Existing literature on the explosion of playgrounds at the beginning of the twentieth century focuses on the theories and self descriptions of the leadership of the playground movement, particularly on their ideas about how and why children's play needed to be supervised. Actual playgrounds are represented as a product of the campaign to control children's play. However, supervision was in fact a controversial aspect of the playground movement, which occasionally even cost the movement funding and public support. This paper argues that any physical development must be understood in relation to complex urban land politics, in which the interests of a variety of stakeholders are decisive. Children from the target populations wanted playgrounds, if not the play leaders that accompanied them. Real estate professionals pushed for playgrounds, because they increased and stabilized land values. City planners also provided crucial support, because playgrounds increased land values and tax revenue.
Playground Association of America (PAA), The Playground (May 1929): 58.
2.
Dominick Cavallo, Muscles and Morals: Organized Playgrounds and Urban Reform, 1880-1920 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981), xi.
3.
Cavallo, Muscles and Morals , xi.
4.
Cavallo, Muscles and Morals , 151.
5.
PAA, Proceedings of the Third Annual Playground Congress and Year Book (1909): 197.
6.
Cary Goodman, Choosing Sides: Playground and Street Life on the Lower East Side (New York: Schocken Books, 1979).
7.
In their professional literature during this period, people who worked in real estate were universally referred to as "real estate men." However, because such a term is distracting unless accompanied by an analysis of gender roles in real estate practice, in my own prose, I substitute the term "real estate professional" throughout this essay.
8.
Galen Cranz, The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America ( Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982). See also William Wilson , The City Beautiful Movement ( Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1989).
9.
Goodman, Choosing Sides , 149-51.
10.
Cavallo, Muscles and Morals , xi.
11.
Playground (May 1929): 59.
12.
Jeffrey Hornstein , A. NationOf Realtors: A Cultural History Of The Twentieth-century American Middle Class (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005).
13.
Goodman, Choosing Sides , 161.
14.
Goodman, Choosing Sides , xxiv.
15.
Goodman, Choosing Sides , 45.
16.
Roy Lubove, The Progressives and the Slums: Tenement House Reform in New York City, 1890-1917 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1962), 99.
17.
Goodman, Choosing Sides , 161.
18.
San Francisco Board of Education, Annual Report (1898): 8.
19.
San Francisco Playground Commission (SFPC).Annual Report (1912): 17; Sfpc, Annual Report (1928):17.
20.
Sfpc, Annual Report (1912): 17.
21.
Ibid.
22.
Sfpc, Annual Report (1912): 17-19.
23.
Sfpc, Annual Report (1912): 20-21.
24.
Sfpc, Annual Report (1912): 47.
25.
Ibid.
26.
Sfpc, Annual Report (1912): 9.
27.
Sfpc, Annual Report (1929): 60.
28.
The San Francisco Service Recreation League Bulletin (February-March, 1920): 1.
29.
The San Francisco Service Recreation League Bulletin (April 1920): 1.
30.
Ibid.
31.
Arthur Price, "Five Men in Bayview," in The Playground (October 1926): 397.
32.
See, for example, statistics published in "Donated Playgrounds," in The Playground (May 1927): 105; "Pennsylvania Realtors Donate Playground," in The Playground (March 1930): 699; and discussion of "Volunteer Labor and Gifts of Apparatus," in The Playground (August 1926): 250. Also see Stephen Hardy's discussion of neighborhood petitions for playgrounds in How Boston Played: Sport Recreation, and Community, 1865-1915 (Boston : Northeastern University Press, 1982), 97-98.
33.
Wilson, The City Beautiful Movement, 161.
34.
See, for example, Mary E. Richmond, "Friendly Visiting," in Social Services Series, Bulletin No. 7 (American Unitarian Association , 1911): 6, 7, and 11.
35.
See Roy Rosenzweig, Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920 (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1985 ), 149-50.
36.
Goodman, Choosing Sides , 74.
37.
Luther Gulick , "The Doctrine of `Hands Off' in Play," in Proceedings of the Third Annual Playground Congress and Year Book (PAA, 1909): 289.
38.
Gulick, "The Doctrine of `Hands Off' in Play,"294.
39.
Gulick, "The Doctrine of `Hands Off' in Play,"291.
40.
Gulick, "The Doctrine of `Hands Off' in Play,"296.
41.
Henry Curtis , "Playground Progress and Tendencies of the Year," in Proceedings of the Third Annual Playground Congress and Year Book (PAA, 1909): 27.
42.
Charles Hughes , "Address to the Second Annual Congress of the PAA," in The Playground (October 1908): 9.
43.
Eugene Meyer , "Drift or Mastery?" in The Playground (January 1930): 611-12.
44.
Meyer, "Drift or Mastery?" , 613.
45.
Meyer, "Drift or Mastery?" , 615.
46.
Ibid.
47.
George Johnson , "Why Teach a Child to Play?" in Proceedings of the Third Annual Playground Congress and Year Book (PAA, 1909): 357.
48.
