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Girls' section, McCormick Recreation Centre, Brock Avenue/Frankish Avenue
c. 1915
Arthur Goss, photographer
City of Toronto Archives, RG 8-52-602

The Parks Department used various means to develop its playground system in the 1910s.

Besides buying property, the City assumed the assets of the Toronto Playgrounds Association (McCormick Playground, 1913) and the Toronto Boys' Dominion (Moss Park, 1914). O'Neill Playground, purchased in 1911, was named after the alderman who equipped the site.

As short-term measures, the City obtained the free use of private property or rented sites. The first Earlscourt Playground used land offered by the Earlscourt Methodist Church (1912-15). After the church converted the site into tennis courts, a nearby site was leased.

The City and the Board of Education also supplied apparatus and staff to charitable institutions, including the Boys' Home.

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