PLAYGROUNDS IN PARKS 



which at a later time will have to be rectified. Children at play in a 

 park may be one of the attractions,— -provided they are not allowed to 

 become one of the distractions. Play fields and playsteads, in dis- 

 tinction from what are known as organised playgrounds, are not anni- 

 hilative. There may be also many sequestered spots scattered through- 

 out the parks, as so frequently done in Germany, furnished with 

 seesaws and sand-piles for the amusement of the small children, where 

 the grown-up visitors frequently congregate to watch the children at 

 play. Unfortunately, we find that the larger parks in which organised 

 playgrounds would be the least objectionable as to encroachment are 

 rarely desirable for playground purposes, because usually at some 

 distance from the centre of congested districts where playgrounds are 

 most needed. It is on the small park areas existing in these congested 

 districts that the pressure for playgrounds usually comes. There 

 should be a united movement against their swarming there and a din 

 raised for the purchasing of new areas instead. 



COOPERATION OF PARK OFFICIALS 



The impression that park authorities are invariably opposed to 

 playgrounds will be removed if such authorities will lend their aid in 

 the acquisition of new land and at the same time show their wilhngness 

 to admit playgrounds into the very large parks where there may be 

 ample area for their accommodation. The park authorities should 

 take an active interest in the construction of playgrounds, even when 

 the playgrounds are not to be connected directly with the park. 

 Especially should the park designer be called upon for contribution of 

 his skill and taste in the physical shaping of playgrounds. When the 

 playground is to be one with a park, the first duty of the landscape 

 designer will be, as already pointed out, to iriipose definite limits; 

 defining the playground so as to permit no possibility of future en- 

 croachment on the park. Beyond that, his service may be purely to 



156 



