PLAYGROUNDS IN PARKS 



axiomatic that a playground given one inch in a public park will take 

 an ell, — and in time the remainder of the park. 



What is the solution? Public sentiment demands playgrounds and 

 public purse-strings are drawn against the purchase of areas for their 

 development. There is always unanimous protest against the placing 

 of public buildings in park areas, but what is saved from the politician 

 is delivered as spoil to the child. The answer is the well-known one of 

 the sagacious lawyer: compromise. Establish a " dead line ": on this 

 side, park ; on that side, playground. The landscape designer, working 

 with such idea in mind, can render the arbitrary line so integral a part 

 of the general park design that picket duty will not be necessary. In 

 the particular park mentioned which had become the despair of the 

 park superintendent, a new landscape design was devised which 

 assigned special well demarked areas to the children, confined by 

 hedges and other planting. Within this area was grouped all the 

 apparatus and equipment for the children's play, and made so inter- 

 esting from the child's standpoint in contrast with the rest of the park 

 that it became a hardship for him to play elsewhere than where he was 

 desired. The remainder of the park was immediately freed from 

 depredation and has been restored to its former beauty for the enjoy- 

 ment of the grown-ups seeking recreation there. 



MIGHT OVEK RIGHT 



The fundamental reason why playgrounds seek to estabhsh them- 

 selves upon park areas is that land there need not be purchased but 

 may be obtained by right of might in almost any city. There are 

 innumerable other areas equally serviceable for playground purposes. 

 The objection that most alternative sites, proposed in lieu of existing 

 park areas, are poorly located seems unfounded ; or is there an extra- 

 ordinary coincidence that parks in every case have been located exactly 

 in the one spot suitable for playgrounds? It seems comparatively 



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