NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Expansion is coming to the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum in North Tonawanda by the end of August, unveiling a $1 million building addition centered on the local impact of carrousel music.
Over the past 46 years, the museum in North Tonawanda has grown into a local treasure, highlighting the city’s past of creating carrousels, even letting guests ride them.
However, to founder and trustee Rae Proefrock, you have to listen for the full experience.
“You can ride on the horses and enjoy the ride, but the magic of the carrousel is the music,” Proefrock said.
In a little over a month, there will be a new $1 million exhibit on just that, funded by state funds and plenty of community donations.
“Our expansion is a music hall to better showcase and explain the history of musical equipment,” Executive Director Ian Seppala said.
WATCH: 'The magic is the music': North Tonawanda Carrousel Museum to open $1M expansion in August
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, in addition to its status as a maker of carrousels, North Tonawanda was also the capital of America when it came to automatic "band organs."
According to nthistory.com, the merry-go-round makers originally imported accompanying band organs from the old European master builders of Germany and France. However, due to high tariffs, they decided to import an organ from Germany instead. De Kleist then founded the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory in 1893, the first of its kind in the United States.
So, whether it’s the instrument or the music, if you heard it on a carousel, odds are, it’s got a strong connection to North Tonawanda, and it could be in this new display.
“We have over 1,800 of our original master rolls. These were made by hand in the Wurlitzer factory and here in North Tonawanda,” Seppala said.
The new addition was designed to bring back to life a part of the factory that had fallen down years ago and fill it with those "master rolls" of music and the same machines that made them decades ago.
The public will get to enjoy the new space for the first time in late August.
