June 1 – What a GREAT day!  Any day you can start off with riding in a 1916 carrousel, it’s

a great day!  We started our day at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum in North Tonawanda, NY.  They were also hosting a Renaissance Faire.  We didn’t do much but walk around the Faire but we always enjoy seeing the costumes.  Allan Herschell and James Armitage started the Armitage Herschell company and ran it together from 1892 – 1902, when Allen left and joined his brother in law in creating the Herschell-Spillman company.  Herschell took ill and left the company for a period, then it became Spillman Engineering and later Herschell came back and it was named the Allen Herschell Company.  The museum offers a nice collection of mostly wooden carved horses but also some novelty carrousel animals such as a frog, cat and

kangaroo.  Some date back to 1905 but the photos displayed of the factory and workers are from 1919.  There were several carvers in the woodmill that we were able to talk to and ask a gazillon questions.  Making a carrousel horse is nothing like I thought it was.  These gentlemen mostly carve other pieces for their own pleasure and are volunteers to show guests the tools of the trade and explain the process.  One man was making a mahogany Morgan horse that has very intricate wood carving for the saddle.  The horse starts as 1 inch boards, 12 inches wide.  Then the wood blocks are carved into the body, the 4 legs, the neck and the head and are all glued together with wood block dowels.  Back in the day they didn’t use mahogany but basswood or yellow poplar.  Journeymen carvers did the legs and less intricate parts and only master carvers did the heads and detailed parts.  In 1919 the going rate for a master carver was .35 an hour.  Once the horse was carved and sanded it received 5-6 coats of primer and was then painted with the colorful paint and designs.  Then 6-7 coats of varnish protected the paint.

 

After touring the woodmill and the museum collection we saw an operational children’s carrousel and then we each got a ride on the 1916 #1 Special carrousel.  This one only had horses and a couple of “sleds” for those who were afraid of horses.  We took turns riding so we could take each other’s photos and video.  That’s when Bill discovered that the video was out of space.  At least we did get a couple of good photos.  I would love to own a wooden carrousel horse.  I’ve looked at them many times but can’t figure where I’d put one.  www.carrouselmuseum.org

 

I guess I left my reading glasses at the RV so it was not easy to read maps and give directions without them. On our way from the museum we spotted a Dollar Tree next to a Subway, so it was a good stop to solved two problems at one time.  I bought 2 pair to leave in the truck for next time.

 

From North Tonawanda we headed into Buffalo to the Darwin Martin House, which was designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright from 1903-1905.  Bill wasn’t interested in the tour so he came in the VC to see the exhibit and watch the movie but he went out and took the photos while I went on the tour.  The house, sister’s house, stable and gardener’s quarters took up 1 ½ acres.  It was actually a complex, a huge complex that was all connected except for the gardener’s cottage.  Darwin Martin was married with 2 children, living  in  a modest,  

but nice house that he really was not happy with once he gained much success working for a major soap product company in Buffalo.  By the time he built the house he was a millionaire.  The house without furniture or the art glass windows cost $145,000.  There were 400 art glass windows commissioned and the foundation has recovered about 200 at  The house was abandoned by the family in 1935 after Martin’s death as he died penniless after the Depression and his wife could not afford the house.  His son sold and gave away most of the valuable furnishings and windows as he knew the value of them and did not want them left in the house for thieves or vandals.  The house was sold for taxes finally in the 1950’s I believe.  About half of the complex had been demolished and apartment buildings built but an architect bought the main house and rented out 2 parts of it and started doing some renovations but it was too extensive and later the house was purchased by a group of Buffalo citizens to save one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s greatest homes.  It’s a Prairie style house that was nothing like the other homes in the area and had all very large rooms.  Wright even designed the furniture and where it was all to be in the home.   I found one of the most impressive things was you could be in the receiving room and look thru 4 art glass windows inside to the 5^th window to the outside of the other side of the house.  Everything was totally symmetrical.  The book cases were numerous but very well hidden, and were designed to cover where the furnaces are and could be swiveled out to get to the furnace for repairs.  It’s quite the place!  www.darwinmartinhouse.org

We had planned to go to the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural site but it was closed by the time I finished my tour.  We headed back to the park and on the way we found a Best Buy so I could ask how to get the video off of my camera.  I had checked my cords and didn’t bring one that looked like it would fit the various plugs in the camera.  Well, duh, it has a built in USB plug so all I needed to do was attach it directly to my computer.

 

On the way home the skies opened up and we got a drenching.  At the park we had to put raincoats on to begin to get from the truck to the RV.  I was glad I put dinner in the crock pot so we had a nice dinner with no work.

 

Well, when I got into the videos I realized why I didn’t actually know how to download my videos:  I never took any off from the time we bought the camera!  Then I didn’t feel quite so stupid.  There were videos from June 2010.  So I spent part of the evening cleaning up some of the camera so it would be ready for tomorrow.