Our story
Two centuries, one family, one pond
Folks don’t just stop at McKinney’s Pond; they plan the trip. Families who first came as children now bring their grandchildren, and the recipes haven’t changed much, because they never needed to.
“It has worked since the 1940s. If it is not broken, don’t fix it.”
1817
Hannah Garbutt buys the land around the pond. Two centuries later, it still belongs to her descendants.
Mid-1800s
She sells to Colonel Thomas McKinney, who retires here and gives the pond its name. When McKinney loses it in bankruptcy, the Garbutt family buys it back.
1938
A fish camp opens on the water. The grounds soon hold a grist mill, cabins, a campground, an ice-cold swimming pool, a bowling alley and a skating rink.
1942
Brothers J.J. (Jake) and Perry Kennedy start the restaurant. Perry drives into Midville to pick up the local kids for a day at the pool.
1975
Fire destroys the restaurant. It is rebuilt just as it was, with private dining rooms and a new dance hall.
1979–1980
Harry “Mutt” Kennedy, Hannah Garbutt’s great-great-great-grandson, comes home to run the pond with his wife Norma. He turns the dance hall into the big dining room that seats 200.
2013
The doors reopen after extensive renovations, with a grand reopening and a Chamber Business After Hours.
Since 2020
Mutt’s daughter Tricia Conner and her husband Johnny Mack Conner run the restaurant, and the kitchen still prepares the shrimp the way it was cooked in the 1940s.
History as told in “Dinner with a side of family tradition” and “McKinney’s Pond” (The True Citizen) and Emanuel County Live.
