Fifty-two hand-carved basswood animals and two chariots still turn on the Pullen Park Carousel, built in 1900 and part of Raleigh's public life for more than a century. Built in 1900, it still displays 52 hand-carved basswood animals and two chariots, each restored with painstaking care. In 1976 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated Raleigh Historic Landmark.
From 1977 to 1982 the carousel underwent a major restoration: conservators uncovered, documented, and conserved the original factory paint, returning every animal to its exact Munsell Color System paint color while preserving the original paint beneath a layer of shellac. The music that fills this place comes from a Wurlitzer #125 band organ made in 1924 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, New York. You may also think about how this carousel arrived here: it was originally located in Bloomsbury Park and was moved to Pullen Park in 1921 when the City Board voted to replace the steam-powered antique merry-go-round.
The gilded mirrors, the painted animals, the two sleigh-like chariots, and the Wurlitzer that makes them spin wait right before you.