Allan Herschell Company

Allan Herschell Company, presently at 889 Erie Ave. - Established 1872. The photo below, from a 1906 brochure about the Tonawandas, shows the Herschell-Spillman manufacturing facility on Sweeney Street. Note the covered railroad bridge at the right of the buildings. This bridge was replaced by the cantilever bridge.

Established in 1872 in its earliest form; it was officially established in 1915 in North Tonawanda, NY , employing 300 artisans who handcrafted more than 3,000 wooden carousels. Technically, it moved out of New York when it was sold in 1972 to an amusement ride maker in Kansas and didn't return until 1997.  It was the fourth in a series of companies in the community which manufactured carousels and other amusement park rides. The original 24,000 square foot factory building on Thompson Street is now the home of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum.  The Museum's main attraction is a 1916 wooden carousel with 36 horses. The existing Allan Herschell Company at 889 Erie Avenue still makes parts for carrousels in use around the world.   Allan Herschell had previously been a partner in the earliest of the area's carousel firms: the Armitage Herschell Company in 1872, and later with the Herschell-Spillman Company in 1901. The Spillman Engineering Company operated from the 1920's through the 1930's in competition with its founder. In February 2004 a handcrafted Herschell carousel was sold through eBay to an amusement park in Pine Grove, PA.   The seller, the Delaware River and Bay Authority of Cape May, NJ got its asking price of $40,000.  The ferry company bought it in 1996 for $55,000 to entertain passengers who had to wait up to two hours for the ferry to Lewes, Delaware.  But with improvements in the reservation system and shorter lines, the 9-ton machine was kept in storage in Cape May and put on the Internet auction site eBay in January 2004.  The 1955 machine was bought by Twin Grove Park & Campground, a 70-year-old amusement facility which was especially popular in the 1930's and 1940's.  It is being redeveloped. Of several thousand Herschell carousels made, there are only about 75 left in the world, per Elizabeth Brick-Schutt, curator of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum.

No. 1 Allan Herschell Company building facade, circa 1919.  Historically the largest manufacturer of carrousels in the United States. Courtesy of Ed Janulionis, Allan Herschell Company, and Elizabeth Brick-Schutt, Curator, Herschell Carrousel Museum.