“If we can keep her and salvage her, we will,” Woodward added. “If not, it means we would have to forgo all of her and start all over and build a whole new one.” <\/p>\n
Woodward told News 5 it is the only winery in the world with a working one.<\/p>\n
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News 5<\/p>\n
Crews removed many, but not all, of the seats on the Ferris Wheel as they wait for the next steps. <\/p>\n
The winery previously restored the Ferris wheel, originally built in 1956, after Erieview Park closed in 2006.<\/p>\n
The Ferris wheel is known as the “#5 Big Eli”<\/a> because it was considered the “fifth” model from Ferris wheel originator George Ferris’ original patents<\/a>. <\/p>\n RELATED: Historic Erieview Park Ferris Wheel in Geneva-on-the-Lake damaged by severe storms<\/a><\/p>\n Watch News 5’s story immediately following the storms: <\/p>\n Historic Erieview Park Ferris Wheel in Ashtabula Co. damaged from severe storms<\/p>\n “We wanted something iconic \u2014 something that no other winery ever had,” Woodward said.<\/p>\n Since the storm, Woodward said she has seen an outpouring of support and heard stories from people sharing their memories of the landmark from across the country and beyond. Even a week and a half later, plenty of people still stopped by to see for themselves what happened to this landmark. <\/p>\n “They’re telling me stories about their little bit of history about it,” Woodward said.<\/p>\n Artist Shawna Stroup Billet, who now lives in Houston, grew up in the area. <\/p>\n “It’s a staple,” Stroup Billet said. “When I saw the Ferris wheel down, I had a flood of emotions, and I never thought who knew you would have that feeling looking at an amusement park ride.” <\/p>\n Shawn Stroup Billet<\/p>\n Stroup Billet channeled those emotions into a painting commemorating the #5 Big Eli. Prints of the painting are set to be sold at a fundraiser at the winery on Thursday, July 2.<\/p>\n Old Firehouse Winery<\/p>\n Those unable to attend the fundraiser can still purchase a print of the Ferris wheel by clicking here<\/a>. <\/p>\n Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard<\/a>, on Facebook ClayLePardTV<\/a> or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ohio \u2014 The Old Firehouse Winery is waiting on insurance and the ride manufacturer to determine whether…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[30036,43140,65,43226,46066],"class_list":["post-91410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-ashtabula-county","tag-ferris-wheel","tag-geneva","tag-geneva-on-the-lake","tag-old-firehouse-winery"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116806755906487585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"painting](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782329563_407_.jpeg\")
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