Clarksburg park reopens Saturday with free rides on new carousel

Event is culmination of $10 million improvement project at Ovid Hazen Wells Recreational Park

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May 15, 2026 8:00 a.m. | Updated: May 15, 2026 1:39 a.m.

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Montgomery Parks recently completed a major improvement project at its Ovid Hazen Wells Recreational Park in Clarksburg and will celebrate its reopening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday.

The park features Montgomery County’s second Victorian-style carousel, according to Parks Director Miti Figueredo. Ten of the animal seats on the new carousel are originals from Wheaton Regional Park’s historic Ovid Hazen Wells Carousel that have since been restored. The event Saturday at 12121 Skylark Road is free, as are the carousel rides.

“There’s no age limit. It’s for anyone who is young at heart and loves to ride a carousel,” Figueredo told Bethesda Today in early May, noting the carousel also boasts an accessible chariot seat and 30 horses and zebras. After the event, which will run from 2 to 4 p.m., the carousel will be closed until the season officially opens on Memorial Day weekend.

In addition to the carousel, the improvement project expands active recreation areas in the nearly 300-acre park with a new skate park and playground, swing and hill slide areas, picnic spots and trail connections. There is also additional parking space and free wi-fi service.

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“It’s going to be a really exciting and active park that is in a part of the county that has been waiting for it for a long time,” Figueredo said.

According to Figueredo, the improvement project and new carousel at Ovid Hazen Wells Park have been years in the making.

In 1981, the parkland was donated to the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission by Hallie Wells, the wife of Ovid Hazen Wells, according to Montgomery Parks. Wells donated the land that belonged to her family in memory of her husband, with the intention of having the park be the new home for the 1915-built Ovid Hazen Wells Carousel.

According to Montgomery Parks, the original carousel operated as the Herschell-Spillman Carousel on the National Mall for the Smithsonian Institute from 1967 to 1981. Wells’ nephew, Jim Wells, operated the ride. The commission purchased the historic carousel in 1981 and moved it to Wheaton Regional Park, where it operated from 1983 until 2024.

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The parks department always intended to relocate the carousel to Ovid Hazen Wells Recreational Park when the park was sufficiently developed. Forty-five years later, that time has come, with the spirit of the original carousel living on in the 10 refurbished animals who merrily offer spins on the new ride.

In 2015, the Montgomery County Planning Board approved a facility plan for the Clarksburg park, and construction on the more than $10 million project began in mid-2024, according to Figueredo.

Deep into the county budget season, Figueredo told Bethesda Today that she was excited to open the park, but worried that if the parks department is not fully funded, there may be challenges maintaining new parks that come online.

“We build amenities like skate parks out of our capital budget, but after we build them, we need funding in our operating budget to maintain them. And right now, we don’t have a final vote from the Council on our budget,” Figueredo said. “That is something I am personally losing sleep over.”

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine