I just spent way too much time researching early playgrounds. It’s totally fascinating.
According to this video at the New York Times, narrated by Parks and Rec commissioner Adrian Benepe, the first municipal park to be equipped as a playground was built in Seward Park, on New York’s Lower East Side, in 1903. Part of the reason it was built was to get kids off the streets. Before playgrounds, kids died on a regular basis getting run over by streetcars and horses as they played in the streets. And at that time, the lower part of Manhattan was crammed with people, mostly newly-arrived immigrants who worked long hours, and their children were often unsupervised.
Here are some images of kids playing in the streets:
And swimming in whatever water was available—whether it be this fountain in Chicago:
Or this dock on the Hudson River in New York:
This is one of my favorite Lewis Hine images, showing kids from a Lower East Side neighborhood playing baseball:
And here’s a fascinating video called “East Side Urchins bathing in a fountain” from 1903. From what I can tell, it appears to have been a staged and directed short film, produced for Thomas Edison’s company. It’s only a little over a minute long and worth a click-through.
So cities began building places for kids to play. Below is a collection of images of early twentieth century playgrounds. Some of them look pretty fun, while others make my mother’s heart quail at the harrowingly dangerous equipment. (Notice, for instance, the little guys in the picture directly below who’ve climbed to the top of that swingset):
East Side Children, 1910- 1915, Library of Congress LC-DIG-ggbain-13995
New York City – children on the street: boys playing checkers in the street, 1908 – 1915 Library of Congress LC-USZ62-71201
City Children Library of Congress LC-USZ62-71330
NYC Boys swimming at dock 1908 Library of Congress LC-USZ62-41531
Lewis Hine, Children Playing Baseball on the Lower East Side, NYPL Digital gallery Image ID: 416562 Wading pool Armour Square, Chicago 1909 via Wikimedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Armour_Square.jpg
Angel Guardian Orphanage 1914 Chicago, courtesy of http://playgrounddesigns.blogspot.com/2008/10/angel-guardian-orphanage-chicago-1914.html
The “giant stride,” courtesy of: http://preservationinpink.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/giant-stride.jpg
Carl Mydans, 1935: Playtime, Radburn New Jersey http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997000656/PP/
Rings and Poles, Bronx Park 1911 Library Of Congress LC-B2- 2236-6 [P&P] LOT 10832-2
New York Playground, 1910- 1915, Library of Congress LC-DIG-ggbain-14007
New York Playground 1910- 1915, Library of Congress LC-DIG-ggbain-14004
Summer on A children’s city playground, 1926 Library of Congress LC-USZ62-47700
merry-go-round Library of Congress between 1918 and 1920LC-DIG-npcc-00292
Marjory Collins, 1942, Greenbelt, Maryland. Federal housing project. Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8d20979/
Seattle children’s playground, 1909 via widimedia (detail) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_-_children%27s_playgrounds_1909.jpg