The Flying Horse Carousel, built around 1876, should not be confused with Martha’s Vineyard’s Flying Horses Carousel. Both were manufactured by the Charles W. F. Dare Company, one of the leading amusement manufacturers at the time, and both contend to be the oldest continually operating carousel in the country. Watch Hill’s carousel was never meant to end up in the coastal village; it was part of a traveling carnival, which abandoned it in Westerly in 1897. It was powered by a calico horse until 1897, when the horse was replaced…
