Port Dalhousie changes

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One of the biggest attractions was the Lakeside Park Carousel, which has been a fixture on the waterfront for years and is ready for another go-around. The Lakeside Carousel has been a part of the Waterfront community since 1921. Hand carved in Brooklyn New York in the late 1800s, it was part of an amusement park in Scarborough before it moved to its permanent home in St. Catherines.

The carousel is one of nine hand carved carousels still operating in Canada and it still costs just 5 cents to ride. The carousel has 68 animals including horses, lions, camels, goats and giraffes. The horses even still have real horsehair tails. The animals have all been carefully restored by volunteers to keep the ride in working condition.

The 5 cent attraction was once part of a flourishing amusement park in the 1920s in Port Dalhousie, which had over 50 different attractions.

Currently, the Waterfront community is the midst of an overhaul. The Port Dalhouse Pavillion, which also dates back to the 1920’s, will be demolished and replaced with a new one. City councillors voted to tear it down mainly because it would cost a million dollars to restore it where as rebuilding it would cost only 720 thousand dollars.

St.Catharines residents could learn the fate of the Port Dalhousie piers later this week at an open house. Portions of the piers, which were built in the 1870’s, have been closed off to the public for more than a year. An inspection found severe deteriorations and no short-term fixes.

While the future of the piers is still in the air, the carousel will still be be spinning for years to come.