Was in the area looking for things to do and stumbled across the Herschel Carrousel factory Museum and decided to stop by. The museum is very intuitive with a lot of displays and information. Ian who works there has a wealth of knowledge of carrousels and gave out a lot of great information and history about one of the world's oldest amusement rides. Certainly worth a visit in the area and going for a ride on the classic Carrousel that's on location. read more

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We threw a birthday party for my 4 year old here. They decorated based on our theme, included goodie bags and there was our own carousel in the party room kids could ride as many times as they want. It was affordable, easy and fun. Highly recommend. read more

What a great little museum! We really enjoyed our visit. Spent a couple of hours going through everything. Incredible workmanship carving with a very informative carving demonstration. A visit isn't complete until you ride the 1916 carceral! read more

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What a great stop this is, full of unknown history of carousels and the supporting industries. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. read more

Again not a place I would travel for as a stand-alone trip. It's a nice little museum and factory with a few carrousels Nice display of carved animals and a display of the factory read more

Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum - Museums Near Me - North Tonawanda, New York

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Small but interesting museum the whole family can enjoy ! Fun activities and rides for the little ones both indoors and outside. The older visitors will enjoy seeing the evolution of the carousel as well as the history of the Wurlitzer organ . Be sure to take a ride on the carrousel , with horses that date back to early 1900s . Two rides are included in the $10 admission for adults , $5 for kiddos 16 and under . Look at the event page too for other fundraisers , classes and celebrations . read more

Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum - Museums Near Me - North Tonawanda, New York

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Visited here during some down time. What a pleasant surprise. This was more than just a few kiddie rides and a carousel ride. The museum displayed a nice history into the creation of the carousel animals. The history of Herschell and the Wurlitzer organ Very impressive the engineering behind the creation of the rolls of music (1 song per roll ) and how it played. Definitely worth a couple of hours even without kids. Maureen in the gift shop was delightful and I appreciated her tips to get around the bridge outages as they were closed for filming. Thank you Maureen !! read more

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Awful customer service. The crotchety old lady running the carousel wouldn't let my child do the ride again because he took his hand off the metal pole. The way she spoke to him was very accusatory, as if he was some sort of a troublemaker. Which he is not. It didn't seem like she cared about his safety. It was as if he "disobeyed" her and she couldn't handle it. Cannot recommend this place. What a waste of time and money. Time for some customer service training, or don't hire people who don't know how to talk to people properly. Thanks for ruining our time there. I guess it's true what they say, misery loves company. 70 year old carny on a power trip with 6 year olds. lol. Get a life, lady. PS: Maybe if the poles didn't smell like filthy pennies, we'd want to touch them. Felt like they hadn't been cleaned in a decade. The horses felt greasy too. Disgusting. read more

Thoroughly enjoyed my visit with a group to this museum. Learning about the history, checking out all the beautiful work, and of course getting a chance to ride the big carousel was very cool! There's a whole kid area outside that for an extra fee kids can ride unlimited for 30 minutes. I was jealous, haha. not a very big place but totally worth the price of admission. read more

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This was a fun experience for the whole family, and a wonderful lesson in history. They have a museum, gift shop, game room, large working carrousel and several rides for small children. read more

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Enjoyed this place much more than I thought I would. Original factory featuring the workshop, all the way to the final product. Ride the carousel with horses from 1902 and 1916, and have the kids ride one their own size. Loved seeing all the old Wurlitzer music makers too. If your considering a stop here, just do it. Worth the $10 admission, which includes two rides on the carousel. read more

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Definitely worth a visit. We got to see carousel horses, the workroom where they're carved and a ride on the carousel which is a work in progress. And they told us about the old Wurlitzer building in town which we visited as well. read more

