Pullen Park will re-open on November 19, 2011 after being closed for renovations for nearly two years.
The City of Raleigh has made improvements to the carousel house, welcome center, concessions building, picnic shelters, and train station.
From the City of Raleigh website:
A revised Master Plan for Pullen Park was adopted by the Raleigh City Council on Oct. 21, 2001, based on recommendations from the Pullen Park Master Plan Committee. The committee sited goals and priorities for the 66-acre park, including specifics for the Amusement Center. One specific goal was to provide a welcoming and exciting carousel house that would provide a longer period of use during the year.
In 2003, working from the Pullen Park and Chavis Park master plans, the Carousel Task Force set about to create a thorough and balanced report. The report, adopted in 2004, provided a framework for decisions regarding carousel restoration, maintenance, promotion, fund raising, operational programming, location and potentially new development by the City of Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department.
With the carousel house as its centerpiece, the Raleigh City Council authorized the design development phase to plan for improvements to the carousel, carousel house, and related park facilities in 2005.
During the design development phase, a series of public meetings and presentations were held to gather citizen input. A public workshop on Pullen Park play space was held in November 2005, and a formal public presentation was provided in March 2006 to review and collect comment on preliminary design drawings.
On March 17, 2009, the Raleigh City Council approved moving forward from the design development phase to the construction document phase for the Amusement Center renovations. Resolute Building Company of Chapel Hill was awarded the construction contract on September 7, 2010. Construction began on October 11, 2010. Funding for the $6.3 million project was approved as part of the 2003 Parks and Recreation Bond Referendum.
The adopted Pullen Park Master Plan and the Carousel Task Force report have provided the background and guiding principles for the design development process as well as the construction phase.