Built in 1917 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company as No. 44, this carousel first opened at Riverside Park in Springfield, Massachusetts, was sold in 1938 to Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island, and came to Kings Dominion in 1973 during park construction, reopening in 1975 after repairs when the park opened to the public. It is unusual for having four rows of horses, with the outside horses stationary and the three inside rows serving as jumpers; in all, it has 66 hand-carved boxwood horses, including 16 stationary horses and 50 jumpers, and two cherub chariots. Each horse cost approximately $10,000, and the chariots measure 5'4" high, 3'10 1/2" wide, and 7'10" long. The horses' intricate carvings appear only on the outside and include multicolored saddles with animal skins, torches, flags, bees, Indian beading, swords, and flowers. The structure includes 14 mirrors on its barrel, 1,800 lights, and 20 oil paintings ranging from swans on a lake to a man and camel on the desert and a dog pushing a little boy in a buggy. Its dominant colors are white and red, with a gazebo on top and three trumpeters, and the red designs on the barrel are the names of the people who first restored it. One of the original horses is in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and the carousel still operates on the original Auchy Friction Drive, patented in 1969.
