Nomination Form
This colorful example of American popular art is a rare surviving hand-carved wooden carousel, kept intact and working for nearly 70 years. The Philadelphia Toboggan Company of Germantown, Pa., built the Buckroe Beach Carousel in Hampton, originally designated “Philadelphia Toboggan Company Number 50.” Commissioned by the Newport News and Hampton Railway, Gas and Electric Company, the carousel was a focal point of the Buckroe Beach Amusement Park, and carried its first riders in May of 1920. Thirty-eight oil paintings, eighteen beveled mirrors, forty-eight hand-carved horses, two hand-carved, upholstered wood chariots, and a Bruder band organ embellished the carousel. Master carvers Frank Caretta and Daniel C. Muller produced the horses and chariots. In 1988, the carousel was restored by R & F Designs in Bristol, Ct., and reassembled in a new pavilion on the waterfront of downtown Hampton. It resumed its cheerful operation on June 30, 1991.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Nomination Form
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
