'■^^^^M ^;..^ iiiiii Newark. City Plan CotnmlGslon A Tjublic recrention system for J^e^ark. r"i^ ...r*. %- .j( f ,, ^4^^ s^:^; 'f^^ ..<• .■tv;- Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024460796 A PUBLIC RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK Cornell University Library NAC 7654 .N6A25 A public recreation system for Newarit :s 3 1924 024 460 796 II NAC 7&54- Cornell Hnioersitg Xibrari? OF THE Colleae of arcbitecture .. .F t ^-t ^ A PUBLIC RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE CITY PLAN COMMISSION NEWARK, N. J. L. J. HARDHAM PRINTING COMPANY 1915 This is not a '^recreation survey." It is a brief review, from the city-planning standpoint, of the value of a comprehensive system of public recrea- tion. It is intended chiefly to fix public attention upon the larger aspects of the problems and espe- cially upon certain constructive measures calcu- lated, in our view, to insure an intensive and more effective use of existing facilities and a unified and harmonious development with reference to the imperative needs of the near future. The City Plan Commission has already made, with the aid of experts, somewhat extensive studies in the field of recreation in its broadest sense. This brief review has drawn freely upon the materials of such studies. Persons interested may have free access to the maps and charts in our office enforcing the facts and recommendations which are covered suggestively in these pages. Austen H. McGregor, President Frederick J. Keer, Vice-President Joseph M. Byrne, Treasurer John Cotton Dana Christian W. Feigenspan David Grotta Augustus V. Hamburg GusTAVus Staehlin Members of the City Plan Commission Summary of this Report Newark needs a complete public recreation system. The Board of Education, Park Commission and Play- ground Commission are doing all they can, under present conditions and limitations, each in its own field. Their work for recreation should be united and generously supported. Ample recreation facilities properly controlled are absolutely essential to the making of a healthy, law-abid- ing and efficient city. Recreation is simply the wise use of hours of leisure. Homes can not provide for this use. Schools can not, though by a wider use of their buildings they can greatly help. The city can furnish supervised play for only $2.50 to $4.00 per year per child, while school training costs $30 and up. Our present parks can not provide for wise use of leisure. They are not enough in number; they are not centrally located. Some of our congested wards are as populous as full grown cities; the cities have many parks, while these congested wards have none! The parks are not equipped for all-year recreation and they are closed to play on Sundays. Churches and societies can not provide for wise use of leisure. By a wider use of their respective plants they can help. Commercial bodies and industrial corporations can help a little; and they do more and better work in this line each year. CITY PLAN COMMISSION Commercial recreation, from movies to saloons, helps a little and the latter could help far more if they were improved instead of being condemned. The streets will be used as playgrounds until better places are provided. And streets are dangerous for both young and old and not fit to promote the wise use of leisure hours. More recreation can be and should be secured through pageants, and festivals and celebrations. The newer parts of the city should be provided with play space at once, while land is cheap. The recreation work of the Park Commission, the Playground Commission and the School Board should be united under a Public Recreation Commission with power "to manage, direct and care for whatever provisions are made by the city for playgrounds, playfields, indoor recre- ation centers, debating clubs, gymnasiums, public baths, and to make the necessary inspections as provided by the ordinances of the city for maintaining wholesome and moral quality of all forms of commercial recreation for which licenses are required by the city." A Public Recreation System for Newark I. Some General Statements — Introductory The purpose of the City Plan Commission in this review of Public Recreation is to awaken public and official interest in the present and future needs of Newark for a comprehensive system of year-round recreation. A detailed and elaborate survey would be the basis of admin- istrative efficiency in meeting these needs. But the first need is a general awakening to the immense value of an adequate system of public recreation as one of the prime necessities in the life of a well-ordered and efficient city. Newark already is doing much for public recreation. The peril is grave, however, that our great and rapidly growing city shall fail to use to the full existing facilities; fail to provide for urgent immediate needs; fail to exercise due foresight in providing for the needs of a rapidly growing population within existing areas already much congested. Three agencies now administer Newark's public recreation : the. Board of Education, the Essex County Park Commission, the Board of Playground Commis- sioners. In the aggregate these three administrative groups control the use of millions of dollars' worth of public grounds and buildings, paid for and maintained by common taxation, and, as trustees