John Nolen, General Plan of a Park and Playground System for New London, Connecticut (Boston: Press of Ceo. H. Ellis Co., 1913), 3. See also The Playground, "Open Spaces Pay for Themselves" (March 1912 ): 423; RG, "Impressions of an Amateur Gathered at the Recent Playground Congress," in The Playground (November 1909): 13; Arthur Leland, "From a Playground to a Play Park," in The Playground (July 1929): 240.
49.
John Nolen, "Leisure and Labor," in The Playground (March 1927): 660.
50.
Charles Storey , "Increase of Land Values Around Playgrounds," in The Playground (September 1927): 326.
51.
Jacob Feldman , "The Effects of Playgrounds on Land Values," in The Playground (September 1929): 375
52.
Feldman, "The Effects of Playgrounds on Land Values,"377.
53.
Feldman, "The Effects of Playgrounds on Land Values,"383.
54.
Ibid.
55.
"The Bond Issue," San Francisco Real Estate Circular (August 1903): 1.
56.
"City-Owned Property," San Francisco Real Estate Circular (May 1929): 2; "Municipally-Owned Property," San Francisco Real Estate Circular (April 1930): 2.
57.
"$13,150,000 Asked for Improvements," San Francisco Real Estate Circular (March 1903): 2.
58.
"Amendment No. 18," San Francisco Real Estate Circular (December 1906): 2.
59.
See, for example, "Roof Playgrounds," San Francisco Real Estate Circular (Nov. 1901): 3; "The Garden City Development," San Francisco Real Estate Circular (April 1917): 2; "Municipal Expenditure Program for San Francisco," San Francisco Real Estate Circular (May 1928): 2; and "Bonded Debt of San Francisco," San Francisco Real Estate Circular (May 1928): 2.
60.
Andrew Thomas, "Planning for Permanent Income," in Property Management: Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1925 (Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards, 1925), 137-38; Andrew Thomas, "The Proper Design of Buildings for Mortgage Loan Collateral," in Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1928 (Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards, 1928), 947.
61.
Everett Mero, "Playgrounds in Massachusetts," in The Playground (April 1909 ): 21. See also Mabel Travis Wood, "Recreation and Real Estate," in The Playground (June 1927): 147
62.
J.C. Nichols , Real Estate Subdivisions: The Best Manner of Handling Them (Washington, DC: American Civic Association, 1912), 8, 10-11.
63.
Quoted in Nolen, Plan of a Park and Playground System for New London, 40.
64.
See The Playground (April 1920): 8; William Harmon, "Suburban Real Estate-Financing, Developing, and Selling," in Homebuilding and Subdividing: Proceedings of the Homebuilders and Subdividers Division of the National Association of Real Estate Boards (Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards, 1924), 34; Morris Knowles, "Subdivision Control," in Home Building and Subdividing: Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1926 (Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards, 1926), 252.
65.
John Nolen, "Planning Public Parks and Recreation Centers," in Home Building and Subdividing: Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1926 ( Chicago : National Association of Real Estate Boards , 1926), 152.
66.
See Nolen, "Planning Public Parks and Recreation Centers"; James Murphy, "What Facts About a Given Property Should a Subdivider Have Before Deciding to Purchase it for Resort and Summer Homes?" in Home Building and Subdividing: Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1927 (Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards, 1927), 70-71; Hugh Pomeroy, "The Control of the Platting of Suburban Territory," in Home Building and Subdividing: Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1927 (Chicago : National Association of Real Estate Boards, 1927), 347; Major U.S. Grant, 3rd, "City and Regional Planning," in Home Building and Subdividing: Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1927 (Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards, 1927), 359; Fred Wood, "Selling a Subdivision," in Home Building and Subdividing: Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1927 ( Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards , 1927), 183; W.C. Miller, "Modern Trends in Subdividing," Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1930 (Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards, 1930), 301.
67.
Ernest Fischer , Principles of Real Estate Practice ( New York: MacMillan, 1923), 208-9.
68.
R.F. Mellen , "Marketing a Subdivision," in Home Building and Subdividing: Annals of Real Estate Practice, 1927 ( Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards , 1927), 124. See also Nolen, "Planning Public Parks and Recreation Centers,"159; Nolen , General Plan of a Park and Playground System for New London, 2.
69.
Knowles, "Subdivision Control,"252; Nolen, "Planning Public Parks and Recreation Centers,"154.
70.
General Lincoln Mitchell, "Must the Subdivider Become a Home Builder," in Annals of Real Estate Practice , 1929 (Chicago: National Association of Real Estate Boards, 1929), 498; William Harmon, "Suburban Real Estate-Financing, Developing, and Selling,"34. Oak Park, Illinois provides an example of how playgrounds could be procured "on a straight capitalistic basis." In 1907, residents formed an association to provide a playground for their neighborhood through a speculative real estate venture. The bylaws of the association stated that the land would be sold to the municipality "at the price paid by the association, plus interest on the investment, and cost of taxes and special assessments." However, "should the municipality or park district decide to buy other lands and leave the property in the hands of the association with no chance of selling it for park purposes, then the property could be disposed of to the best advantage." Otto McFeeley, "The Way to the Playground," in The Playground (July 1909): 8.
