Flying Horses Carousel - Brenham, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 30° 10.409 W 096° 24.044
14R E 750298 N 3340863
Brenham's Flying Horses Carousel is only one of five surviving classic wood Carousels that exist in Texas. The Carousel consists of 24 horses.
Waymark Code: WMWV9N
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/16/2017
Views: 8
City of Brenham
According to the National Carousel Association, Brenham's Flying Horses Carousel is the oldest in Texas and one of the few remaining Carousels consisting of Charles W. Dare horses.
There are three styles of Carousel horses: Philadelphia, Coney Island and Country. Our horses are carved in the "country fair" style. Those were a sleek style, with form and function as closely united as the wooden horses and their built-in saddles. The horses seem to fly, with manes and tails carved to give an appearance of speed. Building each horse to conform to the same mad dash pose had a two-fold benefit. The animated sense of speed appealed to the customers' imagination, and the identical leg position satisfied the traveling fair or carnival's need to erect and dismantle rides in a hurry.
Our carousel was discovered in 1930 by Mr. Hugh Durden in Clay, Texas. It was left in a pasture years earlier, during the Depression, by a carnival that couldn't afford to pay rent on the land they used for their carnival. Mr. Durden saw the potential of the old Carousel and told members of the Washington County Fair Association about how it could serve our community. F.C. Winklemann, Hans Schleider and O.H. Fischer returned and braved swarming hornets to rescue the Carousel from the pasture and moved it to Brenham for repair. O.H. Fischer, owner of Brenham Furniture Repair and Clarence Fischer refurbished the 24 horses, to the delight of the community.
The newly repaired Carousel made its debut at the Washington County Fair on October 12, 1932. In 1935, a 16-sided building built by the Works Progress Administration, WPA, was constructed to house the horses.