The Daily Bee: Carousel of Smiles announces potential new home

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Carousel of Smiles announces potential new home

by CAROLINE LOBSINGER
Staff Writer | August 16, 2024 1:00 AM

SANDPOINT —The ponies are on the move.

This time, the 36 ponies, studio, and workshop that make up the Carousel of Smiles are headed to what Clay and Reno Hutchison hope is its final home. The couple announced Wednesday the lease and the option to purchase the former Co-Op Gas & Supply Co. building at 502 Church St.

The move, slated for Oct. 1, will see the carousel come together under one roof, joining Marketplace Antiques and the Pie Hut.

“The property, with its rich history, is an ideal location for the carousel, creating a bridge to the envisioned Granary/Arts District and the primary downtown core,” the couple said. 

The block was once home to the Co-Op Gas & Supply Co., built in the 1930s. The site has also been home to a tire and auto repair shop, then a design studio, and more recently, Marketplace Antiques, the Pie Hut, and the Community Assistance League, which recently moved to a Boyer Avenue site.

“The 502 Church Street location will be a great location, and, with Marketplace Antiques and the Pie Hut, great synergy will be created for Sandpoint and all of its residents and visitors,” the couple said.

An artist’s rendition of the potential future home of the Carousel of Smiles.

The couple bought the carousel in 2000, fulfilling a lifelong dream of Reno Hutchison. Growing up in Butte, Mont., she’d fallen in love with carousels after her first ride on the Columbia Gardens’ carousel. When that carousel burned down in 1973, she was devastated and dreamed of finding a carousel of her own. When the Hutchisons learned the carousel was up for auction, found in two cargo trailers abandoned in a Kansas field, it was a chance to make that dream come true. They moved the trailers to a storage facility in New York, and in 2016 when city officials envisioned making City Beach a year-round destination for locals and visitors alike, the couple opted to bring the carousel to Sandpoint.

“There’s a great quote by Andrew Jackson that basically says, take all the time you need to deliberate, but when the time for deliberation is over, jump in,” Clay Hutchison said of learning the carousel was up for auction. “So we just jumped in and said, ‘We’ve got to buy this thing.'”

It is a similar situation with the building, the couple said.

Wendy Lawrence paints the saddle on one of the Carousel of Smiles ponies.

“It’s sort of like, take all the time you want to deliberate,” Reno Hutchison said. “We’ve spent eight years trying to work with the city, but now (the building) has come available, and it’s time to just go for it.”

The Hutchisons said they are excited about the building’s potential and the future — that after years of unknowns and frustrations, the Carousel of Smiles could have a permanent home.

“It’s kind of a historic building … It still has a story,” Reno Hutchison said. “We should work with what’s there and make it something really cool.”

The fact that the carousel project is where it is is a testament to the community’s residents and volunteers who have embraced “the ponies,” as Reno Hutchison calls them, as their own. They have taken the historic carousel into their hearts.

The restoration is in the home stretch, and the opportunity provided by the lease, and option to purchase, the Church Street site allows them to refocus on the project’s location and facility aspects.

Work on the carousel is about 85% complete. Three horses need woodwork completed, and another eight need painting completed. Also, some of the mechanisms that run the carousel need work, as do its floor and some of the gears. They are working with the Bonner County History Museum on ideas on how to paint the 14 murals that will go along the outside of the carousel.

“It is time to find a home for the carousel and get it operational once again,” the couple said. “Thus, when the opportunity to move to, and possibly purchase, the Church Street location came about, it was time to jump.”

Wendy Lawrence paints the saddle on one of the Carousel of Smiles ponies.

The move to the Church Street site follows a decision to pull back from what felt like a constantly shifting set of priorities and agendas at the city and a potential agreement “more difficult and illusive than anticipated,” the couple said. While disappointed things didn’t work out to locate the carousel close to City Beach, the Hutchisons said they are excited about the Church Street location.

“The reality is, maybe this was meant to be all along … We just have to embrace where we’re at and go forward with it with a happy, positive heart,” Reno Hutchison said.

