as they stood quietly on the auction block. The horses and their carousel platform were
PTC #61 was the first Carousel to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.” “After I had recorded every available bit of information I could, I sent
all the pieces in batches (sweeps, rounding boards, shields, platform, etc.), to be chemically stripped, as I couldn’t possibly hand scrape them all. Most of the paint was very fragile-- impossible to have saved. As the sections were returned to me from the stripper, my carpenter made the many necessary repairs and primed everything in white paint. After that, none of those pieces were touched again for close to 20 years. They sat in storage, as the project languished.” “My husband David and I bought
the Carousel specifically for the ‘Fulton Ferry Park’ (now called the Brooklyn Bridge Park). David was the designated developer and at that time the Master Plan called for a historic Carousel to be installed in the park. The dream and plan was that the spectacular panorama of lower Manhattan, the amazing bridges and riverfront could be enjoyed while riding on the Carousel. It is an exceptionally thrilling and dazzling site!” But as development would have it, politics and economics brought development of the park and the Carousel project to a standstill. Jane reminisces quietly about the situation then, “I was devastated in the late 1980’s when the development of the park had come to a standstill. I was disillusioned and a little bit heartbroken and soon began to lose my enthusiasm for the project. I finally stopped coming to my studio and the horses stood, in
a partial state of restoration, frozen in time, waiting for heaven knew what!!” When something is meant to be, a road can take many turns. The patience of Jane, along with her passion for the wooden horses resurfaced
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72