Charles I.D. Looff came to America in 1870 at age 18 and, after settling in Brooklyn, N.Y., brought with him earlier training as a woodcarver in Schlesmig Holstein, then a Danish Province. During his first five years in America, he worked as a furniture maker by day and a carousel carver by night. As one of the earliest American carousel carvers, and by creating his first three carousels himself, he greatly influenced the styles of other carousel companies. His first carousel was placed in Coney Island in 1876 and carried menagerie animals other than horses. His early animals were the first to incorporate glass and composition ornamentation and the use of the Bird saddle-back design. Never satisfied to use set patterns for long, Looff continually changed his carvings with the times, and his animals fell into three distinct categories: the earliest, from 1876 to 1888, were sweet and gentle; the middle phase, from 1889 to 1900, produced some of the most elegant and well-carved animals, with finely chiseled horse heads, intricately carved manes, and full figures and faces behind the cantle of the saddle as ornamentation; and the final phase, from 1901 to 1918, changed the company's carving patterns so that the animals became flamboyant and highly stylized, the categorization now placed upon Looff's carvings as a Coney Island style. The history of this Looff carousel began with its original placement at Fairpark, Texas, in 1895, followed by Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica, Ca., in the 1950's, operation in Spanaway, Wash., through the 1970's, purchase at auction by Perrons in Portland, Ore., in Sept. 1979 and movement to Oregon, city downtown dedication in Portland in 1982, National Registration of Historic Places in 1987, relocation to Carousel Courtyard in Portland in 1988, complete restoration for the '92 International Fair in 1991, service at AmeraFlora in 1992 as the only featured ride offering over 1,000,000 rides, placement at Media City Center in Burbank, Ca., in 1997, and placement at Seaport Village in San Diego, Ca., in 2004.