One of the oldest wooden merry-go-rounds in California, the attraction that inspired Walt Disney’s vision of a family amusement park, is getting another go-round itself: Los Angeles’ Griffith Park carousel will be revamped in time for its 2026 centennial.
Purchased by the city of Los Angeles’ Recreation and Parks Commission for $1 million, the carousel was last in operational order in 2022, when it was shut down for repairs and because of an ongoing probate battle after one of its owners died unexpectedly in 2020.
Though the ride was built in 1926 and moved to the park from San Diego in 1937, some of its 68 handcarved, painted wooden horses date all the way back to 1895, according to the nonprofit Friends of Griffith Park. In fact, some of the tree species the wood came from are now extinct. The carousel also houses a military band organ that can play over 1,500 songs, which formerly filled the surrounding park with music.
Located near Disney’s home in the Los Feliz neighborhood, the park is where he’d often take his two daughters to play. “As I’d sit there while they rode the merry-go-round and did all these things,” Disney once explained, “I’d sit on a bench eating peanuts, and I felt that there should be something built, some kind of amusement enterprise built, where the parents and the children could have fun together.”
Other famous names were known to frequent the attraction as well, including Gone With the Wind’s Olivia de Havilland, according to the city report. More recently, the carousel was featured on TV shows like House, Grey’s Anatomy, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The deal with the city is part of a larger Griffith Park restoration effort ahead of the 2028 Olympics, per the Los Angeles Times. The historic carousel may take years to renovate, but the sale will ensure that it stays put — something its current owners felt strongly about, even rejecting higher offers that may have resulted in the ride being moved. Despite its wear and tear, some features of the merry-go-round remain remarkably well-preserved.
“It is very rare to have a carousel such as this one,” the appraisal in the city report reads, “it has never been taken apart and placed in storage therefore the wooden parts appear to be sound. Wooden components of this length tend to warp when parted and stored for a period of time.” The appraisal also makes note of the “exquisitely carved and highly decorated” horses, going so far as to call it “probably one [of the] most decorated carousels ever carved.”
Only a few other rides like it exist in North America. The merry-go-round was made by the Spillman Engineering Corporation in New York, having been commissioned by the famous Spreckels family in 1925. In 2009, the city declared Griffith Park a Historic Cultural Monument, specifically recognizing the carousel as “a character-defining feature and contributing element to the cultural, economic, and social history of the city of Los Angeles.”
Share to:
