Crescent Park Carousel

Crescent Park Carousel

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c. 1895 and later, Charles I. D. Looff. Bullock's Point Rd. near Crescent View Ave. (Operates during the summer and on weekends in late spring and early autumn.)

The carousel is all that remains of Crescent Park, another of George B. Boyden's enterprises, and long one of New England's largest and busiest amusement parks. Housed in a traditional wooden polygonal shed capped with a monitor in colored glass, this is among the important merry-go-rounds in the country. Looff, a leading designer and manufacturer of carousels, based his operations in East Providence for a number of years, and used this carousel from 1905 to 1910 as his sales room. Hence he adorned it with a variety of prancing horses and other animals designed as prototypes for his customers and as a test for embellishments. His son eventually took over as owner and manager of the park. When the site went to condominiums in the 1980s, only the zeal of a small Save the Carousel group preserved it in its old location. The park across the way was once the site of an elaborate wharf with one of the larger shore dinner palaces, which also served as the boat landing for the park.

On the loop around Bullock Point south of the park site is another cluster of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century cottages, crammed together, but less so than those at Cedar Grove and Pine Bluff. After a long period of dilapidation, most of these too have been extensively improved and altered to take advantage of superb water views. Some, however, retain their original character.

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