on behalf of all the people, these three groups should feel that their service to the people should be as effective and harmonious and economical as possible. The recreational work of these three agencies deserves praise and their recent reports reveal a keen sense of the 6 CITY PLAN COMMISSION inadequacy of present facilities, the need of new struc- tures, larger grounds, better equipment, better supervision, teachers of higher quality and training, and more funds for the work. Yet a general view of the needs, compared with the rate of progress in meeting them, suggests that Newark, like other cities of its class, must undergo a great awakening before adequate bond issues and anniial appro- priations can be secured. Shall Newark Have a Comprehensive, Well-unified, Yeeur- Roimd System of Public Recreation? Shall legislation be secured establishing a Public Recreation Commission under which the recreational operations of the parks, schools, baths, together with co-operating private agencies, shall be administered essen- tially as one department, preventing waste and duplica- tion, and assuring more adequate development and funds? Shall the existing facilities of the parks and schools be open throughout the year and upon Sunday — the one full free day for rest and recreation of the. masses of the people, and during the evening hours, for the multitudes whose free hours are now so largely barren so far as the use of these properties is concerned ? Shall public policy be mainly prohibitive and repressive as regards saloons and commercial recreation? Or shall Newark's policy be marked by aggressive measures to make accessible to all the people, so far as possible, wholesome facilities and leadership in a creative and constructive use of hours of leisure ? Shall the city merely condemn, and restrain, and forbid; or shall it be liberal, and progressive, and guide, and upbuild, and improve? RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 7 11. The Basis of a City Plan Commission's Interest in Establishing an Adequate System of Public Recreation The typical cities of today, as sliown by new charters and legislation, are increasingly taking the constructive view that prevention is wiser, as well as cheaper, than caring for wreckage, and that a high moral death rate is as disgraceful as a high physical death rate; that invest- ments in the interest of public welfare and happiness include the "necessities" which are "foods" for the whole man's life along with those more commonly accepted "necessities" related to physical comfort and safety, such as streets, sewers, police and fire protection, and the like. It is recognized that a city may be essentially "unfit to live in," however well provided with the physical necessi- ties, if the larger and paramount interests of the people, in the realm of real personal living, be neglected and denied. "Departments of Public Welfare," under which are placed those divisions of municipal administration pri- marily related to health, moral well-being and general happiness, are found in such new charters, for example, as those of Cleveland, Dayton, and the charters recently submitted for approval in Cincinnati and Detroit. City Planning is fundamentally concerned with these problems of human welfare, quite as much as with the more obvious problems of transit and transportation, industrial growth and a harmonious expansion of parks, plazas and boulevards. Comfortable homes, accessible neighborhood playgrounds and recreation centers, athletic fields and play-parks, swimming pools and baths, and the like, are quite within its province as important factors in a city's efficiency. 8 CITY PLAN COMMISSION III. The Value and Meaning of Public Recreation Briefly Interpreted Leisure well used constitutes one of the greatest forces for human progress. Leisure misused is the gravest menace of civilization. The obligation of the city to make adequate provision for wholesome leisure time activities, in such forms as are beyond the reach or control of indi- viduals or private groups, is being recognized as quite as binding a duty as providing for public education, and equally necessary as a foundation for good citizenship and a sound democracy. The notion that the advocates of recreation systems are promoting "fads" or "luxuries," or that such things, while good in their way, must be post- poned or meagerly developed until prime essentials are provided, has no defenders among competent leaders in the fields of industry, education, scientific charity, juris- prudence or religion. To safeguard and "make good" the investments in homes, schools, churches, libraries, industry, commerce and government, the leaders in every field of thought are striving to organize for creative effect the immense resources now so largely wasted in the relatively low type of recreations of the people as a whole. IV. The Relation of Public Recreation to Various Interests 1. Homes. The ideal or model home will always do much and should be helped to do more for the play-life of the young children and for all members of the family in ways com- patible with the limited space of rooms and home-yards. But for children, and adults, many of the most necessary RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 9 and valuable play activities are social in nature, demand groups