GREENPORT, NY — The Greenport carousel, considered the gem of Mitchell Park to countless families and visitors, is closed until further notice.
According to a statement issued by Greenport Village Mayor Kevin Steussi, on Sunday, September 30, a mechanical failure on the village carousel occurred.
“It’s been determined by the village that the failure is significant and will require extensive repairs to get the carousel operational again,” he said. “The village had already planned extensive mechanical review and repairs after Christmas and New Years in early 2025, during a quiet month, but will now need to accelerate those plans. Consequently the carousel will be closed for some period of time for repairs before reopening.”
Steussi reminded that the ride was originally designed as a traveling carousel and had to be assembled and taken down.
During its many years in Mitchell Park it has never been disassembled, since being placed in the carousel pavilion at opening, Steussi said.
“We have a world renowned carousel specialist who is coming to Greenport to evaluate repairs in the coming weeks, at that time we will be able to better gauge needed work,” the mayor said, adding: “The time it will require to do the work is going to be significant and even in the best case scenario a reopening by Christmas will take extraordinary work and coordination with multiple trades.”
In 2016, as new artwork was unveiled on the carousel’s rounding boards, former Greenport Village Mayor David Kapell was thanked by Gail Horton of the carousel committee for his vision in creating Mitchell Park and bringing the carousel to Greenport from Riverhead.
The carousel had stood for years on the former Grumman property in Calverton and was enjoyed by scores of employees at Grumman’s annual picnic,
The carousel is a 1920 Herschell-Spillman wooden carousel, and it was a gift to Greenport that brought joy to the community, including a sea of elementary school students who, under the direction of former Greenport Schools Superintendent Charles Kozora, wrote letters to Mr. Grumman asking for the carousel to be brought to the village, Kapell said.
“It was a great community effort,” Kapell said, of the move. The carousel, stored at Stidd Systems in Greenport, was assembled in just a few hours. And then, he said, with electric needed, resident Bill Swiskey was called over on a Sunday to “jury rig” the carousel and get it running for its first go-round in the village.
The carousel, Kapell said at the event in 2016, symbolizes the past and future hope of Greenport.
“It’s a wonderful thing. Eventually, every one of these kids that have ridden the carousel will have kids and bring them right back here. It sows the seeds for the future of the village.”
Since the carousel first illuminated the night in the village, Kapell estimated in 2016 that approximately 2 million riders had hopped onto a bedecked wooden horse and taken their turn reaching for the brass ring.
Remembering his own childhood spent on the Central Park carousel, Kapell said the beautiful painted horses, lights and music create indelible forever memories imprinted on hearts and souls. The carousel, he said, “is a fantasy, in a kid’s mind. It’s magical.”
When the carousel first arrived in Greenport, an array of residents turned out to help, including current Trustee Julia Robins. Over the years, the carousel was stored not just at Stidd but also at Barstow’s Shipyard and at the corner of Front Street, Horton said.
When he was elected in 1994, Kapell said his first aim was to dismantle the village’s controversy-mired police department and then focus on the blighted Mitchell property, which was “in foreclosure, with a bank that was also in foreclosure.”
The parcel, he said, held promise.
“There was amazing possibility,” Kapell said. And with the Grumman property for sale, and all eyes on the future of that parcel, Kapell said his laser focus was solely on bringing the carousel to Greenport as a gem in the crown of all Mitchell Park could possibly become.
How it evolved, he said, was “serendipitous.”
Remembering the early days, Robins said blankets were brought to carry all pieces together for assembly; she then described how the carousel is physically constructed. Originally, she said, the carousel was used as part of a traveling circus and erected in a field at every stop.
Horton said, simply, that those early days, when passion and vision brought a dream to life in the form of a carousel at the heart of the village, were unforgettable.
“It was magical,” she said.
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