GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 23 



a neighborhood of low density population having children of all ages up 

 to fourteen, will require more space per child than any of the standards 

 advanced, if the older boys and girls are to have the opportunity to 

 play the organized ball games which it is desirable for them to play at 

 their age. 



By actual measurement it can be determined that for a playground 

 for children from five or six to fourteen years of age, laid out on a three- 

 division plan and fully equipped with the necessary game facilities, appa- 

 ratus, shelter or playground clubhouse, small swimming pool and with a 

 proper plantation of ten or more feet in width, approximately three and 

 one-half acres will be required as a minimum irrespective of whether the 

 child population is one hundred or five hundred within its effective radius. 

 As much more land should be secured as is possible to allow for further 

 growth and for the use of the ground for community purposes if this is 

 desirable. 



1. The desirability of estimating the size of a children's playground 

 on the basis of the amount of space necessary for certain games which 

 children should have rather than merely on the basis of the number of 

 square feet per child, the density of population and similar features, is 

 borne out by the standards which are being set for rural schools where 

 the number of pupils is small, but where it is believed adequate space 

 should be set aside to make possible the playing of games of many types. 



Dr. George Strayer, Teachers College, Columbia University, New 

 York City, has suggested the following standards for rural schools and 

 many of them are in operation in Delaware, Texas and other states: 



For one-room school, minimum of two acres; for two-room school, 

 three acres; for a three-room school, four acres; for a consolidated school, 

 not less than ten acres; for a junior high school, eight to twelve acres; for 

 a senior high school, twelve acres or more. All these standards for rural 

 schools which place the minimum of the school site at two acres for one- 

 room schools are fundamental and sound, notwithstanding the fact that 

 the square feet of play space may range from as much as four hundred 

 square feet to two thousand square feet per child. 



2. In making estimates as to the amount of public playground area 

 needed in any given neighborhood, allowance is sometimes made for the 

 possibility that not more than one-fourth, or one-half, or one-third of the 

 children within the radius of influence of the playground will use the area 

 at any one time. This principle should be applied with a good deal of 

 caution. In the first place, if the general principle of considering children's 

 playground areas in rural and urban planning as areas for the use of chil- 

 dren up to fourteen inclusive be accepted, the operation of the principle 



