PHOENIXVILLE, Pennsylvania- The most peculiar sight keeps popping up throughout this quaint borough just west of Valley Forge.
These steel cages, eight feet tall and painted blue, dot the landscape.
There are two in front of Uncle B’s Bar B Que. One on the lawn of a Truist bank branch. One outside the municipal building. One on a resident’s farm, overlooking a road that winds into the picturesque downtown. Four more are lined up next to a Little League baseball diamond.
They are carriages of a Ferris wheel. And not just any Ferris wheel. These dangled from the74-foot Ferris wheel that adorned Palace Amusem*nts in Asbury Park for nearly a century. Installed in 1895, it was one of the world’s first steel Ferris wheels and became a signature feature of Asbury Park’s boardwalk until the gears stopped turning in1988.
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Now, 34 years later, this historic attraction could rise again.
Earlier this month the borough council of Phoenixville, where the Ferris wheel'ssteelwas forged, formally reserved adowntown spotfor itto stand as a monument. Just about the entire wheel survives in pieces scattered throughout town— 16 of the original 20 carriages, the motor and all the connecting beams. A structural engineer has drawn up plans for the reassembling.
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“I’m glad to hear it’s still around,” said Don Stine, former president of the Asbury Park Historical Society. “I certainly think it belongs in Asbury Park, but if other people can keep it going elsewhere, that’s OK with me.”
There’s still a lot of money to be raised— putting this thing back together and anchoring it costs well into the six figures— but the folks leading the charge have an impressive track record.
For those who care deeply about history, it’s a worthwhile crusade.
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A Jersey Shore invention
The roots of the modern-day Ferris wheel sprouted alongtheJersey Shore. The first 50-foot wooden wheels were built by Atlantic County carpenter William Somers and rose in Atlantic City, Asbury Park and Coney Island in the summer of 1892.
Illinois engineer George Ferris rode on one of Somers'wheels and decided to build a bigger one withsteel. He successfully pitched the idea to organizers of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, and it became an instant worldwide sensation.
In Asbury Park, Palace Amusem*nts owner Ernest Schnitzler took notice and installed a 74-foot steel wheel to overshadow its wooden neighbor. Its 20 carriages could carry eight people apiece and light up at night. Passengers could disembark at the top onto an adjacent platform, enjoying a never-before-seen panorama of the area.
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“Simply indescribably grand,” the Asbury Park Press reported in 1895.
That wheel was one of four forged by the Phoenix Bridge Co., a subsidiary of Phoenix Steel Co. The other three, which wound up in Coney Island, Atlanta and South Carolina, are long gone.
“The merry-go-round and the Ferris wheel were among the first amusem*nts here in Asbury Park,” Stine said. “The Ferris wheel was always an iconic amusem*nt in Asbury Park, from the very early days.”
The observatory platform came down in the 1920s, but the wheel spun on mostly unchanged. It was a spot forinternational intrigue after World War II, when Palace co-owner Zemil Resnick became deeply involved in the formation of Israel. According to PalaceAmusem*nts.com, Resnick would hold sensitive conversations on the topic in a carriage of the moving wheel, to assure the utmost privacy.
“It was a great place to discuss espionage,” Stine said.
After Palace Amusem*nts closed in 1988, the wheel relocated to aMississippi amusem*nt park until that place shutteredin 1997. Then New Jersey developer William Sitar rescued the wheel with the hope of reviving the Palace. After those plans fizzled, Sitar kept the wheel's pieces on his golf course in Tinton Falls.
That’s where Barbara Cohen found it in a decade later. Cohen, president of the Schuylkill River Heritage Center, was orchestratingan ambitious revival of Phoenixville with a nod to its steel-town roots. The Heritage Center raised $5 million to turn the abandoned Phoenix Steel Company’s foundry into a beautiful museum. In 2008, the center purchased the wheel from Sitar for $50,000.
The pieces came to Phoenixville, and for several years, the story stopped there.
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An appeal to Bruce Springsteen
What do you do with chunksof a 130-year-old Ferris wheel? It’s complicated. The Schuylkill River Heritage Center raised $160,000 to buy the wheel, refurbish the carriages and contract an engineer. Securing the land was a big hurdle. Cohen hopes that will spark the project forward.
“This is very exciting for everyone,” she said. “My dream is to have Bruce Springsteen hold a concert to raise money for it.”
Springsteen surelyrode in the carriages many times. They may have been on his mind when he wrote Asbury Park boardwalk attractions into three different songs, including a direct reference to the Palace in “Born to Run.”
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Cohen, who never has been to Asbury Park, said it will take $600,000 to finish the job.
“We need a platform and it has to be anchored to the concrete,” Cohen said. “We’re going to get an image painted on the platform based on postcards of the Asbury Park waterfront.”
To be clear, it would not spin. Too much liability. It would stand still asa 74-foot statueof Americana— and the world’s oldest existing Ferris wheel.
Donations earmarked for the project can be sent toSchuylkill River Heritage Center, P.O. Box 427, Phoenixville, PA 19460.For more information, email info@phoenixvillefoundry.org or visit www.phoenixvillefoundry.org.
Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
