Kochs donate $1 million toward next phase of Botanica’s carousel project
Botanica is less than two weeks away from opening its lavishly renovated Joyland carousel to the public.
Now, there’s news that a donor has stepped up to help complete the garden, lawn, playground and concession areas surrounding the carousel, which is the next phase of the project.
On Tuesday, Botanica announced that the Fred & Mary Koch Foundation and Koch Industries have given $1 million toward the construction of what will be called the Koch Carousel Gardens. The donation, said Botanica’s director of development Jamee Ross, was the last financial piece Botanica needed to get the project going.
“Now we’re kind of in phase two,” she said. “With the Koch gift, we have the money to do the majority of the gardens.”
The gardens will surround the carousel and carousel pavilion, which are west of the Downing Children’s Garden. They will include an outdoor patio, a bistro, an edible garden, a stone pizza oven, water features, a climbing rock wall, a hill that kids can roll down and a playground that Ross described as “the Children’s Garden on steroids.”
Now that the money is secure, construction on the garden can start after the holidays, weather permitting, and should be done in about a year, she said.
Botanica is still raising money for the remainder of the project, which will include a south entrance and more parking as well as a stage for the grand lawn big enough to hold the entire Wichita Symphony Orchestra.
“We still have some fundraising left to do,” Ross said.
The 40-foot-wide, 36-horse carousel that used to spin at Wichita’s Joyland Amusement Park when it operated from 1949 to 2006 will open to the public just after Thanksgiving, Ross said.
Attendees at the first night of Illuminations on Nov. 29 will get the first open-to-the-public chance to ride the carousel, which costs $3 a spin. Then, starting on Nov. 30, it will be open from noon to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
The carousel, made in 1949 by the Allen Herschell Co. in New York and purchased by Joyland’s founders for $14,500, was left to rot when the amusement park closed and fell into disrepair. But in 2014, Joyland co-owner Margaret Nelson Spear donated the ride to Botanica, asking that it be restored for a new generation to enjoy.
The restoration project so far has taken five years and cost $2.4 million, including $1.8 million for the new pavilion that houses the carousel. Botanica had already raised about $2 million toward the phase two garden project.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 10:00 AM.
.jpg)