El Dorado Carousel
John Jurgens, my great-grandfather, is part of the history of an elaborate, triple-decker carousel known as El Dorado Carousel, which was long associated with the Coney Island Amusement Park in Brooklyn, New York, and later with the Toshimaen Amusement Park in Tokyo, Japan.
Description
The El Dorado Carousel circled on three separate platforms, each rotating at different speeds. The innermost platform was a throne room surrounded by cherubs with trumpets. On the outer and inner platforms were carved horses and pigs, paintings of cherubs, and fancy, velvet-covered chariots offering couples some privacy. Some of the animals were stationary while some horses moved up and down, which were called jumping horses at that time. The carousel contained 6,000 flashing lights, mirrored posts, and Art Deco paintings. It had a capacity of 154 people and was 62 feet in diameter and 42 feet high. Inside the carousel was a famous four-ton organ manufactured by A. Ruth und Sohn in Waldkirch, Germany, that played Sousa marches and Strauss waltzes.
The carousel was surrounded by an elaborate pavilion entrance or gateway made of formed sheet zinc that featured paintings of cherubs playing harps, women warriors on horses, and dragon slaying. Above the entrance were sculpted, crouching lions with illuminated eyes that emitted sparks from their roaring mouths.
According to carousel expert Frederick Fried, El Dorado Carousel was "the most spectacular carousel America had ever seen."
The Builder of El Dorado Carousel
Hugo Haase was the builder of El Dorado Carousel. He was born June 1, 1857, in Winsen, Germany, near Hamburg. He started working as a locksmith before attending a business school in Hamburg. His time in the military was spent as a gunmaker. Much later, he was an amusement park ride manufacturer and bridge builder.
In the 1880's, Hugo Haase was employed at the firm of Hovermann & Jurgens, a machine manufacturer in Altona, Germany, which specialized in carousels and amusement park rides. While at Hovermann & Jurgens, Haase learned how to engineer the making of a carousel and went on to become a manager of the company.
The carousels and rides made in the 1880's were steam-powered and emitted terrible smoke. While working at Hovermann & Jurgens, Haase supposedly invented and built the first transportable steam-powered carousel. These steamship or steamboat carousels, as they were known, were shipped all over Europe, including Vienna and Copenhagen.
During his time in Altona, a city that later became a suburb of Hamburg, Hugo Haase became a family friend of the parents of John Jurgens's wife, Elly Muller, whose names were Albin Muller and Emilie Tunn Muller of Altona, Germany. Please note, do not confuse the engineer Hugo Haase with a socialist politician of the same name in Germany.
Is the firm Hovermann & Jurgens related to our family? According to the 1884 and 1888 address books for the city of Altona, Germany, the principals were Carl Rudolph Gustav Hovermann and the engineer, Oscar Ferdinand Wilhelm Julius Jurgens. Unfortunately, I do not know the exact relationship between John Jurgens and Oscar F. W. J. Jurgens.
The firm of Hovermann & Jurgens was sold in 1888 to Siebold & Hotto. Hugo Haase left Altona and relocated to Rossla, Germany (one hour west of Leipzig), where he set up his own carousel and amusement ride manufacturing firm called Rossla-on-the-Harz.
Further Carousel Development and Building of El Dorado Carousel
Haase also built other mechanized amusements. His mountain railway ride was an early scenic rail rollercoaster. He built living mazes or funhouses that incorporated moving floors and electric effects. At the Oktoberfest Haase unveiled a large illuminated pavilion powered by its own generators, which was called Karussellpalast. Haase's engineering skill and flair for spectacle at the Oktoberfest set the stage for his later masterpiece, El Dorado Carousel.
El Dorado Carousel was built in 1907 as a gift for the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II. His imperial seal adorns the side of one of the chariots. The carousel was admired at the Leipzig Fair in 1907 and at other fairs where it was showcased.
In early 1910, Emperor Wilhelm II invited U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt to Germany, a visit which included viewing El Dorado Carousel. This aroused interest internationally in this magnificent carousel.
El Dorado Carousel Goes to New York
In April, 1910, John Jurgens left New York to purchase El Dorado Carousel from Hugo Haase and transport it to New York. The purchase price was $150,000. It's possible that John Jurgens was acting on behalf of himself and/or on behalf of other investors to purchase the carousel.
The carousel was packed up and loaded onto the S. S. Cleveland, which left Hamburg, Germany, on June 2, 1910, and arrived in New York on June 14, 1910. At the Port of New York, $30,000 was paid in custom fees.
