A piece of Jersey shore history is up for auction.
The 82-year-old Dentzel/Looff carousel on the Seaside Heights boardwalk that survived Superstorm Sandy is up for sale to make room for new attractions.
Arlan Ettinger is president of the Manhattan-based auction company Guernseys, and he says it's one of only about 150 left in the United States.
"Carousels were as popular as the movies today," he said. "On a Saturday night, you'd take a date to the carousel."
Due to this carousel's stature and historic nature, Ettinger thinks of it as a national treasure.
"This isn't just one of the biggest carousels," he said. "Its one of the fanciest, one of the finest. It's a national treasure."
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It might be hard to find someone more appreciative of the carousel's historical significance that Dr. Floyd L. Moreland. He oversaw the carousel's restoration in the 1980s, according to the Courier Post.
"I'm heartbroken," Moreland said about the auction. "It's a very sad day for Seaside Heights," Moreland told the newspaper. "I think it's been the soul of Seaside Heights and generations of families have ridden it over the years."
An auction is planned for the fall, with the hope that a buyer will take the entire ride and prevent it from being broken up. Otherwise, its 58 hand-carved figures and Wurlitzer organ will be sold piecemeal.
"Everyone's hoping we don't get to that point," Ettinger said. "Because of the historic nature of this carousel - one of the great ones left in the country - we feel as if its our responsibility to do our best to keep it intact by finding a buyer who'll purchase the whole thing."
Though Ettinger didn't specify how much the whole carousel would sell for, he explained it won't be cheap.
"A smaller, unrestored carousel from Coney Island sold for just under $2 million," Ettinger said. "This carousel is much larger, grander, and restored. So it would go for much more than that."