often of large numbers and extended space both indoors and outdoors, for their enjoyment. Thus children are forced into streets, vacant lots, neighborhood parks or school yards, and into larger halls or buildings for such games as require large areas. If streets are unsafe and unsanitary, if there be no neighborhood park and no school yard accessible and no suitable hall for assembly, then the healthful outdoor and indoor sports are denied children and youths no matter how "good" and "careful" the parents may be. Being denied facilities for wholesome outdoor games and sports, idleness with all its injurious by-products, or excessive indulgence in passive forms of commercial recreation, begin their often fatal inroads upon health and character. The homes of a large majority of the city dwellers are quite as cramped and ill-adapted to effective recreation indoors as outdoors, and therefore public provisions must be made for these vital human needs. Public systems, resting upon taxation, must provide these common necessities for the common good, and treat them with due recognition of their importance as adjuncts of the normal and effective home. It is simply impossible for the home privately to supply these needs. And without such provisions no home can be effective in its essentials. All that has been said applies with essentially the same force to the homes of the well-to-do and middle-class as to the homes of the congested slums. Playgrounds and recreation centres are no longer regarded as needs alone for the.slum. In proportion to their number, the wreckage 10 CITY PLAN COMMISSION from idleness and misdirected recreation is quite as large among the "better classes" as among the "poor of the slums." These play needs are purely human, and limited to no class, or condition, or race. 2. Schools. With billions invested in public schools and millions more in private schools, academies and colleges, this nation seeks to produce "good citizens", safeguard democracy and create the "socialized individual" and the "perfected personality." In many municipalities the budget for schools equals, if it does not exceed, all other public expenditures, and in practically all the school budget is far larger than that of any other department. Now, education alone is not a guarantee of good citi- zenship. Good citizenship depends upon loyalty, courage, honesty, fair-play, initiative,, sympathy, cooperation, team- spirit, kindness, neighborliness, patriotism; and these qualities are mainly built up by activities which enlist the whole personality and bring the will especially into play. These are the very qualities best built up by supervised games and play, athletic sports, and those forms of educa- tion which fill the time of the student with active training in hand and brain, rather than by precepts, maxims, book instruction or any sort of passive reception of good counsel whether at home, or church, or school. Example, doing, action, "getting into the game," the contagion of high standards in sports and the sense of honor and fair-play and team-work — these are essential factors in education for citizenship. RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 11 Hence we see the growing demand that the value of play in education shall be reflected in the architecture, curriculum, teaching, grounds and equipment of our schools. Part of the same demand is that for the "wider use" of school buildings and grotmds as neighborhood recrea- tion centers, social centers, "people's forums" and the like, and for continuation schools, vacation schools and all- year schools, with special schools for the defective and abnormal. The desire to secure a greater return, approximately 100% on the investment, justifies the additional expendi- tures required to secure this greater educational efficiency and wider service in a year-round continuous ministry to the entire people. With a school building in each neighborhood, why not combine therein the park-field house and the park as a part of its setting, the gymnasium, baths, swimming pool, gardens, etc., rather than duplicate buildings, grounds, supervising and teaching force, and cost of general up-keep? The tendency in many cities, is to consider an entire block of generous size as a minimum area for new schools; and the building of new standard types of schools have all the essentials of the park-field house and the social center added to other school require- ments. The cost of these new types of schools is surpris- ingly little more than of the old style. Some cities are making it the rule to acquire grounds of from 6 to 12 acres for all schools, mindful of these wider needs and a broader social service. The cost of High School Education ranges from $100 12 CITY PLAN COMMISSION per pupil upward, of grade schools from $30 upward. The cost of year-round supervised play per person ranges from $2.50 to $4.00, while in the estimates of cost for ordi- nary playground activities supervised for the summer the cost is estimated at from 2i/2 to 6 cents per child. It is thus obvious that the cost of providing high- grade, year-round play-teaching and supervision, with adequate equipment, is easily within teach. No city should challenge the wisdom of this investment even if viewed only in the way of an investment to safeguard and make effective the millions already invested, — to accom- plish the purpose for which it all stands, viz., the produc- tion of good citizens, by promoting sound health, good moral character, and wholesome life-habits in the use of leisure hours. 3. Parks. A chain of outlying parks, connected, if possible, with interlaced parkways and boulevards, although costly, is now accounted a necessity for a well-planned city. But along with these parks of rural landscape type are demanded insi'de parks for recreational use, in size and number sufficient to meet the needs of the people for athletic fields and such sports as require more ground than the neighborhood play-park affords. It is generally felt that neighborhood playgrounds should be established in centers of population with radii of not more than one-quarter to one-half a mile. This is about the relative area in residence sections which public schools must serve and suggests a natural reason for making the neighborhood play-park a part of or very near to the neighborhood school. RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 13 The playfields or athletic parks are advocated in areas of a mile or so of radius, and approximately one such playfield for every 15,000-20,000 of a city's population. These playfields should have from eight to fifteen or twenty acres, as available ground and funds permit, and should be equipped with several baseball and football fields, tennis courts, swimming pools, handball courts, grounds for basketball and volley-ball, a running track and jumping pits, and suitable buildings for dressing-rooms, baths, club-rooms and the hke. Under supervision, lighted for evening use, adapted also for winter sports, these play- fields and field-houses furnish most valuable opportunities for wholesome recreation, within convenient walking dis- tance of the patrons to be served. Any city which has provided parks of these various types should see to it that they are used the year round and during the evenings and such hours upon Sunday and hoUdays as shall meet the needs of the largest number. Failure to provide "proper lights for evening use, effective supervision, suitable buildings for the comfort of fre- quenters, or to make the grounds accessible at times when the largest number of people can profit by them, — notably on evenings and on Sundays, — is a serious defect of policy. With reference to this year-round use of parks for recreation, we cite briefly from the last report of the Philadelphia Board of Recreation, as follows: "The attendance at Philadelphia's 22 Municipal Playgrounds and Recreation Parks in 1913 was 2,510,422 persons, com- pared with 1,371,315 in 1912 on 13 playgrounds. The increased attendance over the previous year was 1,139,107, or 84% . This great increase is due, not only to the increase 14 CITY PLAN COMMISSION in the number of grounds, but also to the growing habit among large numbers of young people to regard the Play- ground as much a part of daily life as the school or home. The Playground offers more kinds of active interest than any of the counter attractions of the city. The Playground is a year-round institution in Philadelphia. Nothing is more gratifying than that the attendance in the month of December was over 200,000 persons on a total of 13 Play- grounds — almost two-thirds of the attendance of August on a total of 22 Playgrounds." The playgrounds and centers under the Newark Play- ground Commission are being kept open the year through with gratifying results, despite the very inadequate struc- tures and facilities. Why not adopt a year-round and all Sunday policy of supervised recreation in Newark's Schools and in the Essex County Parks within Newark's bounds? 4. Private Institutions — Churches, Fraternities, Clubs, Etc. Many churches, fraternities, clubs, and the like, have buildings adapted to various recreational and social uses, which could well be used in cooperation with the public system, at times and upon terms mutually agreed upon, without interfering with their use by the bodies primarily concerned. This method of wider use of churches and other private properties is in hne with the general purpose for which they exist. The combined use of all available public and private facilities will not serve, for many years to come, the full recreational needs of any city. The extensive and systematic use of such private facilities for strictly community service will tend to bind the people of neighborhoods together across racial, social RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 15 and religious lines, and also to increase the general loyalty of the people to organizations leading this cooperation. 