Chelsea Park – “Play is an education” by Rachel Klepper In 1907, the New York City Department of Parks established Chelsea Park on the block bound by Ninth and Tenth Avenues and Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eighth Streets. The park quickly became the center of the busy Chelsea neighborhood, which was characterized by its large immigrant population and its proximity to the waterfront and commercial jobs at the ports. At the urging of residents involved in the Chelsea Improvement Committee and the Hudson Guild Settlement House, the city agreed to make Chelsea Park the site of one of the first public playgrounds in New York City.1 Reformers, who were concerned with poverty in the crowded tenements and increasing numbers of immigrants to neighborhoods like Chelsea, believed that parks and playgrounds would improve public life and encourage desired behaviors through access to open space and recreation.2 In its early years, the park contained fields for games and gatherings. As it developed, it became the site of a wide range of educational opportunities for children and teenagers in Chelsea.3 Figure 1. The field at Chelsea Park, photo from Henry Stoddard Curtis, The Practical Conduct of Play, 1925 By 1910, construction of the Chelsea Park playground was officially complete and youth of all ages made use of an extensive set of equipment and recreational areas, including slides, swings, weights, balls, and athletic fields and courts.4 In addition to being a site for exercise and competition, the park also served as a neighborhood cultural center in its sponsorship each summer of weekly concerts, plays, and movies. In 1911, Hudson Guild Settlement House, which was located across the street and often utilized the park space for its programs, began its popular movie series there. Figure 2.  A 1919 New York Tribune article describing the annual Hudson Guild movie program at Chelsea Park A 1919 New York Tribune article, "When All Gangs Met on Neutral Ground at Chelsea," (Figure 2) discusses the popularity of the movie program and the ways in which it encouraged a spirit of community.5  The subheading of the article:  "An Experiment in Making Americans” speaks to the role cultural events in Chelsea Park played in affirming patriotism and American values. Children also learned through participation in theater and dance programs on the playground. They performed in yearly plays and pageants, often depicting scenes from United States history or stories connected to holidays.6 In the 1930s, Chelsea Park was also the site of a Children’s Farm managed by the Department of Parks, Bureau of Children’s School Farms, which began in 1928 to expand on an instructional model of farming instituted at nearby Dewitt Clinton Park to other parks in the city.7 Farmers employed by the city helped local children plant and take care of a small flower and vegetable garden on the side of the park. Each school in the neighborhood, including Public School 33 (P.S. 33) and nearby parochial schools, was scheduled one day of the week to care for the farm. Educators saw the farm as an opportunity to teach children about science and nature and the importance of shared responsibility and commitment.8 Play and learning at Chelsea Park took on new meaning as the city and its educators developed new ideas about the role of recreation spaces. By the 1920s, the Department of Parks had created a Bureau of Recreation to oversee playgrounds and advance their capacity to provide athletic, educational, and character-building activities at sites like Chelsea Park. Prominent educators researched and developed theories and instructional strategies for the use of parks and playgrounds. In particular, they emphasized playgrounds as places for children to develop social skills and to practice interacting with others. A 1927 report of the Department of Parks cited a quote by child psychologist E.D. Angell capturing his view of the educational value of play: “Play is an education and it is an education that gives to the young pupil strength, health, alertness, aggressiveness, sympathy, friendship and courage, and better than all, it paves the way for a deeper morality that would come in no other way.” 9  Figure 3. Objectives of playground education outlined by recreation specialist Jay B. Nash, 1927. Instructional activities in Chelsea Park differed from those in school settings in that they were usually self-directed and gave children the opportunity to explore and follow their unique interests. The chart (Figure 3) from Jay B. Nash's Organization and Administration of Playgrounds and Recreation was intended to teach recreation workers how to best utilize parks and playgrounds for educational purposes. It illustrates the different skills and character traits that educators hoped children would acquire from spending time in places like Chelsea Park.10 For most of the twentieth century, the children at Chelsea Park were guided by professional “playground directors.” Playground directors led arts and athletic activities for youth, enforced safety, and enhanced educational experiences on the playground by providing youth leadership opportunities and training. The 1930s seemingly represented a high point for the profession of playground directors in the city with funding coming from both the New Deal Works Progress Administration and the New York City municipal budget.11 Figure 4. National Recreation Association,1943 agenda for playground director training The sample agenda (Figure 4), which outlines a full five day training program for playground workers, was recommended by the National Recreation Association, an organization which helped cities to advance their recreation programs. The Chelsea Park playground directors would likely have attended a similar training program to learn about the theory of recreation and how to lead play activities while teaching skills and behaviors in an informal setting.12 During the school year the park and playground also functioned as an extension of P.S. 33. When the park first opened, P.S. 33 was located directly next to it and informally utilized the park's playground and garden. In 1953, P.S. 33 moved across Twenty-Seventh Street to a newly constructed building where it shared the block with Hudson Guild Settlement and a new public housing complex called the Elliot Houses. These institutions and organizations supported one another and sponsored shared activities, such as the joint Hudson Guild and P.S. 33 summer program that attracted children for outdoor projects and lessons at Chelsea Park.13 In 1956, the partnership between Chelsea Park and P.S. 33 was formalized through the Jointly Operated Playgrounds program advanced by Robert Moses, New York City Commissioner of Parks and Charles Silver, President of the New York City Board of Education. Until that year, most public schools maintained playgrounds independently from local parks, though they often struggled to fund their necessary maintenance and upkeep. Recognizing that the expansion of the New York City parks and playgrounds was replicating school recreational spaces, the Department of Parks and the Board of Education agreed to work together and share funding. The Parks Department took on most of the maintenance of playgrounds and provided supervision after school hours and as a result little changed functionally at Chelsea Park. The decision did reflect, however, a growing awareness of recreation as a form of learning and the importance of Chelsea Park to education in the neighborhood. Figure 5. Selected pages from a report on New York City's Jointly Operated Playgrounds program A 1956 report published by the Department of Parks and the Board of Education (Figure 5) educated the public about the joint program and outlined the use of shared playground space.  