The Washington times., 1931-01-24
SPACE IS
n { { D Of ALL
COMMUNITIES

80
Residential districts without
adequate and convenient recre-
alton and play space for children
and grown-ups are rapidly becom-
ing a thing Of the past.
These two features, essential to
the proper development of every
residential community, have been
emphasized for years by city plan
ners and social agencies, and are
now recognized and supplied by
intelligent community developers.
Acre Per 100 Needed
The National Recreation ASso-
citation has conducted surveys and
studied the question of recreation
areas over a long period Of years,
and concludes that each urban
community should have an acre
of parks and play spaces for every
hundred inhabitants.
Students of the question be-
lieve it is not enough for Detroit
to have Belle Isle, or San Fran
cisco it's Golden Gate Park, or
New York city its Central Park
and Van CORTLAND, or, for that
matter, for Washington to have
it's Rock Creek and Potomac
Parks. All these are tremendous
assets are essential, but should be
by the neighbor-
hood playground for everyday
use.
Most American cities "have
just growed," and in so growing,
one addition or subdivision was
tackled to another, sometimes
beautiful, often not so beautiful,
but more often still, the play
ground was omitted. Even school
yards, generally speaking, are too
small. Some of them have lost
ground to the school building
itself as the community grew in
and had to enlarge it's
school facilities.
ID. c. Is Fortunate
washington is more fortunate
than most cities with respect to
to its parks and Fairgrounds. The
original L'Enfant plan did not
provide for large recreation areas
but it did have in it the Mall
and many circles and squares
which are now used for recrea-
tion. Fortunately, as the Capital
was outgrowing its original plan,
provision was made to develop
the great parks of the District.
For the future, the Potomac
River park extending to the
Great Falls, and the Botanic
Garden along the Anacostia
River are projected.
A good example of the creation
of both parks and play spaces in
the Washington area by residen-
tial developers is afforded by
Strathmeade, which is being de-
veloped on the Virginia side, near
Falls Church. There they have
not only met the standards of the
recreation association, but have
more than doubled them.
Large Grounds Planned
Out of 1911 acres in the prof.
ect, approximately 300 acres have
been dedicated permanently to
play areas and parks to be con-
trolled by the association of home
owners. Most of this will be in
large park areas where 27-hole
golf layout is in process of develop
ment. Work of clearing the first
nine holes has just been COM
pleted. Provision is also made for
tennis, swimming, bride paths
and other forms of outdoor
recreation. A substantial acreage
will also be devoted to neighbor-
hood Fairgrounds, so that no
home will be more than half a
mile from one; while children be-
low school age will be provided
with play spaces in their own
neighborhoods.
Another innovation of the mod
ern community planner designed
to prevent traffic accidents, par
ticularly to children going to'
and from school and play, is ex-
emplified in the Strathmeade
plan. Schools and Fairgrounds
are so placed that children need
not cross busy traffic thorough
fares to reach them. Winding
residential streets do not invite
through traffic. Subways will
the highways most
used by residents and delivery
trucks servicing them. The re-
suit will be traffic safety for
and cycling children.