The newly restored B & B Carousell is up and running on the boardwalk, though when I was there I saw just a couple of adults trying it out. The Illions horse (seen above), a standout from the other, original steeds, was made by Illions, a Coney Island carver, in 1909, one of four horses created in celebration of Lincoln's centennial. According to a Times article Todd Goings, who restored the carousel, wanted the Illions horse to be kept out of bounds to riders, in order to preserve it, but the city's Economic Development Corporation disagreed. So how long will the note stay up?
The carousel itself looks just grand - I love those flowing horse tails! - though its dreary glassed-in housing (protective but ill-conceived aesthetically) masks its period charms. The new "Steeplechase Plaza", the $29 million, two acre space the Parachute Jump & Carousell now sit in, is a cheerless affair too, with its any-mall hexagonal pavers and its limp water jets. A dispiriting setting for Coney treasures.
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