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How could I ever forget one of the most influential experiences of my childhood? I think this place might've been the driving force behind my obsession with horses as a kid (yes, I was the horse girl in school) and the admiration for antiques and old things. But somehow I had almost completely forgotten about this museum until a friend of mine attended an event here recently, got a bunch of awesome photos of the place (he's a photographer), and inspired me to swing by once more and bring back childhood memories. Alas, the day I decided to drop in was a Monday, and they are closed Mondays & Tuesdays. So I'll update this review when I get the chance to return. But here's a history lesson: The museum itself started out as a factory for The Allen Herschell Company, which specialized in the production of wooden carousels and horses! At one point Herschell Carousels were distributed all over the US, Canada, even South Africa and India. They have dozens of carousel horses on display here (and carousel roosters, dogs...listen, you'll find some really unique pieces), as well as a wood carving workshop, and the Wurlitzer Music Roll Department, which has the paper music rolls used to play carousel music during the ride! This place is very child-oriented and friendly. There are dozens of rides for the kids to go on, including the Kiddie Carousel found in the Childrens' Gallery (perfect for small children!). The Outdoor Kiddie Land Exhibit shows off some of Hershell's later ride productions, which mostly consists of rides popular during the baby boomers' era. You can come here during normal hours and explore it all yourself, or you can make reservations to have a guided tour with a group of 10 people. I see on their website that they also host instructional workshops here. Leave a great, influential impression on your kids' childhood, and please bring them here. Or, just come here on your own so you can be made to feel like a kid again, riding on their awesome 1916 carousel! read more

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This is a cool little museum, so much history of carousels. We took our daughter here to take pictures before homecoming and they were so nice and explained the best places in the museum to take pictures. If you have little ones you will enjoy the rides, with every museum entry you receive a free carousel ride! read more

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What a wonderful gem we have in WNY. This museum is awesome with it's carving area and history of carrousels. They have a very cute kiddyland area where you can take young children for rides. If you haven't visited I highly recommend it I also have a lot of events during the year check it out! read more

Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum - What a wonderful gem we have in western New York! Everyone should stop and see this museum and take the kids for some rides. - Museums Near Me - North Tonawanda, New York

My husband and I enjoyed our visit here, though I think those with children would enjoy the museum even more. The museum is on the small side, but the exhibits were pretty interesting, and showed the different steps of making a carousel, such as carving the animals, painting the animals, and putting together the organ. It took us about an hour to view the exhibits and go for a whirl on the working carousel (one ride is included in the price of admission). Some of the exhibit signage could be improved for clarity-there was a placard that talked about a zebra carousel animal that was placed in front of an ostrich, while the zebra was a couple feet away. There's an entire room in the museum geared towards young children, with interactive activities and a carousel designed for short riders, though it wasn't running when we visited. Groups with young children can also buy tickets for the kiddie rides outside. Adults just have the one carousel inside the museum. I'd love more interactive activities for adults, but maybe I'm being a little selfish. The museum also offers woodcarving classes, for those who want to channel their inner Ron Swanson. read more

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This is a fantastic little museum! I've been wanting to visit for a long time, ever since I'd heard about it. This is the only carousel museum that is housed inside a carousel factory, which gives it some extra cachet. The exhibits take you through the production of a carousel, from the carving of the animals (with carving demonstrations going on,) to painting, to the actual testing facility, where an original carousel is in working order. They also have a children's carousel in the children's area, with miniature horses. They also have a section devoted to Wurlitzer, which goes hand in hand with Herschell, as they purchased the organ factory from Herschell, and produced band organs for the carousels. It has the production of the music rolls, from start to finish. One carousel ride is included with admission, but you can buy extra ones at the gift shop. It's well worth the extra rides, this is a special carousel, and a piece of living history. read more

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Honestly, I never thought I could get so excited about a museum devoted to amusement park carousels. But, this is a great museum thanks to its impressive collection of original equipment, archival material, interpretive signage and volunteers demonstrating how they carved the horses. Every minute I felt like i was learning so much. Who knew that in the early 1900s carousels were considered the center piece "adult thrill ride" of amusement park midways?! (they used to spin a *lot* faster and were considered too dangerous for kids) Or that the Herschel companies created the majority of the 7000 wooden carrousel rides ever produced - of which less then 200 remain? (they went on to produce aluminum and fiberglass horses as well as pioneer the ubiquitous kiddie rides found in amusement parks today before being sold to a competitor in 1970) Or that originally carrousel horses had real horse hair tails but that proved to be a maintenance headache? There are two indoor carrousels in operation at the museum - one child-sized one and a bigger one that both children and adults can ride. The museum is working on opening up a whole "kiddie land" area outside in 2012 that will have 4 or 5 operating childrens rides. read more

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I visited the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum with a friend back on September 4, 2017 as a day trip. The collection of historic carousel animals charmed and delighted my friend and I. As we're both grad students studying history, we found the informational plaques next to each rather interesting. From there, we enjoyed seeing the woodcarving shop and examples of Wurlitzer organs. For both of us, however, the best part was the opportunity to ride on a 1916 carousel and feel like kids again as we chose our horses and thrilled to the music and the spectacle. I'd only ever seen the signs advertising this museum and I was completely charmed with what they had to offer. This was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon and I've told my friends and fellow grad students about it, encouraging them to visit when they have or need an afternoon off. Recently, I got one of the National Parks Service's passport books and the staff at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum were nice enough to send me a backdated stamp for their place on the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. read more

