The little ferris wheel stands in front of an empty house, once a boarding house in the days that the Great Northern Railroad shops were here, providing employment for hundreds of Hillyard residents. The railroad has moved on, the boarding house is empty, but the ferris wheel is still here. It stands on a lot owned by a Hillyard resident, but its ownership is unclear. Possibly it has something to to with the annual
Hillyard Festival, a three day neighbourhood party that has been going on every August since 1911.