5. Industry and Commerce. Great industrial corporations and commercial estab- lishments are providing facilities for indoor and outdoor recreation rivaling the best types of public facilities, — playgrounds and athletic fields, club-houses and recre- ation centers, with supervision and leadership of the best training and experience. The concentration of industrial leaders upon the elimination of waste, the increase of eflRciency, the promotion of safety and health, have led to a realization that the human factor is after all the chief asset of industry. Highly paid experts in efficiency methods, serving these industrial corporations, have observed the constructive results of public recreation in the building up of health and character, in rapid assimila- tion of foreign elements, in developing forceful and self- controlled personalities, and hence the great industries are adopting these methods of producing reliable material for employment in years to come. The attitude of industry shows enlightened "common sense" in this line of investments. It is not "charity" but sound business policy which sanctions such expenditures. The treatment of employees, not as insensate machines, but as sensitive personalities, proves financially profitable and promises to give the soundest basis for meeting the strain of competition. Chambers of Commerce and trade organizations gen- erally in leading American cities are active in securing new charters and legislation providing for year-round 16 CITY PLAN COMMISSION recreation systems. They recognize that a happy whole- some life is the best guarantee of prosperity, and that cities affording the. best provisions for such a life to the largest numbers attract the best types of residents and hold them as permanent upbuilders of the city's life. The growing of hogs and cattle of better types and the eradication of diseases affecting them, improving grains and fruits and forests, are now understood to be no more logically the concern of Chambers of Commerce than the promotion and protection of the happiness and health of all the people and especially of plastic youth, — the foundation of reliable prosperity and sound city growth. 6. Commercial Recreation. Commercial recreation includes all forms of amuse- ment and recreation conducted for profit, such as theatres, moving pictures, pool and billiard halls, bowling, skating rinks, dance halls and the like. Saloons, in so far as they afford recreational and club features, might be included. Such recreations are customarily licensed more for social control than for revenue, — the saloons possibly excepted. On the whole, commercial recreations serve to help on human happiness and should be encouraged. Gen- erally speaking the standards ahd quality of commercial recreation improve with the advance of civilization. Such recreations need to be balanced and stimulated by the more active outdoor sports and games, and by the develop- ment of amateur participation in dramatics, music, choral singing, and the like. The best modem policy of municipal administration is applied to commercial recreations, not in a prohibitory. RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 17 repressive or inquisitorial way, but solely to insure the wholesome influence and quality of such recreations. Only a small minority of those who furnish such recrea- tions require prosecution or suppression, and the best representatives of these lines of business are as much concerned for the elimination of their evil features as is the general public. Typical examples of the constructive regulation of commercial recreations are seen in the new charters of Cleveland, Seattle, Dayton, and the amended charter of Detroit. These charters provide for a department of pub- lic welfare, with public recreation as one of the main divisions. To this department is assigned the duty of the inspection and supervision of all forms of commercial recreation for which licenses are required, under the terms of ordinances designed to insure their good quahty and wholesome social effects. Such stable control by a respon- sible board is much to be preferred to occasional prosecu- tions or blundering censorship. With the advance of urban civilization almost un- limited scope in this field of commercial recreation invites the investor. There is no expectation that public recrea- tion, will invade this ground of legitimate business. Side by side, each within its proper hmits, commercial and public recreation will be developed. In both, the ruling principle is bound to be that of constructive and whole- some influence. Instead of continually repressing the natural tendency of the average man of limited income, and especially the man of small daily wages, to find in the saloon the pleasures of companionship of friendly ' gathering in 18 CITY PLAN COMMISSION attractive quarters, a city should, by reasonable regula- tions, encourage these same citizens to insist that the saloons they visit be as vsrholesome and helpful as the best of homes. The well-to-do have their clubs, where they get for themselves the kind of recreation with such accompani- ments as each may ask, which the poorer man finds he can secure, as yet, only in a saloon. More thought should be given to making the saloon, not illegal, not of ill repute; but so attractive, decent and wholesome that to any of them in the whole city any citizen may take his wife and children as readily, as he would go himself. There is nothing in the nature of American cities, there is nothing in the character of the working men of American cities, to prevent the places in which a man may get what drink he will, within reason, from being as clean and as properly recreational as they are in many cities in Europe. Let us use human nature's desire for companionship in comfortable quarters, and not oppose it. Let us improve this universal institution which meets the needs of so many of our fellows, and not forever be trying to make it dis- reputable by putting it under