71.
Feldman, "The Effects of Playgrounds on Land Values,"383; see also Storey, "Increase of Land Values Around Playgrounds,"326.
72.
San Francisco Real Estate Circular (June 1918 ): 2.
73.
Jon A.Peterson, The Birth of City Planning in the United States, 1840-1917 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press , 2003), 6.
74.
See Christine Boyer , Dreaming the Rational City: The Myth of American Planning (Boston: MIT Press, 1983); Peterson, The Birth of City Planning in the United States.
75.
Cranz, The Politics of Park Design, 84. See also The Playground, "An Abandoned Cemetery" (April 1910): 34; PAA, Proceedings of the Third Annual Playground Congress and Year Book (1909 ): 249.
76.
Wilson, The City Beautiful Movement, 1.
77.
Daniel Burnham, Report on a Plan for San Francisco (1906, Reprinted by Urban Books, 1971), 112, 113.
78.
Burnham, Report on a Plan for San Francisco, 113.
79.
Burnham, Report on a Plan for San Francisco, 112.
80.
Charles Robinson, Modern Civic Art, or The City Made Beautiful ( New York : Putnam, 1901), 247.
81.
Robinson, Modern Civic Art, or The City Made Beautiful, 250.
82.
Robinson, Modern Civic Art, or The City Made Beautiful, 245.
83.
Lewis Mumford, Sticks and Stones (New York: Dover Publications, 1955), 133.
84.
Jane Addams, Spirit of Youth and the City Streets (New York : Macmillan, 1909).
85.
Robinson, Modern Civic Art, or The City Made Beautiful, 23.
San Francisco Real Estate Circular (June 1918 ): 2.
90.
Charles Robinson , The Width and Arrangement of Streets (New York: Engineering News Publishing Company , 1911), 1.
91.
Robinson, The Width and Arrangement of Streets, 160, 167.
92.
Raymond Robertson , "Securing Public Understanding and Support," in The Playground (November 1929): 519.
93.
Nolen, General Plan of a Park and Playground System for New London, Connecticut, 28. Also see Nolen, "Planning Public Parks and Recreation Centers,"159.
94.
Major U.S. Grant III, "City and Regional Planning,"359.
95.
Benjamin Marsh , An Introduction to City Planning: Democracy's Challenge to the American City (New York: Committee on Congestion of Population in New York, 1909 ), 36.
96.
Marsh, An Introduction to City Planning, 133.
97.
Horace McFarland , "General Recreation Facilities," in John Nolen, ed., City Planning: A Series of Papers Presenting the Essential Elements of a City Plan ( New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1916), 145.
98.
McFarland, "General Recreation Facilities,"154.
99.
Arthur Coleman Comey, "Neighborhood Centers," in Nolen, ed., City Planning, 125. The earliest discussion of the effective radius of a playground comes in Henry Hubbard, "Size and Distribution of Playgrounds and Similar Recreation Facilities in American Cities," in Proceedings of the Sixth National Conference on City Planning ( Boston: National Conference on City Planning, 1914), 287.
100.
Comey, "Neighborhood Centers,"126.
101.
Nolen, City Planning, 168.
102.
Nolen, City Planning, 169.
103.
Comey, "Neighborhood Centers,"127.
104.
Nelson Lewis , The Planning of the Modern City ( New York: Wiley, 1916), 147-8.
105.
Lewis, The Planning of the Modern City, 148.
106.
Sfpc, Annual Report, 1926, 9.
107.
Nolen, "Planning Public Parks and Recreation Centers,"152.
108.
Cavallo, Muscles and Morals, 151.
109.
Sfpc, Annual Report, 1930, 25.
110.
Lubove, The Progressives and the Slums, 120; Proceedings of the First Annual Conference of the Playground Association of America, 1907, 39; "Report from the National Convention on Housing, January 28, 1929," in The Playground (April 1929): 26.
111.
The Playground (January 1930): 614.
112.
As a major force in local real estate, Phelan's personal financial interest in beautifying San Francisco was not lost on his contemporaries. In 1906, a weekly called the Town Talk pointed out that many of Phelan's proposed improvements were adjacent to property that he owned, then charged that "Mr. Phelan is a poet for revenue. He strikes the lyre with the plectrum of profit. He pictures in glowing diction a City Beautiful built for Phelan." Town Talk (March 31, 1906):18.
113.
See Sfpc, Annual Report, 1930, 11. The Commission grew considerably in power under Phelan's watch: its appropriations from the city almost doubled in those three years, and in 1929, the city agreed to a $3,100,000 bond issue for playgrounds.
114.
William Butterworth, "The Economic Values of Recreation," in The Playground (December 1928): 495.
115.
Ibid.
116.
Butterworth, "The Economic Values of Recreation,"498.
