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.
