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July 16, 2001

-Company-donated carousel is heart of villages rejuvenation-

In 1978, a fire obliterated Mitchells Restaurant and Marina in the Village of Greenport a 200-year-old town on Long Islands picturesque North Fork. The landmark restaurant and hotel was a key tourist attraction, and its loss sent Greenports business district into a 15-year tailspin during which various commercial development schemes for the property failed to come to fruition. But by 1994, David Kapell, Greenports recently elected mayor, had his own vision for the property, one that would keep it free of commercial development and open the valuable real estate to the public. When he learned that Northrop Grummans Calverton production facility was to be decommissioned, he convinced the Greenport Village Board that a vintage carousel at Calverton, which he'd been eyeing on his drives by the facility, would be the perfect centerpiece for the Mitchell site and the revitalization of Greenports business district.

I am not going to include Grummin as a 'park' YET unless I know it was more than just a private ownership of amusements that were brought out off and on for private affairs that might have been once a year, etc. If they still owned the antique carousel it might deserve a listing.

The carousel, which was built in the 1930s by the Allen Herschell Company of North Tonawanda, N.Y., was one of several amusement park rides at Calverton that had entertained children for decades at Grumman family picnics.

It featured 36 horses (most of them original, hand-carved wood), two wooden chariots, a sophisticated calliope, and a brass ring dispenser.

In 1995, Kapell organized a crusade to obtain the carousel that included a letter-writing campaign from 59 Greenport third and fourth graders.

Dear Northrop Grumman, how are you today? wrote Mark DeLano. May Greenport have this carousel? We need it! Please. There is nothing in this town for kids and it would be nice. If we get your carousel we will put it in a big building and clean it every time it gets dirty. Your Friend, Adam Nitsch.

On June 29, 2001, Greenport dedicated Mitchell Park and the big building a modern pavilion of steel, glass, and wood that houses its sparkling vintage carousel. The village is funding the park under a $10 million project that includes more than $3 million in state funding. It plans to add an ice rink and public marina to the 3.4-acre site by the fall of 2002.

In the audience were many company retirees with fond recollections of the carousel.

Some 13,700 children and adults rode the vintage carousel during its first week of operation. The carousel is housed in a modern pavilion made of glass, steel, and wood and is the centerpiece for Mitchell Park, which will also feature an ice-skating rink and a public marina. A bronze plaque recognizes Northrop Grummans donation of the carousel.

CREDIT:Village of Greenport, New York