Playing by the Rules: Supervised Playgrounds and Recreation Centres

Supervised Playgrounds and Recreation Centres:
The Toronto Parks Department

The 19th century was not kind to children in Toronto's parks. While portions of Riverdale Park and Ketchum Park were set aside for boys under age 17 in 1886, the Commissioner of Parks resisted further action on this front. John Chambers' interests were horticultural. He often used the police to keep children away from his flower beds and unorganized play out of his parks.

Progress followed Chambers' resignation during a scandal in 1908. Toronto's first playground expenditures came that year when the City paid for five Board of Education playgrounds. In 1909, Council passed a playgrounds by-law, bought equipment for the first time, and opened St. Andrew's Playground using staff from the Toronto Playgrounds Association. The first playgrounds fully controlled by the Parks Department - Elizabeth, O'Neill, and St. Andrew's - came in 1911.

Chambers' son, Charles, took the next major step after becoming Parks Commissioner in 1912. In 1913, the Department created a Playgrounds & Recreation Branch under Silas H. Armstrong. He had been secretary of the Public School Athletic Association since 1901; now he was the first full-time official to operate a public recreation program in Canada.

Armstrong directed a massive expansion of Toronto's playground system. Winter programs were first offered in 1913-14 at the McCormick Recreation Centre and various schools and rented halls. A "playground" was now a summer-only site. A "recreation centre" had both outdoor and indoor facilities - usually a library, a gym, and work-rooms - and hosted year-round activities.

The City system quickly expanded beyond lands controlled by the Parks Department. In the summer of 1931, the Department operated 60 centres, including 33 on Board of Education property and one on a Separate School Board site. The 60 centres drew a total of 2,064,050 children.

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