St. Augustine committee approves plan to bring carousel back

The city commission will still need to give the final green light

Rendering of new St. Augustine Carousel (City of St. Augustine)

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The Corridor Review Committee with the St. Augustine city government approved a plan Thursday to bring a new carousel to Davenport Park.

The carousel, located on San Marco Avenue, just off North Ponce De Leon Boulevard, would replace the one that was removed in 2019. It stood for decades and was an iconic St. Augustine staple.

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The committee’s focused on the plans around the design of the carousel, a ticket booth, concrete paving, and fencing.

SEE: Plans for the new carousel

Jacksonville native J.W. Brinkley is the owner of the new carousel, his goal is to preserve the history of the iconic carousel. He says he hopes to have it up and running in the next 6 to 8 weeks.

“The previous one was pretty basic. This one is gonna have a lot more music, it’s got what they call personalized stereo speakers, we can make the light do any color dance, any music, so it’s got a lot going on,” Brinkley said.

“It’s also gonna be a smoother ride because before being top driven, it was running around on a metal base, we’re going to put in a concrete base and there’ll be tires, they’ll be rolling on tires so it’d be a nice smooth ride for everybody.”

Original Carousel in St. Augustine (City of St. Augustine)

The city commission will now need to give the final approval for the carousel to be built.

After that – Brinkley expects the installation of the carousel to begin quickly.


About the Author

Tiffany comes home to Jacksonville, FL from WBND in South Bend, Indiana. She went to Mandarin High School and UNF. Tiffany is a former WJXT intern, and is joining the team in 2023 as Consumer Investigative Reporter and member of the I-TEAM.

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