Los Angeles established the country's first Playground Department Commission 120 years ago.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.It was noon at Playground Number One in Los Angeles on a crisp October day in 1905. As schoolchildren swamped L.A.’s first public playground , on Violet Street in what is now the Arts District , a reporter for the LA Times“The playground is overflowing now with small humanity,” he wrote.
But progressive reformers in the Northeast increasingly saw childhood play as a primary part of physical and social development and as a way to produce hearty “Americanized” citizens. In the early 1890s, Nobel Prize winner, activist, and social worker Jane Addams created a small playground on the grounds of Boston’s Hull House. Other playgrounds were soon created in other Northeastern cities, usually in high-density immigrant communities.
The Los Angeles Times agreed:"It will usually be found that a boy who takes interest in manly outdoor sports is not likely to fall into bad habits, such as cigarette smoking and other practices that produce physical and mental degeneration… The establishment of a public playground is a good idea, from both a moral and hygienic viewpoint, apart from the pleasure which such an indication would afford to thousands of little ones.
Using public funds and supported by many local organizations including the Chamber of Commerce, Playground Number One was built remarkably quickly for a public work. It featured a handsome bungalow for an on-site superintendent and his wife, and separate sections for girls and boys.
In a cruel segregated age, the playground was open to all races and nationalities at all times. On July 4, 1906, the Los Angeles Herald listed the number of different nationalities who had children participating in the track and field events.reported. “Several hundred children residing in the neighborhood of the Violet playground spent the entire day yesterday enjoying the innocent amusements provided.
Los Angeles Arts District Public Playground L.A. Times
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