Etienne McMillon was on a break from work at Skyview On The Ridge when he peered through an entrance to the abandoned mall portion of the building. The memories started to flow back to when he and his family would visit what was then-known as the Medley Centre.

"Being on the carousel, in the food court," McMillon said. "Walking around with my mom. It brings back so many memories of this mall and how it's closed, how times are changing."

McMillon heard the change as he watched a crew of men dismantle the last vestige of the mall's halcyon days. The Italian-made, double-decker carousel had posed in the mall's main glass window and main public space since it opened in 1989.

Contractors from near Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania began taking apart, stacking, sorting and organizing the carousel's 26,000 pieces on Wednesday. The group was hired by Collector Concierge International, a firm out of Vancouver, British Columbia, that is managing the sale and delivery of the ride to its new owner. 

"We tear down rides. We pack 'em up. We build 'em," Joshua Yochum said. "We're not carnies, in a way. We're more like sub contractors."

"You do want to take care of it because it's coming out of a place with a lot of history," said crew chief Anthony Lockwood. 

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Collector Concierge International says the carousel will be shipped to its new owner in Shanghai, China who paid $245,000 for it.

The team that took it apart says its new owner will find an asset in better shape than most that have stood idle for a decade or more.

"This thing was well maintained," Lockwood said. "You can still see the numbers on where the pieces go."

As McMillon looked at the benches stacked near the mall's cracked tile floor, and bubble-wrapped, hand-carved horses ready for their next ride half-way around the world, he believed people⁠—young and old⁠— will enjoy the carousel in its new home the way he did when it spun in Irondequoit.

"[I] just wanted to be on it forever and didn't want to come off of it," McMillon said. 

Collector Concierge International said the deconstruction could take about four days. From there, it's expected to take two to three weeks for containers to be shipped to Shanghai, China where the carousel will be rebuilt for the owner, described by the firm as a collector.