#Middlebury #LakeQuassapaug
This postcard photo shows a young boy on the hippocampus on an early carousel at Quassy Amusement Park. (Postcard property of Middlebury Historical Society)
By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD
On Sept. 8, 1946, the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper advertised that 15,000 people were expected at Quassapaug for the newspaper’s carnival involving 35 different kinds of sports and featuring over $600 in prizes for nearly 200 contestants. There would be a contest to determine which “pulchritudinous damsel” would be named Miss Quassapaug, while visitors could also view “sinewy, sinuous divers” executing back-flips, jackknives and other aerial stunts.
Long before Lake Quassapaug became such a fantastic destination, Native Americans, probably Pootatucks of the Paugussett Nation, first settled the area and hunted and fished around the lake, perhaps for thousands of years. Today’s marvelous playground had humble beginnings as a place for picnicking, canoeing, swimming, boating and fishing. The Grove House (see It Happened, Lake Quassapaug, Part I) extended activities for vacationers and other fun-seekers, but it burned down about 1915.
In 1901, a writer for “Forest and Stream; A Journal of Outdoor Life” pronounced, “Lake Quassapaug is the handsomest bit of natural water on the earth …” (ConnecticutHistory.org). A sea wall built in 1905 made the area officially Lake Quassapaug Park.
This very rare postcard photo shows the seawall and dance hall at Quassy Amusement Park. (Postcard property of Middlebury Historical Society)
In 1908, perhaps the greatest change to the area arrived in the form of the Waterbury electric trolley line, which was extended to Quassapaug and then to Woodbury. With that arrival, the park was officially a “trolley park,” and by 1919 there were over 1,500 of these parks across the country (today, there are only about a dozen left). Amusement parks were a way for trolley lines to increase their ridership and hence their revenue. And area people responded in droves!
One of the most famous features of the park throughout the years was an historic “Golden Age” wooden carousel built by E. Joy Morris of Philadelphia about 1902. Its date of acquisition is unknown, but it probably replaced a smaller machine operated lakeside. It consisted of a lion, tiger, three camels, three giraffes, three deer, two zebras, three goats, three hippocampi, a burro, three chariots and 24 horses. The original animals were stationary, but in the 1920s most of them were converted into “jumpers,” that is, figures that moved up and down, by the C. W. Parker Company.
Another carousel at Quassy, the oldest ride in the park in 1989, was built in 1924 by the W. F. Mangels Company of Coney Island, Brooklyn, N.Y. It was a kiddie ride with 24 jumping horses and two chariots. Quassy acquired it in 1989 and sold it in 2008 (Ron Gustafson at CarouselHistory.com).
The carousel (most experts say the word is interchangeable with “merry-go-round”) continued to provide Middleburians and so many others with wonderful memories until October 1989, when it was sold at auction; at that time it was the last E. Joy Morris carousel in operation. Since no single buyer could be found, it was broken up and sold piece by piece. The lion netted the highest amount – $60,000, and the lone tiger was sold for $45,000. All told, $630,000 was realized at the auction. A 2010 offering of a jumping zebra from the carousel was featured at auction with an estimated value of $30,000 to $40,000.
By 1990 the Frantzis family, owners of Quassy, had replaced the Morris carousel with one built by Chance Rides of Wichita, Kan. It, in itself, is a magnificent specimen.
Bob Rafford is the Middlebury Historical Society president and Middlebury’s municipal historian. To join or contact the society, visit MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or call Bob at 203-206-4717.
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