Failure to reach an agreement had the couple at one point contemplating moving the carousel to another community. They’d been approached by other cities, and the seeming lethargy of some Sandpoint officials toward the project had them wondering if the carousel was meant to be in the community. The momentum and synergy were gone, and efforts to find a way forward seemed to fall on deaf ears, the couple said.

Gabe Gabel concentrates as she finetunes the paint on one of the 36 ponies that make up the Carousel of Smiles, a 1920 Allan Herschel carousel. The carousel is one of a limited number that are intact with their original ponies and mechanisms. Photo courtesy CLAY HUTCHISON

“I’m extremely frustrated, and I’m extremely disappointed that we couldn’t get enough traction with (the city) to make this thing happen in eight years,” Clay Hutchison said. “But the reality is, we’re on a ride, and we’re moving forward and looking to the future. We’ve had time to process what we’re doing, and we’re excited by it.”

 

 

The opportunity to lease the Church Street building has re-energized them. It feels “right,” and they can see the carousel in the space, they said.

“We’re excited about having a spot to say, ‘Hey, if we raise the money, this is our spot. This is going to be home, and we’re excited about that,” Clay Hutchison said.

Having a definitive location allows the carousel to keep moving forward and to keep plans to launch the nonprofit’s next phase.

While things didn’t work out with the city or the City Beach site, the inclusion of the carousel in the city’s City Beach master plan served as a catalyst to push the project forward, Clay Hutchison said.

“It caused us to say it was time to pull these things out of the barn and get this project rolling because otherwise, it’s going to sit in that barn again (and) more missed opportunities,” he added.

Roughly eight years after bringing the ponies to town and seven years after introducing “the ponies” to the community in 2017, the Carousel of Smiles will be reuniting the herd at a special event at the Bonner County Fairgrounds in November. The Carousel Fun Fair will bring together area nonprofits, activities, and exhibits — and showcase the carousel, expected to be completed and operational by fall 2025.

While the exact amount of a capital campaign to buy and transform the building depends on multiple factors, the Hutchisons estimate it will cost about $2 million. They plan to spend the next several months mapping just what that campaign will entail and what the purchase and renovation of the building will cost.

Fewer than 200 wooden carousels from the golden age of carousels, roughly the period from the late 1800s to 1930, still exist out of more than 3,000. Of those 200 or so, even fewer are in original condition and intact with their ponies and mechanisms. Next fall, Sandpoint will join that list.

“I think it’s important for people to know the dream is coming closer to reality,” Reno Hutchison said.

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Sandpoint Reader:Rounding up the horses

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Rounding up the horses

Carousel of Smiles finds a new home

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

The horses have finally found a home. In 2016, after Clay and Reno Hutchison unpacked two trailers and brought an intact 1920 Allan Herschell carousel into the light for the first time in de-cades, many in the community knew something special had come to Sandpoint. Of more than 3,000 wooden carousels created during the “Golden Age of Carousels” — from 1870-1930 — fewer than 200 are in operation today, and fewer still are original and intact with the same ponies and mechanisms used in their heyday.
Now, after 20,000 volunteer hours of restoration and several changes of venue, the Hutchisons have found a new home for the beloved project: inside the former Bizarre Bazaar building on Church Street and Fifth Avenue.

The Hutchisons announced they would begin moving the 36 ponies, the studio and workshop to the new location on Oct. 1, joining Marketplace Antiques Center and the Pie Hut, which will both remain in their current locations.

“Due to the cooperation of the building owners, we have secured an option to purchase the building, so this may well be the permanent and operat-ing home for the Carousel and its other anticipated art programs,” Clay told the Reader.

The property is an ideal location for the carousel, creating a bridge to the Granary Arts District and the down-town core of Sandpoint.

The Co-Op Gas and Sup-ply Company initially built up the neighborhood in the 1930s, constructing a grain elevator in 1934. After that, 520 Church St. was a tire and auto repair shop in the 1970s, later selling to Celeste Kilmartin and Deanne Johnson, who ran a gallery and design business called Eklektos until the complex became home to Marketplace Antiques and the Pie Hut, with the Community Assistance League’s upscale resale store Bizarre Bazaar occupying the main building.