Installation at Dreamland Park in Coney Island
El Dorado Carousel was installed in the Galveston Flood building at Dreamland Park on West Fifth Street and Surf Avenue opposite the Culver, Brighten & Smith Street Depot. Dreamland Park, along with Luna Park and Steeplechase Park, made up Coney Island, which was actually a neighborhood in Brooklyn.
In my personal correspondence with Fred Dahlinger, Jr., a former president of the Circus Historical Society located in Baraboo, Wisconsin, he reported to me about an article that appeared in Billboard Magazine, which I have been unable to locate myself.
Here is the excerpt from his letter:
"A report in a 1911 issue of Billboard noted 'For the season of 1911, Mr. Johann Jurgens, the well known designer and originator of amusement devices has installed a three platformed carousel canopied with a glorious diadem of multi-colored lights. This device is the latest in its line, and was brought over from Europe by the inventor himself.' Hugo Haase has generally been considered the originator of the El Dorado, or Grand Carrousel Noblesse, as it was known in Europe. Another article states that the ride was promoted by Messrs. Jurgens and Wagner of New York City, the latter name being totally unknown to me."
I believe the article was referring to Johann Jurgens as an "inventor" in general and not as the inventor of El Dorado Carousel. I do not know who Mr. Wagner is.
Dreamland Fire
On May 27, 1911, less than a year since El Dorado Carousel was in service in Coney Island, Dreamland Park was destroyed by a huge fire and never rebuilt. The fire did some damage to the carousel, mainly charring the carved animals, but the zinc forms used in making the carousel and its pavilion protected it from severe damage.
An excerpt about the Dreamland fire from page 226 of the book Good Old Coney Island reads:
"At the junction of West Fifth Street and Surf Avenue the fire was halted, chiefly by the offshore breeze. The Galveston Flood building, where there was an exhibition of deep-sea diving, El Dorado, a triple-decked carrousel, and Chambers' all-night drug store still stood, though scorched, at four o'clock; by five the painted horses on El Dorado's carrousel were so blistered and blackened as to seem to be many Persian lambs, but they were still unburned. The fire was contained between West Fifth and West Tenth Streets."
New Home at Steeplechase Park
In December 1911, after the Dreamland Park fire, Steeplechase Park's owner, George C. Tilyou, purchased the carousel for $110,000. After restoration it was relocated to the Pavilion of Fun at Steeplechase Park on Surf Avenue. Celebrity riders included Marilyn Monroe and Al Capone.
The era of Coney Island's famous amusement parks began in 1895, and they flourished in the years before the World War I. In 1919 alone, more than 500,000 people found joy riding the El Dorado. By 1963, Coney Island's appeal had diminished, and the public no longer wanted to pay the high admission charges that covered the high operating costs. Steeplechase Park closed its doors permanently on September 20, 1964.
In 1965, Tilyou's descendants sold the park to developer Fred Trump (Donald's father), who demolished the park in September 1966 before it could gain landmark status. In 1968, unable to build his apartment complexes because of zoning regulations, Trump sold the land to the city. Since 2001, it has been the site of MCU Park (formerly Keyspan Park), the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team.
Prior to Steeplechase Park being demolished, most of the amusement rides were put in storage and eventually sold at auction. The El Dorado was packed up and stored in Cape May, New Jersey. The El Dorado pavilion, however, was dismantled and parts of it were sold. The lions on the pavilion were purchased by private collectors, including Frederick Fried, the author of A Pictorial History of the Carousel, who donated his lion to the Brooklyn Museum in 1966.
Sale to Japan
Relying solely on its reputation as a premier carousel and sight unseen, El Dorado Carousel was purchased in 1969 for the 1970 Osaka World's Fair. The sale price was 100 million yen (or about $278,000 in 1969). The carousel was loaded into six containers and shipped to Japan for restoration.
When the Japanese unpacked the carousel, they found much of El Dorado's garish paint had peeled off and some components had not been properly assembled. Some were even damaged. It took dedicated Japanese engineers and craftsmen nearly two years to fully restore the carousel at a cost of 200 million yen.
I believe it never made it to the Osaka World's Fair because of its damage, but the carousel found a home for fifty years at the Toshimaen Amusement Park in Tokyo. Opening day was April 3, 1971.
Park Closure in Japan
The Toshimaen Amusement Park finally closed in Tokyo on August 31, 2020. A Harry Potter theme park took its place. Sadly, the beloved Carousel El Dorado, as it was known in Japan, was packed up and remains in storage as of 2025.
This carousel has had quite a ride.
