The Coolidge Park Carousel

Posted on September 19, 2014 by prairiemoonquilts in Travels

During our trip to Chattanooga, my sister wanted to go to Coolidge Park and see the hand-carved antique carousel they have there. What a fabulous idea that was!

It’s gorgeous. And huge. And we got to ride it!

This is the horse I rode:horse

I’ve already forgotten his name. All the animals have names.

The carousel is an 1894 Dentzel carousel, restored by a man named Bud Ellis and his team of wood-carving artists from the Chattanooga area.

There are 52 hand-carved animals on the carousel, and they’re all fabulous! I’ll show you a few of the ones I took pictures of.

Lots of ornate and beautiful horses. horsebunny

horse3

They had a bucking bronco, and I thought about riding it, as I’m sure it’s the only bucking horse I’d ever be able to stay on!

A pig:pig

An elephant:ellpont

A “seahorse”?seahorse

A rabbit, a fish, a couple of ostriches, a lion, a couple of goats, a tiger, a giraffe . . .carousel

They had a couple that were just on display and not mounted on the carousel.

General Lee’s horse:leehorse

And a dog:dog

I loved it. I wanted to ride each one of them in turn, just to say I did it. Will I ever grow up?

On the way home the next day, we detoured a little through Memphis, and took a tour of Graceland. My sister has been there before, not long after it was opened up to the public for tours, but I had never been.

I’ve always liked Elvis, but was not a huge fan, so I had never thought about actually going to Graceland.

However, now that I’ve been there, I love Elvis even more, and I’m so glad I went. It’s a very sad tour.

We toured the house and grounds, the airplanes, and the car museum. This is the only picture I took. This car is the car that Elvis was driving the last time he entered the gates of Graceland on the day he died. Elviscar

IF you believe he’s actually dead . . .

I personally would like to believe he’s still alive, and that he has lived a good and peaceful life in the way he wanted.

One response to “The Coolidge Park Carousel”

  1. Judy Smith says:

    Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Your pictures were great.

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