Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Kennywood Postcards - Then and Now!

I have gained a small collection of Kennywood postcards within the last few years, so I thought that it would be a fun time to look back at a few of them! Some are older than others, but I like them all. I will also be attaching the back of the postcards when they have messages, as it's cool to read these impressions from the era... some are related to the park, but most are not. I got the oldest of these at a little transportation museum in the northwestern Pennsylvania countryside for only a few bucks apiece. I was thrilled to see a rack of old cards there, and the owner was once a Kennywood employee himself in the 1960s.
Let's start at the very beginning of the park's history. As the postmark below shows, this card was written in 1912!

"We have had April, May, March and December all squeezed into the last 24 hours. This surely has been "some winter." Am en route for Shakespeare, thence to grant, to Mr. Georgis and this evening we take in the (?) Auto show. That ought to fill up my holiday alright. Geo. has the machine torn to peices (sic.) and I am going to give him a lift. The boulevard is not any too good for Mr. P or me, if you please. - E.M.S." Pretty great stuff! "The machine" - that's 1912 for you!
Well, that tells us nothing about Kennywood, but given that this card was sent in February, who knows if the writer ever visited the park. The cool thing is that both of the buildings shown are miraculously still in the park today! The Parkside Cafe, then known as the Casino (though it was never a gambling hall...) is seen in the foreground. Here's the same side of that 1900 (!!) building now, although this is facing in the opposite direction compared to the view on the card. Both levels have been enclosed, but it's otherwise remarkably similar to back then.
In the background, you can barely make out the park's original carousel building. This is the only park structure from Kennywood's opening year, 1899, still intact today. The first two Kennywood carousels were in this structure, but when the park gained its current, much larger model in 1927, it necessitated a larger building. The original pavilion then became a food stand.  Later, it was enclosed and turned into a Johnny Rocket's in 2014.
Next up is the massive Kennywood swimming pool, seen in this card postmarked 1938. From 1925 to 1973, Kennywood had this 350 x 180 ft pool, capable of holding 2.25 million gallons of water and 4,500 swimmers. Its large size led to excessive maintenance costs, causing the pool's closure after the 1973 season, when it was turned into a parking lot. It remained that way until 1995, which marked the opening of the 6-acre Lost Kennywood, a tribute to closed amusement parks through turn-of-the-century architecture and the largest expansion in Kennywood history.

"Pittsburgh Promotes Progress"
"Dear Maryon, When are you going to write me? I was expecting a letter a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, I am sending this postcard with the picture of the swimming pool I go to. It's at Kennywood Park. I go to our school picnic to another one there (?) times a year""
Kennywood included a rough replica of the pool fountain shown in this card when Lost Kennywood was built in 1995.
I purchased this card in one of the park's gift shops very recently, and it's a genuine old card. It has to be at least 25 years old, and I'm betting that it might be older. The Enterprise opened at Kennywood in 1978, and you can clearly see that from its decorations!
 In 2003, the Enterprise became the Volcano when the surrounding area was lightly re-themed into "Volcano Valley." It was plagued with problems, though, and I only ever saw this model operating (and rode it) once before it was removed in 2016. That season, Kennywood received an identical model from Lake Compounce, one of their "sister parks," as they were removing theirs to add a coaster. It remains at the park now and is open every day once again.

Last up for today is this semi-current collage of four of Kennywood's classic attractions: the Turtle (1927; one of 2 left in the world), Jack Rabbit (1920; famous for its "double dip"), miniature train (1945; came from 1939-40 New York's World's Fair), and Auto Race (1930; the last of its kind). 
All of these attractions still operate, but the miniature train was turned into "Journey with Thomas" in 2018. The framework of the two locomotives was kept, but one was refitted.
Yeah... I'm not a fan.
On that note, I hope you've enjoyed this trip through Kennywood history!

6 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

Even though I have never been to Kennywood, I LOVE this kind of amusement park history! I'm happy (and surprised) to hear that those two buildings in the first postcard are still standing.

I used to love the "Enterprise" rides. We had two of them here in Southern California (Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain), but both were removed long ago. I miss them! I guess I can always go to Kennywood, if I want to ride one!

It's too bad about the train from the 1939/40 World's Fair! Does the original "streamline moderne" engine still exist somewhere, or is it hiding underneath the newer "Thomas" engine?

This was a great "Then & Now" post, Andrew!

Andrew said...

Thanks for reading as always, TokyoMagic! That's cool you got to ride Enterprises at both Magic Mountain and Knott's. From what I've seen, those were made by Schwarzkopf, while the one at Kennywood was made by a manufacturer called HUSS. I was surprised when I looked, but you can only find them in less than 20 locations throughout the country.

Kennywood still has one of the trains in the art deco style. The body of the other was removed for Thomas, but I don't know what they did with it. I'm sure they have it in storage somewhere. I'm glad you liked this post!

Chuck said...

Andrew, that's a great little collection you have there, and it's neat to see the "then and now" aspects of it.

It's always interesting to see what was an amusement draw 120 years ago compared to now, and the parks that have managed to survive have had to adapt. I love that they have managed to keep several structures from their early history. The only other park I've regularly visited that has done this is Cedar Point (and they lost a bit of that history in the Dick Kinzel era).

That postcard of the Enterprise fairly screams "1978!" The font on the bottom of the - cars? gondolas? - reminds me of the font used at Cedar Point on many graphics during the same era.

Thanks again for sharing!

Andrew said...

I'm glad you liked my collection, Chuck, small as it may be.

I've just been thinking how much I take for granted that Kennywood is so historic! And yeah... when I went to Cedar Point, I took a minute away from the chaos of the midway to climb the staircase and poke my head in the Casino ballroom. It was so quiet - you could hear a pin drop! That was really the only place at Cedar Point that I got that old time, Kennywood kind of vibe.

Kennywood still uses that font as their logo, an arrow which originated from the park's practice of hanging them around town to guide people to the park. They're not as common now, but there're still a few around Pittsburgh, including a big one on a mountainside. The Enterprise took off the logos underneath the cars decades ago - I'd love to see them come back, but that's a lot of effort that would go unnoticed on many people.

K. Martinez said...

I know that Enterprise postcard is old because I've had mine for a very long time. I really hope you share your entire collection of Kennywood postcards as I'm curious to see which ones you have. I have a Kennywood postcard collection too, but it mainly consists of vintage chrome postcards and a few continental size postcards. Thanks for another great article, Andrew.

TokyoMagic!, You can always come up north and ride the Enterprise (Orleans Orbit) here at California's Great America in Santa Clara.

Andrew said...

I know from your posts on Gorillas Don't Blog that you have some awesome old Kennywood postcards, K. Martinez. That era of the park - 1040-1970 - has always been one of the most interesting to me. As for my collection, it's not that big; this is about half of it!

I don't know if you have any vintage postcards that you never shared with GDB, but if you do, I would love if you'd be willing to email me them - andrewpaulmcl at gmail dot com.