The Theme Park that Beckstoffer's built

Now that Spring is in full swing, local amusement park King's Dominion has opened its doors for the season and I wanted to recognize the important role that the Mill played with respect to King's Dominion's start over 35 years ago.    A Richmond general contractor still in business to this day named Kjellstrom & Lee (K&L) was awarded much of the construction work and placed numerous orders for millwork for KD in 1974 and 1975 and this project was a huge source of business for the Mill in 1975.  That year orders from K&L for the park were for $326,000 of work, which represented almost 40% of all orders in '75.  Without the work for King's Dominion, sales that year would have been reduced from $833,753 to $507,179 and made it a fairly average year for the seventies.  Instead 1975 became the highest selling year for Beckstoffers up to that point.

Some of the buildings millwork was needed for include your standard theme park buildings like souvenir stands, games buildings, and first aid pavilions, but a number of the orders placed at Kings Dominion were for millwork for themed family leisure centers including French, German, Swiss and Italian buildings. 

The park held a soft opening in 1974 followed by a formal opening in 1975.  In 1975 the park opened with 15 rides including a log flume, antique cars, steam train, Ghoster Coaster and Rebel Yell roller coasters and a collection of flat rides.

K&L did business with Beckstoffer's since at least 1965.  To learn more about the firm, go here.