Evening star., 1936-09-13


ing a part of the school year as well
as during the Summer months, bring
ing the total attendance up to 272. .732.
During the next two years the num-
ber of Fairgrounds grew until there
was total of 81, 13 of them munici-
pal and 18 of them school grounds.
A real crisis arose in the Fall and
Winter of 1908 and 1909, when Con-
gress failed to appropriate for the
Fairgrounds. AS is frequently the case
when success seems assured to move
ment, some of its supporters had be-
come apathetic and it appeared that
Washington would have to give up it's
Fairgrounds.
Those who recognized the value of
recreation, however, would not let
such a catastrophe occur. James
West, later to be executive secretary
of the Boy Scouts of America, re-
signed the position he then held with
the Interior Department and joined
forces with Arthur T. Moses, one of
Washington's public-spirited business
men, in organizing a campaign to OBJ
tain private funds.
June 13 was designated as tag day
and an intensive drive was made.
Three thousand volunteers, including
children, solicited money on the street,
newspapers gave full-page space to
advertisements, "rubber-neck cars"
and brass bands toured the city and
toulouse canvass was made
As a result 80 new Fairgrounds
opened before July l.
IN order to have the Fairgrounds
opened, play leaders worked with
out pay until money could be. raised.
In 1909 President and Mrs Taft CO.
operated in a button day, and the Re-
publicans and Democrats of the House
of Representatives staged a memoir
able base ball game which netted the
cause $320.55. The statesmen were
outdone. however, by the Board of
Trade and the Chamber of Commerce,
who brought in S400 when they put on
a similar show. The total amount
raised in the 1909 campaign was $l2,-
900, a concrete proof of the desire of
Washingtonians that Fairgrounds be
continued.
All these trials and tribulations oc-
Cured before the Playground Depart
ment was established, but they had
their value, since they allowed the
will of the people to be expressed, and
virtually made imperative provision
for the support of Playground De-
partment in the appropriation act of
1912, which became operative on
July 1, 1911.
E. S. Martin was supervisor of play
grounds for the first two years after
the department was established, and
he was followed by Maj. Daniel DON
ovan and George NJ Roberts, who
acted in temporary capacity for
few months until Mrs. Susie Root
Rhodes came into Office in 1916.
Mrs. Rhodes, who was the first
woman in the United States to be
appointed as supervisor of a city rec
reation system, and the first woman
to hold an executive Office in the Dis
trict of Columbia government, &C
quilted herself with great honor and
held the position for Is years, retiring
in 1881 at the age of 10. Since her
retirement she has been living in
California.
When Miss Sibyl Baker, the pres
ent supervisor of Fairgrounds. came
into Office in 1881, she found %
municipal Fairgrounds and a play
station at Children's Hospital open
for year-around service and 49 addi-
tional Fairgrounds open during the
Summer.
During the five years in which Miss
Baker has been supervisor there has
been continuous growth, in spite of
the inevitable temporary setback
caused by the depression. Her final
ideal, however, has not been reached.
She believes, for instance, that even
the smallest Fairgrounds should cover
two acres at least, that there should
be supervised play in every park in
the city, that Fairgrounds should al
ways be spots of beauty and comfort,
that the thickly populated portions
of the city should receive first atten-
tion, that there should be a greater
number of wading and swimming
pools and that grounds should be
lighted in the evening. She also feels
that in certain sections of the city
recreation buildings should be erected
containing gymnasiums, workshops
and showers for the use of the people
in the neighborhood.
Miss Baker, native of Washing
ton, D. c., has served the city as
an educator in various capacities for
30 years, having been director of the
Community Center Department of the
public schools for five years before
her appointment to the office of su-
pervisor of Fairgrounds. A graduate
Of Wellesley, she has also studied at
George Washington, American, Co.
lumbia and New York Universities.
During the war she volunteered her
services as executive secretary of the
Government Recreation League, which
was later succeeded by the Welfare
and Recreation Association. Through
out her entire professional career, she
has had close contact with every phase
Of recreation, both in the schools and
among adults, and she possesses an in
innate knowledge of Washington's
civic and social life.
HER conception of recreation su-
pervision is not the mere acquisi-
ton of play areas, necessary as that
may be, but rather an analysis of
the recreational needs of a city and
service of trained leadership and ex-
pert advice to the entire community.
Help given to hospitals, camps set
tlement houses, clubs and Juvenile
Court, assistance in planning parties,
picnics, hikes and community recrea-
tion programs, advice regarding play
ground equipment for churches, apart
ment houses, and backyard play
training institutes for rec
reational leadership and the giving of
general information regarding the
many phases of recreation are all a