Piece of the past could boost Phoenixville's future

A Phoenixville civic booster has bought a Ferris wheel that's part of the borough's steelmaking history, hoping to turn it into a work of public art to help transform downtown into a cultural and entertainment center.

Philadelphia has its LOVE sculpture, and Phoenixville will someday have a home-grown Ferris wheel rising 72 feet over the borough if Barbara Cohen has her way.

Aided by local banks, Cohen, director of the Schuylkill River Heritage Center, recently bought the Asbury Park Ferris wheel, built by the Phoenix Iron & Steel Co. in 1895.

The Ferris wheel is one of four made by the now-closed company, which originally provided parts for railroads and bridges and which made support structures (the Washington Monument is supported by Phoenix columns). It made the rides after "the success of the Ferris wheel in Chicago two years earlier" at the World's Fair in 1893, Cohen said.

"The one from Atlanta was sold to New York, and then New York sold it to Los Angeles. It stood in Los Angeles at their country fair until 1981. The one in Coney Island was dismantled in 1921. I don't know about the provenance of the one in Palmetto, S.C.," Cohen said.

Cohen bought the wheel for $50,000, getting half the money from the Phoenixville Area Economic Development Corp. Restoration is estimated to cost $98,000, which Cohen hopes to raise through grants and fund-raising. Naming rights will be sold for the Ferris wheel cars, and Cohen will bid for a grant offered by the Chester County Tourist Bureau.

Asbury Park's 72-foot Phoenix wheel was in use from 1895 until 1989, when it was sold to a carnival in Biloxi, Miss. By comparison, the Ferris wheel at Morey's Pier in Wildwood is 150 feet high.

After the Mississippi carnival closed in 1998, New Jersey developer William Sitar Sr. bought the wheel in hopes of restoring it in Asbury Park.

"I just felt there was great value in renovating the boardwalk" and getting the Ferris wheel, which stood for more than 100 years, back there, Sitar said.

But Asbury Park wasn't interested, and Sitar held onto the wheel.

From there, luck took over.

"Somebody said, 'There's some developer in New jersey who has a Phoenix wheel lying on his golf course,' " Cohen said. "It's in amazing shape, considering all the traveling it's done: to Mississippi and back, lying on the field for 10 years, and now back to Phoenixville."

"There's no better place for it," Sitar said. "It was the best thing to happen, since it couldn't go back to Asbury Park."

Adding the Ferris wheel to Phoenixville could speed the town's hoped-for transformation into an entertainment and dining center. Several blocks of the main drag, Bridge Street, are already lined with restaurants, pubs, and coffee shops anchored by the Colonial Theatre, a restored movie house that offers a mix of films and live entertainment. And the steel mill's restored Foundry Building at 2 N. Main St., which serves as headquarters of the Schuylkill River Heritage Center, is a small museum that will double as a catering and event facility.

The town's latest prize lies dismantled at Quality Counts Welding in Kimberton, awaiting a new site. The leading candidates are a piece of the former Phoenix Steel property adjacent to the Foundry Building, and the corner of Main and Bridge Streets.

"I see it as a piece that is place-making," said Barry Cassidy, director of the Main Street Community Development Corp. "We're using an arts-and-entertainment economic-development strategy to revitalize the downtown, and we're using the Ferris wheel as static art."

The wheel will be a living reminder of the town's industrial past, but don't come expecting to ride it. Its sole function will be as public art.

"The foundry, the Phoenix wheel, the Colonial Theatre - Phoenixville's historic downtown is bringing people to the community as a wonderful alternative to a visit to the King of Prussia Mall," Cohen said.

"It's awesome. It's exciting because it's commerce," resident Verda Wells said. "You want things to thrive and to grow and become positive. It's just going to be one more element to add to the excitement of the town."

Cohen hopes to have the wheel installed by June.