Arizona republican., 1915-03-27
GREAT INTEREST
 IN FAIRGROUNDS
Awakened by Visit of Field
 Secretary Weir of the Na- tional Organization Steps Taken to Form a Local
 Association

That Phoenix has a wonderful op-
 portunity, that it is probably better situated than any other city in the country, with respect to playground
 development, L. H. Weir, field secre-
 tary of the National Playground and
 Recreation Association of America
 told a representative gathering at the
 chamber of Commerce yesterday af-
 ternoon As result of the meeting
 playground and recreation associa
 tlon of Phoenix was formed and the
 following executive committee was
 named to formulate plans which will
 be announced at a meeting to be
 held al four o'clock this afternoon:
 Chairman, Dr. A. H. Williams; sec retary, Mrs. J. L. B. Alexander, Mrs.
 C. o. Anderson, Mrs. Philips, J. b. Loper, c. D. Jones and R. R. Board- man.
 There were present at the meet lngs representatives from the high
 and grammar schools, the Parent
 Teachers association, the Woman's club, the Civic league and the vari- ous fraternal organizations MT. Weir said that in the company of
 Professor Loper he had made a tour
 of the city and had inspected the school grounds and the grounds own ed by the city. He had found that
 each school building had an average area Of five acres and that there was purpose to increase this area. The buildings were well equipped and modern so that the grounds could
 easily be converted into playgrounds for the surrounding communities The city owned something more than sixty .acreS of ground intended for playground and park purposes Much of it was vet undeveloped but was
 susceptible of easy development Especially was this true of Eastlake
 park which could be prepared for use this summer. With little trouble the
 natatorium could be put into shape. The Christy tract of twenty acres west of the city would perhaps not be quickly developed but it could be used for baseball grounds and was i large enough to make room for twen- ty diamonds
 MT. Weir suggested that three playgrounds be laid out at once one at the Monroe street school, an other at the Adams street school and another at one of the schools in the southern part of the city Not a
 great deal of money would be imme- diately required There should be a playground expert in charge of the grounds at all seasons of the year except in the winter time when he !. should be allowed a vacation A man and woman should also be
 grounds suggested by MT. Weir.
 As to the equipment of the play
 grounds MT. Weir said that there should be no great expenditure of money. Much that would be needed could be made by the pupils of the
 manual training schools and such things as they could not make could
 be procured from the proceeds of fairs and other enterprises conducted
 by the Woman's club and the par
 ent teachers associations.
 Illustrating the need especially of
 the young for playgrounds where
 their activities should have proper
 direction, MT. Weir said that the
 boy had about 45OO hours every year
 to dispose of after counting out the
 time he spent in school and in sleep
 These 45O0 hours made up the most
 dangerous period: he was reasonably
 safe while asleep or in school. He
 needed supervision while at play. In
 hardly less need were the older pu-
 pils. For men and women the play
 grounds and places of recreation
 were necessary to bring out the best
 in men and women.