|
||
 Supervised Playgrounds and Recreation Centres
|
Festival, Elizabeth Street Playground, Elizabeth Street/Gerrard Avenue West No area in early 20th-century Toronto was more congested, squalid, or infamous than "The Ward." Bounded by Yonge, Queen, College, and University, the Ward was also Toronto's pre-eminent foreign quarter. Lying within the shadow of City Hall, it was a highly visible alien presence in a predominantly Anglo-Celtic town, and often drew the attention of reformers, journalists, politicians, and bureaucrats. The Ward hosted many of Toronto's earliest child leisure facilities. The Board of Education's first supervised playground - the first in Canada operated by a public agency - opened at Elizabeth Street Public School in 1908. It was soon superseded by the Parks Department's first supervised playground, which opened at Elizabeth and Gerrard in 1911. Rinks and a children's slide were also maintained at the Elizabeth Playground (home of the "Lizzies") between 1911-12 and 1928-29. Children's services were paramount at Central Neighbourhood House, a social settlement based in the Ward in 1911-28. The House organized clubs, classes, and clinics, and lobbied City Council for playground improvements. The House and other agencies also criticized Toronto's policy of suspending all recreation programs (and padlocking, patrolling, or removing all equipment) on Sundays. Much of the old Ward was cleared away in the late 1920s and early '30s. Toronto General Hospital purchased the Elizabeth Street Playground in 1928 and extended Gerrard through to University. The playground's south end was added to Hester How School. The Parks Department ran programs there for small children until the site was acquired by the Hospital for Sick Children. |
|
©2001. City of Toronto |
||
