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.

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.

“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.”

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.

“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.