Kennywood Park Records – Ancient Order of Hibernians

Description

Kennywood Park Records (1895-2018) are housed at the Dente Library & Archives Center in Pittsburgh, PA. Materials found within this collection related to the A.O.H. includes an Irish Day Reunion manuscript (1927); Letter from Kennywood to J.P. Killeen manuscript (May 9, 1923); Fortieth Annual Irish Day Reunion manuscript (July 20, 1944). The Kennywood Park Records amount to 135 linear feet that includes correspondence, photographs, drawings, publicity material, moving images and financial records, offering a comprehensive view of the history of this enterprise. Kennywood Park is an amusement park established in 1898 in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, ten miles outside of Pittsburgh. A National Historic Landmark, the park was built on land known as Kenny’s Grove, which had been a picnic spot since the 1860s. Kennywood opened to the public in 1899 with features that included a carousel, dance pavilion, and casino (the park’s restaurant). The following year, the park added a bandstand and an athletic field. In 1902, the Monongahela Street Railway Company hired Pittsburgh resident Frederick Ingersoll to build the Figure Eight Toboggan, one of the country’s first figure-eight roller coasters. That same year, the Monongahela Street Railway Company merged with several other trolley lines to form the Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRC). The PRC turned the management of Kennywood Park over to the Pittsburgh and Steeplechase Amusement Company, but the company folded in 1905. The PRC returned as the park’s operator for the next two years. In late 1906, they turned the park’s management over to Andrew S. McSwigan, Fred W. Henninger, and A. F. Meghan, who formed a partnership known as Pittsburgh Kennywood Park Company, Limited.

Description adapted from the holding repository’s finding aid; it may describe the larger collection that contains the AOH/LAOH material.