i6 



PARKS 



The play lot, Mr. George Ford of the Technical Advisory Corpora- 

 tion has stated, may be as small as fifty feet by one hundred feet. It is 

 desirable to have it as much larger than this as possible. The committee 

 on recreation problems in city planning appointed by the P. R. A. A. states 

 that the size of such playgrounds should be from six thousand to ten thou- 

 sand square feet. This is not too high a standard in view of the rapid 

 growth in apartment dwelling and the increasing hazards of street play. 



As a matter of fact, play lots as such are chiefly conspicuous by their 

 absence in park systems. Special provisions are made by many park depart- 

 ments in other types of areas for play of little children. It is doubtful 

 whether play lots as separate and independent areas will ever become an 

 integral part of many park systems. If the ideal plan of having one such 

 lot in the center of every block of dwelling should ever be universally 

 practiced and this would be highly desirable - they would become so 

 numerous that any park department would find it exceedingly difficult 

 to exercise more than a perfunctory service in their care and operation. 

 The probabilities are that such central block areas, while representing 

 open spaces of tremendous importance to this age group, forming from 

 ten to eleven per cent of the total population of any community, will be 



ptoi/a/r'a-iorcriiMnFnMSfas es- 

 senf/o/ /b every bfod: as fte srreer? 



PLATE No. i. INTERIOR BLOCK PLAYGROUNDS 



Showing how they may be developed in old and new sections of a city. (City Plan Commission, Toledo, Ohio. 

 Designs by L. D. Tilton, Bartholomew and Associates.) 