Will anyone in Japan save it?
Mokoto Rich and Hikari Hida on
a loss of love for Japan’s 113-year-old carousel
September 26, 2020
From the shrines of Nikko
and the temples of Kyoto to the castles of Matsumoto and Himeji, the Japanese
are fiercely proud of the country’s centuries-old monuments of cultural
heritage.
Not so for a 113-year-old
carousel in the nation’s capital. Despite a celebrated history that includes
roots in Germany, a visit by Theodore Roosevelt, a stint in Coney Island in
Brooklyn, and nearly a half-century entertaining visitors to the Toshimaen Amusement
Park in Tokyo, the El Dorado now sits in storage, its fate unknown.
The merry-go-round, and
the faded time capsule of a park that housed it, are making way for a Harry
Potter theme park — a familiar tale in a very old country that tends to discard
the merely somewhat old for the new.
With the carousel’s last
whirls came a final flicker of nostalgia as hundreds rushed to ride its
hand-carved horses and ornate wood chariots before the park shut down in late
August.
Four days before the
closing, Keiko Aizawa, 42, stood in line in the wilting heat with her
two-year-old son. “It is one of the most cherished memories from when I was
young,” Aizawa says. “We would always come in the summer.”
Yet those visits ended
some 30 years ago. It was only the news that the art nouveau carousel would be
carted away that had her feeling sentimental. “I really want them to find a
place for it,” she says.
Nostalgia, though, is
fleeting. Historic preservationists fear that the Japanese public will not
rally to save the merry-go-round as groups in the United States and Europe have
done for other carousels and amusement park rides.
After the Second World
War, the Japanese government passed a law under which structures built after
the 17th century could be designated as cultural heritage properties. “Prior to
that, people thought, ‘Oh, it’s too new; it’s not an important cultural property,’”
says Michiru Kanade, an architectural historian and conservationist who
lectures at the Tokyo University of the Arts.
But even now, she says,
public understanding of how to mount historic preservation campaigns “is
something that is not so widely known”.
Japan’s view of what makes
a cultural treasure may in part be a function of necessity. After the air raids
that flattened many cities during the Second World War, continuous urban
renewal has become a feature of the country. And with the ever-present threat
of earthquakes, structures are often razed and rebuilt to upgrade safety
standards.
More fundamentally, the
mountainous island country has only so much space for its 126 million
inhabitants. “People say the land is so precious that we can’t keep old
buildings the way they are,” says Natsuko Akagawa, a senior lecturer in the
humanities at the University of Queensland in Australia who specialises in
cultural heritage and museum studies.
But if the carousel is
“going to deteriorate in a storeroom”, she says, “that’s the saddest ending”.
Patrick Wentzel, president
of the National Carousel Association, a US conservation group, says the El
Dorado was probably one of just a dozen such set pieces in the world. Leaving a
jewel like it locked up and out of use poses risks of its own, he says.
“In several cases, things
sat in storage, and things seemed to disappear,” Wentzel says. Even if the El
Dorado is not yet regarded as old enough to warrant a historic designation in
Japan, he adds, “this will be 500 years old in 400 years”.
For now, the Seibu Railway
Co, the owner of the land where the carousel stood, has not said where it is
stored or whether it will reopen in a new spot. At a closing ceremony for the
park, the head of Toshimaen, Tatsuya Yoda, proclaimed that the El Dorado would
“continue shining forever”, but it was not clear whether he meant merely in
memory or in another location.
The El Dorado took a
circuitous route to Tokyo. Designed in 1907 by Hugo Haase, a German mechanical
engineer, it could seat 154 riders and featured 4,200 mirrored pieces and
paintings of goddesses and cupids on the underside of the canopy.
After Emperor Wilhelm II
invited Roosevelt to Germany to see the carousel in 1910, Haase proposed that
it be moved to the United States. A year later, the owners of the Steeplechase
Amusement Park in Coney Island imported the carousel to Brooklyn.
Local lore has it that
visitors including Al Capone and Marilyn Monroe rode the El Dorado before the
Steeplechase Park closed in 1964 and the merry-go-round was moved to storage
for the first time. One of three stone lions that had pulled a chariot on top
of a pavilion that housed the carousel is displayed in the Brooklyn Museum.
The owners of Toshimaen,
which featured Japan’s first lazy river pool and several other German-made
rides, heard of the El Dorado and bid on it, sight unseen. The disassembled
carousel travelled by sea to Tokyo in 1969, where the parts arrived in serious
disrepair, layers of garish paint peeling from the wooden horses and pigs.
