Kennywood Entertainment Company

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

History

Kennywood Entertainment Co. was effectively created when F. W. Henninger and Andrew McSwigan purchased Kennywood Park from the Mellon family's Monongahela Railway Company in 1906. The company has since been controlled by their two families. In 1983, they acquired Idlewild Park from the MacDonald family who had owned it since 1952. Before the MacDonalds took over Idlewild, it had also been owned by the Mellon family. Sandcastle Waterpark opened just a few miles from Kennywood in 1989. They later 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 Madrid, Spain-based company. Since 2009, Palace Entertainment, the American subsidiary of Parques Reunidos, has taken over the role formerly filled by Kennywood Entertainment.

Amusement parks

• Idlewild and Soak Zone, in Ligonier, Pennsylvania
• Kennywood, near Pittsburgh in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania
• Lake Compounce, in Bristol, Connecticut
• Sandcastle Waterpark, also near Pittsburgh in West Homestead, Pennsylvania
• Story Land, in Glen, New Hampshire