Robert Moses concluded the report by saying, “Play, under proper auspices in wholesome surroundings, whether in the form of organized games or not, is an essential factor in youth’s training for adult life.”14 Figure 6.  1969 letter from Hudson Guild Director Dan Carpenter to Mayor John Lindsay about funding for the renovation of  Chelsea Park. By the 1960s, Chelsea Park was badly in need of renovation. It had been fully updated once before in 1940 under Mayor LaGuardia, but the playground equipment and facilities were no longer adequate. Neighborhood activists, led by Hudson Guild Director Daniel Carpenter, advocated for funding to rehabilitate the playground and fields. The draft letter (Figure 6) captures Carpenter’s direct challenge to Mayor Lindsay to renovate the park, reminding him of earlier commitments to improve public play space in the neighborhood. 15 Carpenter held meetings at Hudson Guild and enlisted constituents, including P.S. 33 parents, to join him in writing letters to Mayor Lindsay in support of upgrading the park. Eventually, the newly consolidated Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs approved the renovation and incorporated community input into the redesign. The proposed new park was to have updated fields, seating areas, an amphitheater and provide specialized playground equipment to meet younger and older children’s needs.16 The architect for the new Chelsea Park playground was M. Paul Friedberg, a notable landscape architect who brought changing ideologies of play and learning to numerous playground spaces around the city.17 Friedberg believed that at its best outdoor play allowed children to learn in an environment free from constraining rules and to experience both physical and mental challenges through varied landscapes. Like earlier educators, Freidberg designed the new playground with the intention of creating a space for social learning. In 1969, he described his philosophy in the bulletin of the Association for Childhood Education International. “Play is not only for the development of the physical and manual skills; it is also a training ground for social interaction, as through play children become accustomed to interrelating with others. From play come the benefits of mutual experiences and the shared task.” 18   Compared to earlier versions of the Chelsea Park playground, Friedberg incorporated more risk and variety into the playground design. Moreover, he fulfilled Carpenter’s vision for a renovated, modern park. Over a century of play and learning, Chelsea Park has remained a space for recreation, education, and community building. The dynamic changes to the playground and its equipment over time followed trends in child development, views about risk and safety, and the popularity of different recreational activities. As a neighborhood space, the park’s development was intertwined with that of nearby educational institutions, most notably Hudson Guild and P.S. 33. The use of the open space in the park, whether for farming, movies and concerts, or teen leadership training reflected both formal and informal opportunities for learning. Today the park continues to provide athletic and educational spaces for Chelsea residents. 1. Department of Parks of the City of New York, Annual Report 1908 (New York: Martin R. Brown Press, 1908), 9, and “Rejoice Over Chelsea Park,” New-York Tribune, March 18, 1905, http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/docview/571651990?accountid=10226. 2. Rachel Lanconne, “Open Space for the Underclass: New York’s Small Parks (1880-1915)” (PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2005), 42. 3. Photo (right) from Henry Stoddard Curtis, The Practical Conduct of Play (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1925), 205. 4. Department of Parks of the City of New York, Annual Report 1913 (New York: Martin R. Brown Press, 1913), 107-109. 5. “When All Gangs Meet on Neutral Ground at Chelsea,” New-York Tribune, October 5, 1919, http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/docview/576145042?accountid=10226. 6. Department of Parks of the City of New York, Annual Report 1913 (New York: Martin R. Brown Press, 1913), 117, and Department of Parks of the City of New York, Annual Report 1929 (New York, 1929), 49. 7. Marie Warsh, “Cultivating Citizens: The Children’s School Farm in New York City, 1902-1931,” Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum 18 no. 1 (2011), 64. 8. Department of Parks of the City of New York, Annual Report 1928 (New York, 1928), 83. 9. Department of Parks of the City of New York, Annual Report 1927 (New York: I. Smigel, Inc., 1927), 37. 10. Jay  B. Nash, The Organization and Administration of Playgrounds And Recreation (New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1927), 35. 11. Sanford Gaster, “Historical Changes in Children’s Access to U.S. Cities: A Critical Review,” Children’s Environments 9, no. 2 (1992), accessed May 1, 2018, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41514861, 30. 12. National Recreation Association, Training Your Playground Leaders: An Institute Syllabus (New York: National Recreation Association, Inc., 1943),14-15. 13. "Chelsea Youngsters Hold Last Concert," New York Amsterdam News, September 3, 1966, http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/docview/226736812?accountid=10226. 14. New York City Department of Parks and Board of Education, Jointly Operated Playgrounds (New York City, 1956). 15.  Daniel Carpenter to Mayor John Lindsay, February 3, 1970, box 9, folder 17, Hudson Guild Records, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library (hereafter HGR). 16. Veronica R. Traube to Mayor John Lindsay, March 11, 1970, box 9, folder 17, HGR. 17. Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Administration to Chelsea Residents, August 1970, box 9, folder 18, HGR. 18. M. Paul Friedberg, “Playgrounds for City Children,” Association for Childhood Education International Bulletin 27-A (1969), 9.