Latest go-round isn’t so merry
Century-old icon removed from Central Park
Staff writer
Nearly a century of Marion memories now sit in a heap of twisted metal next to a rock pile at Marion’s city shops.
The historic 1926 Mitchell Whirl merry-go-round, enjoyed by more than four generations near the back of Central Park, was dismantled last week.
City crews removed the merry-go-round and hauled off its pieces, city administrator Brian Wells said, after the ride’s center post rusted out and collapsed sometime around Chingawassa Days.
The merry-go-round had been cordoned off with hazard tape since then, Wells said. Crews decided to remove it as a safety measure before Art in the Park and Old Settlers Day later this month.
Marion Manufacturing was contacted to bid on restoring the iconic playground item.
Wells said Monday that he expected to hear back soon with a cost estimate for restoring the attraction.
The merry-go-round was patented in 1926 by Mitchell Manufacturing Co. of Milwaukee and was sold along with other nearby playground equipment to Marion by a regional distributor.
Mitchell, which originally made barn supplies, still is in business, although it now manufactures bleachers, tables, and similar items instead of playground equipment.
The Model 500 Whirl like the one in Central Park was a fixture on many park and school playgrounds nationwide, including at Bown-Corby School here, but has become increasingly rare.
Antique collectors like Benjamin Perlick of Neillsville, Wisconsin, proudly restored one for his backyard in 2021.
“I’m beyond excited to have one that my children get to grow up on,” he wrote in sharing a photo of his restored Whirl. “A really cool piece of history that’s slowly being forgotten.”
So impressed was he that he found and purchased a second one.
The Chippewa Valley Museum more than an hour away in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, includes a restored Model 500 Mitchell Whirl in a historic orchard where hayrack rides regularly are offered.
The manufacturing company proudly shared vintage sales flyers and specification sheets for the model.
One quotes President William Howard Taft as saying, “I do not know anything which will contribute more to the strength and morality of that generation of boys and girls compelled to remain part of the urban population in this country than the institution in their cities of playgrounds where their leisure hours will be occupied by rational and healthful exercise.”
Brochures label the Whirl as the “safest, most popular, and most durable device for the playground.”
Its patented ball and socket connections to the seating platform prevent wear with a “perpetual oiling device” and “indestructible bearing arrangement.”
The connections allow the merry-go-round’s seating area not merely to revolve around a center mast but also to be “swung to and fro.”
In other words, the “squeak-squawk” sound of children pushing and pulling on horizontal supports for the merry-go-round’s seats was by design.
Because the Whirl’s method of suspension is entirely from above, there’s less danger for those pushing the seats from inside, and the seating at all times remains level with the ground, “eliminating the hazard of injury,” one brochure says.
The merry-go-round was rated as capable of seating as many as 75 children at once.
The center mast was a 5½-inch diameter heavy steel post embedded in four feet of concrete. This is what apparently rusted out in Central Park.
The upper frame included eight carbon steel tubes with eight carbon steel braces. They held eight, seven-foot-long carbon steel tubes from which the seating area was suspended.
The seats were 2x10-foot wooden planks, 22 inches above the ground. As shipped, the metal frame was painted in red enamel while the seats were painted in green enamel. The entire merry-go-round weighed 1,100 pounds.
When rumors of the dismantling of the merry-go-round in Central Park first broke, current and former residents rushed to post comments online.
As of midday Monday, nearly 50 comments had been posted to the city’s Facebook page.
“I hope they are able to fix the merry-go-round,” Marty Beaston Heigert wrote. “It is an icon in the park! Generations have had hours of fun on it!”
Darlene Lucas-Siebert wrote: “The park wouldn’t be the same without it. Everyone loves that merry-go-round. Everything can be repaired nowadays with replacement parts.”
Former city council member Ruth Herbel wrote: “It would be a shame to destroy it or even replace it. Come on, Marion. Stand up for history and speak out. The last time I checked there was money in the memorial fund that could be used to repair this.”
Jean Sanborn wrote: “I live in California now, played on that merry-go-round as a youth with my cousins and sisters. I’m 85 years young! So sorry!”
Bob Brookens wrote: “I truly hope it can ultimately return to the park. Just think of all the children who have enjoyed it. That includes our four sons.”
Sarah Williams added: “My kids absolutely loved that when we lived there. I hope they can get it fixed up and working again.”
Marjorie Ireland Johnson wrote: “Hope it can be repaired. The Marion park has seen so many families through the years. It’s always cool and beautiful.”