Evening star., 1940-05-05


by one integrated setup?
Forms Of Recreation.
BY supervised recreation is meant
that which is carried on under some
sort Of leadership and direction, as
on playground. 1t is the kind Of
recreation most adaptable to young
sters of school age. BY unsuper-
vised recreation is meant that which
is carried on without any leader
ship or direction, as In a park, on q
golf course, on horseback, in picnic
grove, in a park tennis court or
baseball diamond.
Through the years Washington
has equipped itself with some 1000
acres OF public parks and parkways
in which many pleasurable unsuper-
vised activities can be carried on.
Rock Greek, Potomac, Anacostia and
Fort Dupont Parks are key parks in
this system. To them have been
added many other areas as well as
parkways such as the George Wash
ington Memorial and G. g. o. Canal
Parkways
Ten years ago the National Capt.
tai Park and Planning Commission
got the Board Of Education, District
Commissioners and ONCE of Ma
tional Capital Parks around the
green table, so to speak, and mapped
out system Of areas to be used for
concentrated supervised activities.
The system they evolved, which is
built largely around the public
school system, but with considerable
park land thrown in, Is being de-
signed to serve every child in the
city with space for supervised play
within a quarter mile of his home
and every adult within a mile of his
home. Land for this system, known
as the recreation system, Is about
10 per cent in public ownership at
present. 1t amounts to only a small
fraction of the recreation land In the
District.
Operated By Three Agencies.
This latter system at first was
operated by three agencies. the Dis
trict Playground Department, Com
munity Center Department and
once of National Capital Parks.
Each had its own separate method
Of doing things.
A muddle was the result, but it
was not until last July, when the
1910 District Of Columbia Appro-
priation Act was passed, that any
form Of unification was brought to
help the situation.
The Playground and Community
Center Departments were made one
under the joint control Of the Dis
trict Of Columbia Commissioners
and the Board of Education and
Lewis r. Barrett, District co-ord-
inator of recreation for the Once
of National Capital Parks, was put
in charge. Mr.. Barrett had been
hired through the efforts Of the
Park and Planning Commission to
see If the three original agencies
could not at least be co-ordinated
as long as they were not unified
as far as recreation was concerned
Since last July Mr.. Barrett, who
has been able to call on the re-
sources of the Board of Education
District Commissioners and Office
of National Capital Parks (on whose
pay roll he Isl has endeavored to
make the 1O-year-old recreation sys-
| tenn plan a reality. To him have beer
made available the National Capital
Parks G. c. c. boys to work on the
various areas in the system and the
planners and designers of the parks
agency to stepup production OF
plans. He has endeavored to work
out unified program of supervised
play and to remove duplication in
administrative personnel as far as
possible.
Gets Parks Facilities.
The Parks Office, in addition, has
transferred the operation of many
of its recreational facilities to Mr..
Barrett's agency-tennis courts,
baseball diamonds, etc. The ground
work has been laid for transfer OF
other facilities.
Mr.. Barrett began to hope for a
system in which the new recreation
department would handle all super
visory personnel, permits for un-
supervised activities, arrangements
for celebrations, carnivals and all
other happenings, and would fit
everything into one great public rec
reational program while the parks
Office would concentrate its entire
attention on planning, designing
construction and maintenance. Ma
tional memorials and areas of forma,
planting would remain under sole
control of the parks in the same way
that education would remain tine
sole province of the schools.
Word that District and School
Board officials had succeeded in per-
suading the House that a separa-
ton of recreation in the parks and
in the Fairgrounds should be re.
tanned and that the only forma.
link between parks, schools anc
Commissioners, Co-ordinator Bar.
rett, was to be done away with
burst like a bombshell at the Parh
and Planning Commission and OF.
,fice of National Capital Parks.
They had helped to plan, helped
to develop and helped to maintain
the recreation system as well as thu