A piece of nostalgia that many will fondly remember from having spent summer days at Idora Park was the centerpiece Saturday in New York City for a special celebration and honor.

The park’s former carousel “has welcomed thousands of guests from Youngstown and surrounding areas who love being there to share their stories and hear how meaningful it is to ride their beloved carousel,” said Katie Roth, director of Jane’s Carousel.

The piece of American folk art was among the Idora Park attractions — but it’s now in Brooklyn Bridge Park along the East River in New York City.

The city declared Saturday as the first Jane’s Carousel Day to honor the 100-year-old carousel, which the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. built in 1922 for Idora Park.

The late Jane Walentas, a folk artist who lived in Southampton, N.Y., and earned a master’s degree in folk art studies from New York University, spent more than 20 years renovating and restoring the 48-horse, two-chariot ride to its original form, beauty and glory. The attraction also has the original riding boards, center pole, platforms, crestings and scenery panels.

Walentas worked on it until shortly before she died July 5, 2020, at her home of lung cancer. She was 76.

In 1984, soon after a fire led to Idora Park’s closing, the artist found the carousel that was being sold at auction piecemeal. So Walentas and her husband, David, bought the whole ride for $385,000 and were the sole bidders.

Each horse, however, was in poor condition largely because all were encrusted with layers of old paint, so Walentas used an X-Acto knife to scrape off the paint in a decades-long effort to restore the horses. The work also exposed its original colors and designs, carvings and ornamentations.

In 2011, Jane’s Carousel was installed on the waterfront next to the East River, with the horses gleaming with pinstriping and gold leaf, as well as with beveled mirrors on the bridles. The next year, Hurricane Sandy damaged the carousel, which led Walentas to commission Jean Nouvel, an award-winning architect, to protect it via adding a shimmery acrylic material.

Before the pandemic, busloads of Mahoning Valley residents visited the site to see and share memories of the ride, Roth said.

For more information about the carousel, or to make a donation or sign the memory book, go to www.janescarousel.org.