Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum

Inside the original Allan Herschell Company factory in North Tonawanda, the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum preserves the machinery, craftsmanship, music, and motion behind a company that helped shape America’s amusement-ride industry.

The museum occupies the factory complex where workers began building carousels in 1915. As you move through the building, you can trace the process from a carver’s drawing to a finished wooden horse, see how mechanical music was produced, and ride a restored carousel built here in 1916.

The Allan Herschell Factory

Allan Herschell helped establish North Tonawanda as an important center of the American amusement-ride industry. His companies became known for portable carousels and other rides that could travel between fairs, parks, and small communities.

The factory building is part of the story. Rather than presenting the collection in a modern gallery removed from its origins, the museum preserves the rooms where craftspeople carved animals, assembled machinery, and prepared rides for shipment.

The Allan Herschell Carousel Factory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The Carving Floor

On the original carving floor, large drawings guided workers as they traced animal shapes onto basswood or poplar. Individual pieces were carved, joined, smoothed, and sent to the paint shop. In later years, the company shifted from carved wood to cast aluminum animals.

Volunteer woodcarvers sometimes demonstrate their work in this space. Their presence helps connect the historic tools and patterns with the skill required to turn a block of wood into a recognizable carousel animal.

Ride the 1916 Number One Special

The museum’s working 1916 Number One Special—often called the Big Carrousel—was originally built for Springbank Park in London, Ontario. It later operated at the Beach Strip in Hamilton before the Carousel Society of the Niagara Frontier acquired it in 1982.

The restored ride includes horses, a chariot, and a spinning Lover’s Tub. General admission includes ride tokens, making the carousel part of the museum experience rather than an object viewed from behind a barrier.

Carrousel Music Hall

The Carrousel Music Hall explores another North Tonawanda specialty: the band organs that supplied amusement parks with their distinctive music.

The temperature- and humidity-controlled gallery houses the museum’s band-organ collection and its working Wurlitzer Music Roll Department. Its still-operational machines—all more than 90 years old—demonstrate how paper music rolls are produced. The holes punched into each roll tell a band organ which notes to play, making the system an early form of mechanical programming.

The collection includes more than 1,600 hand-punched master music rolls, some dating to the turn of the twentieth century. The museum describes this as the country’s only public display of equipment of its type and the only place where band-organ rolls are still produced using historically correct machinery and methods.

Children’s Gallery and Kiddieland

A smaller 1930s carousel operates inside the Children’s Gallery. Outdoors, the seasonal Kiddieland Testing Park contains several restored children’s rides associated with the Herschell companies.

Kiddieland is an add-on museum experience rather than a separate amusement park. It generally operates from Memorial Day weekend into October, and children must meet the posted height requirements. Availability, reservations, and additional fees may change, so review the museum’s current Kiddieland information before leaving home.

Planning Your Visit

The museum operates seasonally, generally from April through December, with hours and attraction availability varying throughout the year.

Admission includes the exhibit galleries and two ride tokens. Kiddieland requires an additional ticket when operating.

On-site parking is limited. Additional street parking is available along Thompson and Vandervort Streets.

Confirm current hours, admission, ride availability, and special events on the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum website before making the drive.

Review the museum’s accessibility information or call ahead to discuss specific needs.

Address: 180 Thompson Street, North Tonawanda, NY 14120
Phone: 716-693-1885
Website: carrouselmuseum.org

Where to Ride Other Carousels Across New York

The Herschell story continues beyond the factory museum. At The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, the Elaine Wilson Carousel was manufactured by the Allan Herschell Company in 1918. The restored country fair–style carousel includes horses, ponies, a chariot, and a spinning tub and operates indoors throughout the year.

Farther west, Olcott Beach Carousel Park operates a restored 1928 Herschell-Spillman carousel. The volunteer-run park also preserves a 1946 Allan Herschell Kiddie Auto and Fire Truck Ride. Olcott is open seasonally along the Lake Ontario shore.

The Buffalo Zoo operates a 1956 Allan Herschell carousel. At Canalside, the solar-powered Buffalo Heritage Carousel was manufactured in North Tonawanda by Spillman Engineering in 1924. Although it is not an Allan Herschell Company carousel, it is part of the region’s broader carousel-manufacturing history.

Not every familiar carousel near Rochester came from a Herschell company. The Dentzel Menagerie Carousel at Ontario Beach Park was built by the G. A. Dentzel Company of Philadelphia and installed in Rochester in 1905. A menagerie carousel carries several kinds of animals rather than horses alone. Ontario Beach Park’s 52 hand-carved figures include horses, mules, ostriches, rabbits, pigs, and a tiger.

Seabreeze created its current wooden carousel after a 1994 fire destroyed the park’s historic carousel. The ride belongs to the Long family and Seabreeze carousel tradition rather than the Allan Herschell Company.

Modern carousels also operate at Eastview Mall and The Mall at Greece Ridge, though I have not found authoritative records identifying their manufacturers. Please contact me if you know the answer.

Other Allan Herschell carousels may already be part of family memories, including those at Stewart Park in Ithaca, Midway State Park near Bemus Point, and Enchanted Forest Water Safari in Old Forge.

Broome County has an especially unusual concentration of Allan Herschell carousels. Six operate in parks across Binghamton, Johnson City, Endicott, and Endwell, all of which were donated by Endicott-Johnson shoe manufacturer George F. Johnson between 1920 and 1934. Johnson stipulated that the rides should remain free, a tradition the communities continue today.

Fun Fact: The Roundhouse Pavilion at Genesee Valley Park once sheltered a carousel—the last of three to operate in the park. A Dentzel carousel arrived from New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1953 and remained in Rochester until the mid-1960s. It later moved to Grant Park in Atlanta. Its restored frame now turns at Coolidge Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, fitted with newly carved animals.

National Carousel Association | Coolidge Park

Which carousel around Rochester holds special memories for you?

I’d love to hear from you—please reach out and share your thoughts and experiences.