GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 27 



lation of air; to freshen the air by a more abundant growth of trees, shrubs, 

 flowers, grass, than the size of the average children's playground will per- 

 mit, and to add a valuable adornment to the neighborhood by the pres- 

 ence of ample plantations, especially around their borders. 



Size of Neighborhood Playfield-Parks. 



The size of playfield-park areas throughout the United States varies 

 so greatly that it is exceedingly difficult to lay down a principle that would 

 not be distinguished chiefly by exceptions. Playfield-park areas so called 

 and so used are to be found as small as three or four acres although 

 of course such small areas have no park features and from this minimum 

 they range upward to fifty, seventy-five, and even a hundred or more 

 acres. Some very large parks of several hundreds of acres that were laid 

 out many years ago as large landscaped parks, have, within recent years, 

 become primarily neighborhood playfield-parks. This has been due to the 

 growth of population around them and to the development of wide inter- 

 est in active recreation among the people. Such areas, when equipped with 

 many different kinds of facilities for games and sports, attract participants 

 from a much wider radius than do the smaller playfield-parks, especially 

 if the facilities include a golf course, a large number of tennis courts, a 

 number of baseball diamonds, large swimming and boating centers and 

 similar facilities. 



Mr. Henry V. Hubbard has said in regard to playfield areas for the 

 active play of adults and young people that this type of area is determined 

 in its minimum size and possible shape by the size and shape of the units 

 which make it up, and that a minimum size for a playfield might be set, for 

 the sake of giving figures, at four acres. If one acre of playfield is allowed 

 for each ten thousand of population and the playfield has an effective 

 radius of a half mile in a district of one hundred people per acre, the play- 

 field should be about six acres in extent. 



Mr. George Ford of the Technical Advisory Corporation distinguishes 

 two types of playfields, the first for children from twelve to fifteen years 

 of age and the second for adults and for young people of the senior high 

 school age. The first type, he points out, should be attached to the junior 

 high school, and its maximum practical area, including the high school site, 

 playfield and setting, is about six and one-half acres. 



With reference to playfields for adults and young people, Mr. Ford 

 states that they should rarely be smaller than four or five acres. Some of 

 these should be located in large parks. 



The Committee on Recreation Problems in City Planning, appointed 

 by the P. R. A. A., designates this type of area as a district playground, 



