Kennywood Entertainment Company

Kennywood Entertainment Company was the operator of five United States amusement parks in Western Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

Kennywood Entertainment Company
Company typePrivate
IndustryAmusement parks
Founded1906 (1906)
Defunct2007 (2007)
FateSold to Parques Reunidos
HeadquartersWest Mifflin, Pennsylvania
Area served
Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Hampshire

History

edit

Kennywood Entertainment Co. was effectively created in 1906, when F. W. Henninger and Andrew McSwigan bought the Kennywood amusement park from the Mellon family's Monongahela Railway Company. The two families controlled the park and its future sister parks until they sold the parks in 2007. In 1983, they acquired Idlewild Park from the MacDonald family, who had owned it since acquiring it from the Mellons in 1952. In 1989, they opened Sandcastle Waterpark just a few miles from Kennywood. They acquired Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut, in 1996, and Story Land in Glen, New Hampshire in 2007.

On December 11, 2007, Kennywood Entertainment announced that it would be selling all five of its amusement parks to Parques Reunidos, a company based in Madrid, Spain.[1] Since 2009, Palace Entertainment, the American subsidiary of Parques Reunidos, has taken over the role formerly filled by Kennywood Entertainment.

Amusement parks

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ News Release (2007-12-11). "New Chapter in Kennywood Entertainment History Announced" (PDF). Kennywood Entertainment Company. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-09-11.