EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2016.
When the news became public in the late 1980s that a merry-go-round was in the works for downtown Mansfield, it ignited a firestorm of scathing abuse. The project was five years in the making, and even after it was open and doing business in 1991 the criticism was still smoking.
Conceived originally as a way to change perceptions about downtown’s then-questionable future, Richland Carrousel Park was placed right into the epicenter of Main Street’s teetering neighborhoods.
Using Federal funding to clear the site, and a non-profit, private, $1.25-million campaign to get it built, the Carrousel didn’t really impact city taxpayers. Yet opposition to the plan ran from gentle sarcasm to blistering attacks.
One gauge of sentiment about how hopeless any attempt at downtown revitalization might be is a bumper sticker from 1990 that read: Last One Out of Mansfield Please Turn Off the Carrousel.
Not Crazy At All: 25 Years Later
So how hopeless was the revitalization plan?
Just drive through the Carrousel District today. You’ll see people on the sidewalks, people crossing the streets, people going to shops, people coming out of a coffee house, people dining, people working out, people working.
You’ll see people with kids going in and out of the Carrousel. Count the tokens the riders have used since 1991 to get on the ride: the number was 4,102,094 when this story was first published in 2016. That’s pretty crazy.
The Carrousel’s greatest friend: Virginia Imhoff (1926-2016).