Refurbishment took two years.
More than 20 years later,
when Japan’s go-go property-based bubble burst, people thrown out of work could
no longer afford visits to an amusement park, and Toshimaen’s visitorship
plunged. Then, as the economy slowly recovered, other amusement parks like
Disneyland Tokyo, Hello Kitty World and Universal Studios Japan opened,
siphoning off Toshimaen’s customers.
The park did little to
update its attractions; when it closed, a ride of spinning cars still featured
likenesses of Tina Turner circa “Private Dancer” and Prince of “Purple Rain”.
In the days before Toshimaen’s demise, some standing in line for a last go on
the carousel said they were looking forward to the park’s replacement.
“It is sad that it is
going away, because of the memories,” says Suzu Homi, 37, as she and her
four-year-old twin sons wait for their turn. “But when it becomes a new Harry
Potter park, people who have not come here before may visit. People who come to
Toshimaen are just coming out of nostalgia.”
For others, though, the
carousel is dearer to their hearts. Late last month, Hiroshi Uchida, a 40-year
veteran of the park and a connoisseur of the carousel, spoke to a group of
nearly 100 visitors at a small museum chronicling its history.
Uchida’s fervent hope, he
said, was to see the carousel — which he estimated had been ridden by 56
million people over its years in Tokyo — operate again in a fourth location.
“I think there is a lot of
discussion about where to put it,” said Uchida, who worked as an engineer at
the park and was so passionate about the El Dorado that he married a park
colleague in front of it. “It could be three or four years before it opens again.”
As he spoke, a woman
filming his talk on her cellphone wiped away tears. On a wall in the museum,
hundreds of visitors had stuck brightly coloured Post-it notes with wistful
messages. “I cried while taking a spin around the El Dorado one last time.
Thank you,” read one.
In an interview after his
talk, Uchida says that perhaps Seibu, the park’s owner, could re-erect the
carousel behind one of its hotels. Or maybe another park, or even a village,
could accommodate it, as he had seen with other carousels in town centres in
Europe.
Ultimately, he says, he
hopes the carousel could stay in Tokyo.
“If the El Dorado has a
spirit, I think it would feel very unsettling to move again,” Uchida says. “It
thought it had a permanent home in Germany, and then it got moved to New York,
and then Japan. Now it has been here for 50 years. You can’t put a price on
that.”
© The New York
Times
Photos of My Visit to Toshimaen Park in 2019
References
Akagawa, Dr. Natsuko. "Senior Lecturer Interviewed by The New York Times." 2 Oct 2020. School of Languages and Culture, University of Queensland, Australia. https://languages-cultures.uq.edu.au/article/2020/10/senior-lecturer-interviewed-new-york-times
Brigandi, Paul. "Once America's #1 Amusement Park - Coney Island's Magical Steeplechase." The Carousel News & Trader. June 2008. https://carouselhistory.com/coney-islands-steeplechase-once-americans-1-amusement/
Brooklyn Museum. "Lion, from the El Dorado Carousel, Coney Island, Brooklyn." https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/de-DE/objects/90656/
Dering, Florian. "Volksbelustigungen" 1986.
Dinger, Charlotte. The Art of the Carousel. Carousel Art, Inc., Green Village, New Jersey. 1983.
Endres, Klaus. "Hovermann & Jurgens, Altona, Maschinenfabrik und Carousselbau." Volksfeste und Maerkte. 100 Year Der Komet. 1989/90.
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Kasson, John F. Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century. Hill & Wang Publishers, New York. 1978.
Map of Luna Park, Heart of Coney Island. 1905-6. https://www.heartofconeyisland.com/historical-map.html
McCullough, Edo. Good Old Coney Island. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 1957.
Nakai, Natumi. "People Queue for Farewell Ride on Beloved Carousel as Park Closes." The Asahi Shimbun. 4 September 2020.
Rich, Mokoto and Hikari Hida. "This Carousel Has Had Quite a Ride. Will Anyone in Japan Save It? The New York Times. 26 September 2020.
Schumach, Murray. "Coney Carrousel Going to Japan." The New York Times. 15 March 1969.
Stanton, Jeffrey. "Coney Island - Historic Carousel List." Revised 27 August 1997. https://www.westland.net/coneyisland/articles/carousellist.htm
Stenz, Margaret. "Architectural Fragments from Coney Island's Steeplechase Park." BKM Tech, Brooklyn Museum. 17 June 2010. https://techblog.brooklynmuseum.org/index.html@p=442.html
Toshimaen. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshimaen
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