PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT

PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT. As an answer to crowded cities and long work days, the playground movement attempted to save children from unhealthy crowded neighborhoods. The movement began with the sand gardens in Boston in 1885. The following year two more sand piles, known as sand gardens, were added to church yards. By 1887 there were ten sand gardens with matrons paid to supervise, and tools for digging and blocks for building were provided. Twelve years later in 1899, there were twenty-one sand gardens in Boston; twenty were located in school yards. (1)

By 1900 reformers realized that play and playgrounds had educational value. In the neighborhoods with a supervised playground, children appeared to be more attentive and in classes, physical health increased, and truancy and bad behavior decreased. These positive results encouraged the involvement of schools in creating play spaces. (2)

Beginning in 1905, playgrounds included recreation for all ages. Social, aesthetic, and civic activities were added, such as dances, musical programs, dramatics, public forums, and elections. In 1906 the Playground Association of America was formed evolved into the Playground and Recreation Association of America by around 1915. (3)

By 1910 the playground movement the benefits of playgrounds were being advocated in Dubuque. The role of the play-leader drew considerable attention. Rather than determining what games were to be played, advocates explained this individual was important in organizing games and keeping several groups active at the same time. (4)

The Playground Association of America there were three plans of supporting and conducting playgrounds. Playgrounds could be maintained by voluntary contributions, boards of education, or directly by the city government. The choice in Dubuque was support through voluntary contributions. Dr. Mary KILLEEN served as treasurer of the hygienic committee and collected all monies. (5)

The pilot program for playgrounds was carried out in 1912 at FRANKLIN SCHOOL. The summer session ran from July 8 through August 31 every day of the week with the morning session from 10:00 a.m. until noon and the afternoon session from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. The total attendance over the 47 days was 441 with the highest day being 212. Children attending came from a wide area including Calendonia Place, West Seventh, West Third, Cleveland Avenue, Southern Avenue, Rush Street, and Jackson with the great number arriving from the immediate area of the school. Most of those attending came regularly with some never missing a day. The playground equipment included a giant stride, athletic slide, horizontal bar, two teeters, and basketball equipment. In 1912 folk-dancing was introduced after HARGER AND BLISH loaned the program a record player. Books were distributed every Friday by the CARNEGIE-STOUT PUBLIC LIBRARY and a reading table was provided. A story hour was carried out with smaller children weaving mats, making chains, and creating posters. Older children could take sewing and embroidery classes. (6)

In 1924 a Honor Roll had been used in the summer program for children aged 2 to 10. The plan encouraged the children to take part in all games of the playground including handwork, gave credit for being members of winning teams and for unusual work and negative marks for mistakes in conduct. Two top scores were announced from each playground--Franklin, Prescott, Peter Cooper, Lincoln, Audubon and Marshall. There was a baseball and a horseshoe league and all the children were invited to EAGLE POINT bathing beach by its manager for swimming events. Special events included "Demonstration Night" when parents could observe all the activities of the summer, a lantern parade for the girls, a pet parade, and educational MOTION PICTURES were shown in the early evening at each playground. More than 200 boys and girls participated in the stilt parade which began at WASHINGTON PARK, proceeded north on Main, and ended at JACKSON PARK where races were held. (7)

The impact of the playground movement can be seen in the statistics: in 1909, 336 cities had 1,535 playgrounds; in 1948, 1,917 cities had 13,520 playgrounds – an increase of 880% in less than 40 years. Over the same time period, funding increased from $1,353,114 to $96,000,000 and paid play leaders grew from 3,756 to 48,548. (8)

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Source:

1. Play and Playground Encyclopedia. Online: https://www.pgpedia.com/p/playground-movement

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. "Playground Move Popular," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, June 19, 1910, p. 7

5. Ibid.

6. "Miss Lucas Gives Report of Work," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, September 13, 1912, p. 6

7. "Thousands Enjoy Playground Facilities," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, August 24, 1924, p. 17

8. "Playground Move..."