page_title: Golden Gate Park
section_title: Carousel
hierarchical_section_title: Golden Gate Park / Structures and buildings / Carousel
caption_attribution_description: English: 1914 Herschell-Spillman Carousel, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California.
context_page_description: Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of 1,017 acres of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development of Golden Gate Park. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape to but 20 percent larger than Central Park in New York City, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a mile north to south. With 24 million visitors annually, Golden Gate is the third most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park and the Lincoln Memorial.
context_section_description: An ornate carousel displaying a bestiary is housed in a circular building near the children's playground. The carousel was built in 1914 by the Herschell-Spillman Company. The building was occupied by three previous carousels before the current attraction was purchased by Herbert Fleishhacker from the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1941. The 1914 carousel has undergone several major renovations, the first, a transition from steam to electric power with the assistance of the PG&E Company. In 1977 the carousel closed for safety concerns and The San Francisco Arts Commission hired local artist Ruby Newman to oversee the artistic restoration. Her crew of craftspeople restored the badly deteriorated carousel and she hand painted all animals, chariots, and decorative housing (she holds the copyright). The carousel was re-opened in 1984. Presently, the carousel includes sixty two animals, a German Band Organ, and painted landscapes of the bay area by Ruby Newman. Two of the animals, a goat and an outside stander horse, are by the Dentzel Wooden Carousel Company.
  Encompassing the carousel is the Koret Playground, originally the Children's Quarters, which was envisioned to be a primary feature in the Golden Gate Park's beginnings. Funded by Senator William Sharon, the facility was finished in 1888, and designated a recreational space for children and their mothers. At the time, it was the first public children's playground in the United States; offering swings, indoor enclosures, open sitting areas and the original carousel to community youth. In 2007, the Koret Foundation funded renovations.
caption: The carousel building in Golden Gate Park.
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