Seaside Carousel Mall

During the 1980’s Seaside renovated its downtown. The family that had owned the Mall since the 1920’s joined in on the revival of downtown Seaside and built the Mall. It was completed in 1985 and, at that time, was called Town Center Mall. The design of the Mall was based around a center sky light with stores radiating from that. At the beginning there was a small carousel. That carousel was “portable” and the owner of it often times would take it away to other venues leaving a gaping hole in the middle of the Mall. Children and adults alike were often disappointed that it was gone, so the owners of the Mall decided to buy a permanent carousel. After looking for a carousel a company from South San Francisco, Barrango, was commissioned to build a carousel for the Mall. That carousel arrived in the Mall in 1990. The animals on the carousel are replicas of classic carousel animals. The original carved animals are from the San Francisco Carousel Museum. Rather than choosing all horses for the two-row carousel, other, menagerie animals were included. There are rabbits, cats, reindeer, ostriches, a pig and a bear, as well as a hippocampus (most think she is a sea horse). The carousel runs everyday the Mall is open whether there is only one hopeful rider or a ride with standing room only. Our customers kept calling the Mall “the carousel mall” so we listened and changed the name of the Mall from Town Center to Seaside Carousel Mall. The Mall and the carousel have been a center point of downtown Seaside for over 25 years and hope to continue to be an important part of Seaside for many years to come.