CAL is moving to a new location at 114 S. Boyer Ave. with a reopening scheduled for the last week of August, and their vacancy opened up the opportunity for the Carousel of Smiles.

When the Hutchisons unpacked and showcased the vintage carousel in 2017, it was the first time the horses had gone on display since being packed up by the Kansas State Fair in 1952. Community members turned out in droves to check out the future Sandpoint attraction, buzzing with excitement for the day the project would be complete.
Then the restoration efforts began, with more than 100 volunteers donating tens of thousands of hours to restore 36 hand-carved horses and the 40-foot diameter mechanism that propels them, as well as rounding boards, original artwork and other elements that made these old carousels something special.

“This is an all-volunteer project with North Idaho artists and craftsmen,” Clay said.

The fact that the carousel had been packed away and resurrected completely intact makes the project even more special.
“It’s very rare to find one intact like this,” Clay said.

Restoration of the carousel — now at 85% — is one of two main hurdles the Hutchisons have faced in bringing the ponies back to life. The other is finding a permanent home to share it with the public.

Since bringing the project to Sandpoint and establishing a nonprofit organization, the Hutchisons have been in yearslong talks with the city of Sandpoint to determine where the carousel would find its forever home. The city’s master planning incorporated the carousel into its vision, with locations like City Beach offered as possibilities. Eventually, the city and the Hutchisons believed the parking lot on Sand Creek just west of City Beach — which locals will remember as the old Lakeside Inn location — would house the carousel in a “cultural house,” inspired by architecture in small towns across Scandinavia. The Hutchisons tapped Tim Boden with Boden Architecture, who designed a unique facility that they said was an example of “destination architecture.”

“Despite not requesting any taxpayer or city funds to be used for this project, working over the years with-in Sandpoint’s governmental dynamics — with its various priorities and agendas — has been more difficult and elusive than anticipated,” Clay said.
After years of back-and-forth discussions with then-City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton, then-Mayor Shelby Rognstad and councilors, the Hutchisons’ dream of finding a home for the carousel continued to experience setbacks as the city’s design competition, lease arrangements with ITD and other hurdles continued to delay the process.
Unable to launch fund-raising efforts because of the uncertainty of where it would end up, the Carousel of Smiles was stuck in limbo.

After Mayor Jeremy Grimm took office in January 2024, the Hutchisons met with him to take the temperature on finding a location. Grimm told the Reader he was a fan of the project, but was pivoting from “visionary amenity projects to practical infrastructure” projects.

“I told them at that point, learning from the James E. Russell Center, the location and placing and encumbering public ground is such a more sensitive process and so wrought with feedback, it’s not something I was comfortable making as an elected official,” Grimm told the Reader.

“If they wanted to pursue that location [along Sand Creek], I was willing to put it to a vote of the public and I would follow the will of the public,” Grimm said.
With the National Carousel Association’s annual convention slated to take place in Sandpoint in September 2025, where the restoration project will be showcased — a huge deal in itself — the Hutchisons felt a great deal of pressure to secure a home. When the 520 Church St. location opened up, they jumped on it.
“I think time brings you to exactly where you need to be,” said Reno. “Like so many other aspects of this project, it’s almost like it’s fate that that building came available at a time when we really needed to house it.”

Even though it didn’t work out with the carousel and the city of Sandpoint, Grimm applauded the project.

“I’m thrilled they found a private sector solution that works for them and works for their supporters,” he said. “I think the carousel will inevitably be a draw and benefit downtown. It will be of interest to many people. It’s unique and that location will anchor it near the arts district. … I salute anyone who is that passionate to put that much of their personal financial backing and energy to preserve a historic timepiece.”

The Hutchisons told the Reader they expect restoration efforts to wrap up soon, with the carousel ready to operate by the fall of 2025. The completion of the project is especially touching for Reno, who said it’s a way to give back to this community that has given her so much over the years.

“I’ve lived here since 1981 and I was a single parent of three children a lot of those years,” she said. “It was hard to live here as a sin-gle parent. That I can give something like this to the community that held me up through some of my hardest moments, I can’t even find a word to describe how that makes me feel. It’s a way for me to pass on some magic that I always wanted to create for my own kids but couldn’t.”

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