Iconic Seaside Heights carousel set to reopen after $2.5 million restoration project
The restored carousel is named for Dr. Floyd L. Moreland who was instrumental in getting it fixed.
A Jersey Shore tradition rides again in Seaside Heights.
Hundreds of people gathered on Friday to get their first look at the fully restored and operational Floyd Moreland Carousel.
“I operated this for 30-40 years when I was in school,” said Dr. Floyd L. Moreland.
The 82-year-old is all smiles as he stands in front of the eponymously named carousel in the beautiful new setting on the north end of the world-famous Seaside Heights boardwalk.
“When my name was put on that horse - that was one of my favorite horses according to my grandfather when I was a kid – I thought I died and gone to heaven and he’s the lead horse,” Moreland said.
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The carousel took its first spin at the Jersey Shore back in the 1930s. Moreland operated this very ride inside the Casino Arcade as a teenager and then, decades later, helped save it from being sold.
A $2.5 million restoration project spanned five years, including the new carousel building and soon-to-be museum. The hand-crafted animals shipped to Ohio for refurbishing are now fully assembled and waiting to be ridden again.
The carousel isn’t there to make Seaside Heights a ton of money. Rides will cost just $4 for adults and kids under 42 inches tall are free. Moreland says that one can’t put a price tag on all the memories yet to come.
“Other rides flip you upside down and they make you scream and get you frightened, but this one you can be anything or anywhere you want,” he said.
Seaside Heights will operate the ride, but it will always be in the name of the college professor who saved it from destruction, for generations to come.
“This to me is a symbol of a kinder world. And the world we are living in now is far too nasty world. It’s hateful, and we need things like this to bring us back to kindness,” Moreland said.
The carousel will open to the public next Wednesday, and plans call for it to be operational year-round. The mayor says a schedule will be posted on the town’s website in the coming weeks.