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Awesome! Great museum plus a number of fully functional historic rides and games along with the corousel. And the staff were lovely. We spent 2 hours there and could have stayed longer but needed to go. 6-yo loved it and so did the adults! read more

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A true WNY treasure! Wonderful staff members and volunteers. Beautiful historic working carousels. Lovely gift shop. In a quiet suburban neighborhood. What's not to love? read more

We visited the museum yesterday, Oct 2, 2020. The moment we entered we were greeted by friendly staff members and volunteers. The craftsmen were friendly, knowledgeable and willing to share their expertise with you. When we entered the artisan area we were greeted by the volunteer making the music rolls, from their we observed a gentleman restoring a carrousel horse, a woman restoring a medallion from the carrousel and another gentleman carving a horse head. You could see and feel the passion and love they have for what they do. Then, it was time for the carrousel ride, again the gentleman was knowledgeable and passionate about the history and value of the museum and carrousels. To say the least, we enjoyed ourselves and will recommend this as a great place to visit. Steve and Cindy read more

I'm going to add this to the "exceeded my expectations" list. It is in fact a carrousel museum of a very prominent carnival/carrousel maker. That being said I, I set the excitement bar pretty low and expected the kids to embarrass me to the point of leaving in 10 minutes. Apparently they added newly restored mid century rides to the property (in addition to the 2 functioning carrousels they had already) that are an absolute blast. Wooden tokens are $.50 a piece and get you one ride. The staff is SUPER friendly and patient with all the kids. If you are looking for something to do with the kids wait for the next nice day and head over to North Tonawanda. I even went on some of the rides!! read more

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We bookmarked this location for the last day of our vacation to Canada/NY and it was the perfect place to visit/close out our trip! We visited on a Tuesday afternoon and so it was very quiet, but that meant we could browse at our own pace. The volunteers there were extremely helpful and friendly, and our 1 year old enjoyed the lovely music and carrousel ride. We made an extra little donation because we believe it's truly a treasure. read more

This rating is NOT for the museum but for the lantern tours this past weekend.Any one watch What We Do In The Shadows?You know Colin the psychic vampire?Well imagine Colin giving a tour of what was supposed to be lore of the museum and stories of suspense.Do not go on this at night tour.Having someone describe the kind of wood and tools used???Really??I didn't care what kind of wood was used,what I wanted to hear was someone passed over for a head carver job then bludgeoning the job getter with a wooden horse leg.It was almost an hour before we realized our life force was being drained and we hightailed it out! Bad tour! read more

I liked this museum because it has a merry-go-round that I rode on, and it has a collection of carousel animals. I liked the part where band organ rolls were recorded. I could imagine recording a waltz, such as "Over the Waves," "Sidewalks of New York," and "The Blue Danube Waltz." Admission in inexpensive, and it includes a complimentary token for the ride. read more

Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum - Alan Hershell Carousel - Museums Near Me - North Tonawanda, New York

Stopped into this little museum in North Townawanda. It was a perfect little stop to use a bit of time before dinner. Lots of history, and some real pretty wooden horses. Curator says more old time rides for kids coming soon. Nice display of wurlitzer pipe organs. Cute gift shop. Knowledgeable local volunteers working the place. Took about five to seven rounds on the working Herschell carousel. To great tunes on the band organ. It doesn't take long to visit, but its worth it. read more

What a surprise this place was. All the exhibits were great to see, about the growth of the company. What really impressed me was how family friendly it was between the kiddie carousel and all the rides outside. A while back I used to live in NT and never gave this place a try. I'm glad I finally did. Over all very simple and enjoyable for an experience that is not long and drawn out too. I would bring my son back alone for the rides outside. The staff was friendly. I'm knocking off one star as the older gentleman who operated the regular carousel literally fell asleep while my son and I were on the ride. Minus that little issue, I can see myself going back with the family next summer again. read more

Great museum to have fun and learn. Regular carousel for adults and children to ride and really cute little one for tiny tots! On Wednesday through Saturday the kiddie ride area is open. This is the home of some of the oldest carved animals in the country. read more

Great place for a family with young children. Very simple, only a few rides but super clean & staff very friendly.