Evening star., 1922-04-06
CHILDREN TOL0SE
ANOTHERPLAY SITE
!. BY IMPROVEMENTS
Grant Circle Will Be Sodded
and Made Into Park
Space.

Improvement of Grant Circle at
the intersection of New Hampshire
avenue and Varnum streets is planned
! by the Office of public buildings and
grounds. This will remove it for
! ever as possible play space for
! the hundreds of little children of
that section. At the present time the
large circle is nothing but a circle
of unimproved land, but when the
children went there to play this year
| they found a number of base ball
circle.
The circle is on the edge of a very
! thickly settled section Of the city,
and to the east there is a large
building development going on. There
| is practically no play space. except
the traffic-fIled streets. for the chill
dren to play on.
Citizens Make Complaint.
Col Sheriff., officer in charge of pub
lie buildings and grounds, said today
that practically all of the people around
the circle had protested against the
boys playing base ball there, and that
| it was necessary to stop it. He said
that he had the petitions on file in his
office. Later, he said. the little chill
dren were permitted to play there, but
upon complaint these also were ex-
cluded.
| He said that in a very short time
| force of men will be sent out there to
start the grading and sodding of the
circle. While he did not expect to
| complete the work this year. he in
dicated that good part Of it would be
| done.
| However, the hundreds of children
| of the section are without regulated
! play space. Even the yard of the
Petworth School. originally intended
| for play space, has been filled up with
the bulky portables 1t so happens
that this territory is within the con-
fines of the tenth police precinct.
which precinct was pointed out by
| the children's bureau experts as the
| largest in the city and in great need
| of playground space.
| Nursery Site Desirable.
It was pointed out by residents of
that section that if the Commission
ers would turn over the old District
nursery property to the playground
| department, Petworth children, of
| course, could and would use it. Par
| ticularly the older children. At the
same time, it was pointed out that
| small children of Petworth could not
use the Iowa avenue property unless
accompanied by some grown-ups, as
| it would be necessary for them to
! cross Georgia avenue, which has a
| car line and which is one of the heav-
lest traffic lanes running north, be-
ing a feeder te Maryland.
! While the small children usually
! play in the Soldiers Home grounds.
| it was asserted that what is really
needed is a regulated playground or
athletic field which would be under
! the supervision of representatives of
| the Fairgrounds department. At the
present time there is no place where
| the small boys Of this section or it's
surrounding territory may have a
| base ball diamond, where they can
play off competitions with teams from
! other sections of the city.
| No Play Director.
Efforts were made last year to have
the Soldiers Home authorities grant
permission to lay out a base ball dia-
mond for the boys Of that section. but
the home authorities rejected it.
However, they do not object to the
children playing in the grounds. But
there is no one to supervise or direct
them in games of any sort.
ALI Of the regulated Fairgrounds in
the tenth precinct are, with the ex-
ception of Park View. west of 14th
street. This leaves all of the terri
tory east OF 14th street without any
playground facilities except that OF
Park View. There are thousands OF
children Of all ages in this territory,
and 1t is necessary for them to con-
fine their play to the public streets.
and If it involves little game of
to watch for the police or take the
chances Of being taken to the station
house for violating the police regu-
iation prohibiting the playing Of ball
in the streets. -
Fifteen Acres Needed.
To care properly for the children
of this police precinct the experts OF
the children's bureau, who have
studied. the playground satuation, here
pointed out that at least fifteen acres
of ground should be developed for
the white children OF the section
alone, and two additional acres fol-
the colored children. At the presen,
| time there are only three acres devoted
to Fairgrounds in the whole precinct
bureau suggested that Rock Greek
park, the western boundary OF the
precinct. should be- developed more
for playground purposes for the chill
dren. However, 1t was pointed out
that even. with this development, II
Of 18th street, which is serious now
and will grow worse as the territory