The wooden menagerie carousel that generations of Birmingham families rode as kids is back at the Birmingham Zoo after nearly three years away, its 36 hand-carved animals and two chariots freshly restored and reinstalled this month. The zoo has not yet announced an official date for when the ride will reopen to the public, but the animals are already back in place, and the sight alone has longtime staff and visitors buzzing.
According to Bham Now, which observed the restored animals being installed on October 16, a team from Carousel Relics handled the reinstallation that same week. The Ohio-based specialty restoration company returned the fully restored animals to the zoo on October 12, the outlet reported, capping a project that began in 2024 when the zoo disassembled the carousel and shipped its wooden figures to Ohio for repair.
Patty Pendleton, a Birmingham Zoo historian who has worked and volunteered at the zoo for more than 50 years, told the outlet she was surprised and excited by how the restored rabbit figure turned out. Pendleton said the carousel does more than entertain kids — it helps teach them about endangered species and their protection, a mission baked into the ride's original design.
A Menagerie Built Around Conservation
The Protective Carousel was built in 2002 by Carousel Works, per Bham Now, and sits inside the Junior League of Birmingham–Hugh Kaul Children's Zoo section, which opened in 2005. Carousel Works was no ordinary manufacturer: founded in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1986, the company was credited with carving the first new hand-carved wooden carousel built in the United States since the 1930s, according to Coasterpedia, before filing for bankruptcy in 2021. After the bankruptcy, former employee Eric Tomlinson acquired the company's assets to form All Around Carousels, Coasterpedia notes. Carousel Relics offers restoration and maintenance services for carousels.
The Birmingham carousel is a three-row, all-wood ride with hand-carved figures, including an okapi. The animals were designed around the zoo's conservation mission and represent threatened or endangered species, reinforcing the educational framing Pendleton described to Bham Now.
Stripped to Bare Wood and Rebuilt
The restoration work was extensive. Per the outlet's reporting, Carousel Relics stripped old paint and primer down to bare wood, repaired damaged joints and mold-damaged sections, then repainted all 36 animals and applied a protective clear coat before shipping them back to Alabama. The completed restoration means guests can enjoy the animals again.
The restoration kept the ride offline for nearly three years. The zoo draws more than 502,000 guests annually, the same report noted, meaning a huge number of families have been waiting through the carousel's absence.
Family Memories Spanning Two Decades
Kim Loging, the zoo's director of human resources and a longtime visitor, has brought her family to the zoo since 2006. She told Bham Now she dug up four years of photos of her son, Alexander, riding the carousel — he was eight months old during his first visit — and said he is still excited to ride it again now. Loging added that families can enjoy the carousel regardless of age, a sentiment that echoes the ride's role as a multi-generational fixture at the zoo.
The zoo is running an Instagram contest giving winners a chance to ride the restored carousel early, ahead of any public reopening announcement. No firm date has been set, but anticipation has been building for more than a year: as part of a year-long 70th-anniversary campaign in 2025, local agency Lewis Communications mounted life-sized carousel animal figures on city lamp poles around Birmingham to tease the ride's eventual return.
A Milestone Year for Birmingham's Only AZA Zoo
The carousel's comeback lands during a banner stretch for the institution. The zoo opened at Lane Park on April 2, 1955, as a municipal menagerie before becoming a nonprofit in 1999, according to ThrillZing. The zoo spans 122 acres and remains the only zoological park in Alabama accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The Greater Birmingham CVB recognized it as its “Attraction of the Year.” It houses about 450 animals across around 165 species.
The Protective Life Carousel is among the zoo's attractions, and the park also hosts the daytime Halloween event Hoots & Howls each October. Other paid attractions include the Red Diamond Express Train and Full Moon Bar-B-Que Wild Slide; the slide is listed at $3.50.
Hoodline has previously covered Dino Safari, which opened March 4 and continued through November 1 and reported on the arrival of a young male giraffe, part of a busy season of attractions and animal news at the Birmingham institution. The carousel's homecoming adds another chapter to that momentum, even as zoo officials have yet to confirm exactly when riders will be able to climb back aboard.
