Blogging Along the Brandywine: A memory of carousel horses

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My father never let me have a
pony.

But when I rode the carousel
at the old Lenape Park located along the Brandywine where Creek Road meets Rte
52, I was transported away on some of the most exquisite horses
in the world – with lush waving manes, flared nostrils, dreamy eyes and
bodies adorned with jeweled breastplates.

Whether I rode an outside row
stander, gripping the pole with my left hand as I reached out for the
golden ring, or sat like the proper little equestrienne on an inside row
jumper as it moved up and down in a make-believe steeplechase, I was
in a world all my own.

All this was accompanied by the
carousel’s Wurlitzer band organ blaring out Sousa marches, punctuated by the
thud-thud-thud of the mechanical bass drum and the rhythmic tssh –tssh- tssh of
cymbals. The music added to the heady feeling that all 48 horses were
engaged in a free for all gallop around the track.

It didn't get any better than
this—and I still miss it.

In the first quarter of the
20th century the term "trolley park" identified an amusement
park owned and operated by a trolley line. The West Chester Street Railway
Company established Lenape Park as a destination accessible by their
trolley around 1891.

The favorite entertainment on
the grounds was the Gustav and William Dentzel carousel purchased in 1926.

Most carousel carvers
immigrated to the United States from Europe in the late 19th
century. They were highly skilled carpenters, many of whom had produced
religious carvings for church interiors.

This art of carousel carving
was dominated by the Philadelphia style and the Coney Island style.

The Coney Island style was more ornate and based in fantasy
with the heads-up “stargazers” sporting flying golden manes, gilded wings,
coats of armor or lush blankets of flowers.

The Philadelphia style of
Dentzel and the competing Philadelphia Toboggan Company was ultra realistic,
from the perfectly proportioned legs and heads to the veins on their faces. The
style was perfected by Dentzel’s head carver Salvatore Cernigliaro.

The 48 hand-carved figures of
the Lenape Park carousel were meticulously cared for by John V. Gibney, who owned
the park for over fifty years.
Lenape Park survived the demise of the trolley line in 1929 and
continued as a popular attraction until 1976, when Gibney, then 92 years
old, sold it.

My husband's late uncle, John A.
Smith, managed Lenape Park for Mr Gibney from the mid 1940s to the mid
1960s. Smith loved the carousel and at one point offered to buy the park from
Gibney, but Gibney wasn't ready to sell.

Smith died before he
saw the park sold and his beloved carousel broken up...the 48 horses and
chariot seats dispersed to collectors.

Today, anyone wanting a Dentzel
horse to grace their living room should be prepared to lay out a minimum of
$10-$15,000 and up. A rare Dentzel goat recently sold for $59,000.

Nearby Dentzel carousels still
in operation today include the 1921 Dentzel in Dorney Park near Allentown, the
1924 Dentzel in the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia and the 1921
Dentzel in Glen Echo Park,
Maryland- the only carousel owned by the National Park Service, just outside
Washington, DC.

Chadds Ford lost a work of art
in 1976, but the memories will remain in our hearts forever.

About Sally Denk Hoey

Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”

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