Taking a look back at Kennywood's 125 years
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (KDKA) -- Kennywood opens for its 125th season on Saturday. To mark the milestone, KDKA-TV's Chris DeRose went back in time to the thrilling days of yesteryear to see how the place we all know and love got its start and became what it is today.
To understand Kennywood's present, you have to take a journey into its past -- specifically opening day on May 30, 1899.
William McKinley was president. The Spanish American War had just concluded. The country and the city were growing by leaps and bonds.
Many residents at that time found themselves recreating along the Monongahela River at a bucolic picnicking area known as Kenny's Grove but though this place sounds pleasant, Brian Butko of the Heinz History Center says it actually wasn't so lovely.
"It would be more like the nuisance bar of the Mon Valley at the time. There was a lot of trouble here. And that is one of the reasons Kennywood was looked upon as cleaning up the place, both the landscape and putting in sidewalks and attractions that made it more respectable than the gambling, brawling and drinking that was going on when it was Kenny's Grove," said Brian Butko, the director of publications at the Heinz History Center.
The Monongahela Street Railway Company leased Kenny's Grove to build a small park that would encourage people to ride their trollies. What followed was called Kennywood, and it would soon become the premier place for fun in the city. Boating, bowling and music were some of the first big attractions at the park.
It wasn't until the early 1900s that they got their first roller coaster, The Figure Eight.
Kennywood has had some great rides over the years, and it's the perfect combination of rides both old and new. Only Kennywood and Playland in Rye, New York, are actually National Historic Landmarks.
While rides like The Figure Eight are gone, there are plenty of historic attractions left in the park like The Old Mill, The Jack Rabbit and The Thunderbolt, which the New York Times dubbed the "King of Coasters" back in 1974. Many would agree it's still one of the most popular rides in the park today.
"It is the perfect mix. It is a vintage ride and yet it's still extreme enough for people who like a fast roller coaster, so it is a good mix of the two," Butko said.
The thing really about Kennywood is that while it honors the past, it also innovates into the future, all while carrying the weight of a legacy that looms large.
"Well, its legacy is certainly as a picnic park, as a local park. Pittsburghers and western Pennsylvanians have always embraced it and I think they still do, but like a lot of businesses that have been around for 125 years, it's not the same as when it started," Butko said.
"If you look around, there's an awful lot of the park that's from the 1920s and 30s and 40s. That's pretty amazing to say. When you look around at local businesses like shopping malls that have come and gone within that time -- Kennywood endures."