Elitch Gardens Coupons

Elitch Gardens

Elitch Gardens was a family-owned seasonal amusement park, theater, and botanic garden in the West Highland neighborhood of Denver, Colorado, United States at 38th and Tennyson streets. It was nationally known for its lush gardens, the Trocadero Ballroom, the Theatre at the Gardens and the premier wooden roller coaster, Mister Twister.

The park moved to downtown Denver in 1994 and later became Six Flags Elitch Gardens (now simply Elitch Gardens once again). In August 2006, Six Flags sold Elitch Gardens for a reported $170 million dollars.

Elitch's Zoological Gardens opened May 1, 1890, on 16 acres (6.5 ha) of former farmland bought by John and Mary Elitch.
Mary Elitch managed the park for 26 years following John's death in 1891. The park's first roller coaster, a Toboggan Figure 8, opened in 1904. The park's original carousel, built by Philadelphia Toboggan Company, was added in 1906.

Mulvihill/Gurtler ownership

This carousel is still operational at Elitch Gardens. As floral gardens were expanded and greenhouses built, Elitch's became a commercial florist. Mulvihill died in 1930, and the park's ownership transferred to his son-in-law Arnold Gurtler.
In 1952, a section of the park called Kiddieland, oriented to small children, was opened. Despite substantial community outcry, the Trocadero Ballroom was torn down by the Gurtlers in 1975, claiming the declining popularity of ballroom dancing, replacing Denver's beloved landmark Old Troc with Skee-Ball and arcade games.

Move to new location

In 1985, management and ownership of the park was assumed by Budd Gurtler's son, Sandy Gurtler. At its historic location the park had no expansion space, and the family had long planned to relocate to a larger location. On May 27, 1995, Elitch's opened at its new downtown location with fifteen of its twenty major rides from the old location.
Following two seasons at its new location with attendance of about one million (versus 750,000 for the last season at its old location) and a second season goal of 1.2 million, the park was sold to Premier Parks who subsequently purchased all Six Flags parks. The park operated as 'Six Flags Elitch Gardens' until 2006. The park was rebranded simply as 'Elitch Gardens'. In 2011 CNL terminated its lease with PARC Management. Herschend Family Entertainment now operates the park for CNL.