the ban of rules and regula- tions which are obnoxious to most of our fellows. Dancing is one of the most enjoyable of all forms of recreation. It appeals to all of every age, save the crippled, the senile and the child in arms. Even those who cannot or will not dance like to see others dancing. It calls for no apparatus, no large areas, and for a very slight expense in music. Every young person in Newark should have, especially in winter, opportunities to dance for an hour or more two or three times each week, under health- RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 19 ful and "wholesome conditions and at slight expense. Com- mercial dance halls should be encouraged, so long as they are clean, decent in every way and properly con- ducted. The danger of immoral results from the well- conducted dance hall is not half as great as it is from the repression of the energy and fire of life in young people when they have no room to play vigorously at home, no form of exercise available evenings but walking the streets, and few good opportunities to associate on terms of frank companionship with the opposite sex. There is no better sign of progress than the growth of healthful play in a community. Of all forms of healthful play the world seems never yet to have found one better than the dance. 7. Streets — Perils and Attractions. In settled portions of most cities the streets and alleys offer often twice the space of the combined home yards, vacant lots and school-yards. From one-fourth to one- third of every city is given to streets and alleys. The streets, moreover, are common ground. They offer large freedom, companionship, movement, possible adven- tures and often the thrill of exciting things to be seen and done. While home yards are cluttered with out- buildings, gardens and fences, the streets are well-sur- faced, attractive for play and lead to neighbors and friends and off to the fascinations of "down-town." A badly surfaced, cramped school-yard, or play- ground congested with apparatus, play-surface covered with coarse gravel or ugly cinders, cannot compete with the superior attractions of the smooth-paved spacious streets. 20 CITY PLAN COMMISSION Yet in most cities street play has become so dangerous to life and limb that it is forbidden, and in no city can the streets be approved as permanent or satisfactory play- grounds. Yet the streets exist and play-yards and grounds and parks adapted to play and easily accessible do not. In many congested sections of cities street play must be made safe and helpful until other provisions are made. Certain streets of fit surface and location should be freed of traffic under police regulation at certain hours and organized play as well as free play, be thus provided for the children in congested districts. 8. Public Celebrations, Festivals, Pageants, etc. As organisms, with a rich and growing life, our cities seek self-expressions more and more in celebrations, festivals, pageants and holiday observances. The organi- zation and preparation for effective civic expression through such celebrations are natural features of the service of public recreation systems. The staff of trained workers, their close knowledge of the recreational re- sources of the people, their facilities for preparation and drill of the children and adults for such celebrations, requiring often the careful training of thousands over months of time for the performances, are invaluable in their services to the city as a whole. 9. Real Estate Additions and Play Space. In certain sections of the country real estate men are voluntarily setting aside areas of generous size and donating them for neighborhood parks and school sites. This is enlightened business policy and responds to good ideals in city-planning. Legislation in one western state RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 21 proposed to make obligatory the gift to the city of ten per cent, of the areas of new additions platted, after due provision had been made for streets and alleys, as a condition of the city's acceptance of a platted addition. It is significant that real estate men are voluntarily doing what this legislation sought to make legally binding. It is contended that such provision for playground and park space more than pays for itself through increase of value of neighboring property. The duty of securing, either by grant or purchase, suitable areas for future needs while land is open and relatively inexpensive cannot be too sharply pressed upon pubUc attention. V. Existing Facilities and Needs in Newark. Newark has a population of approximately 400,000 and will have 500,000 in 1920 and 600,000 in 1925. It occupies some 23 square miles of area. Its average density per occupied acre in 1910 was 58.2, while in the most congested wards, such as the 14th and 3rd, it is 126 and 123. In certain other wards 98, 86 and 82. Some sections of other wards are quite as highly congested. Newark's Congested Ward-Cities. The 14th and 3rd wards cover less than 300 acres, less than half a square mile, yet they hold populations of 35,828 (1910) and 36,912 (1910) respectively, with a density equivalent to 80,840 and 78,720 per square mile respective- ly. Each of these wards has a population larger than any of the following cities whose populations range from 35,000 to 30,000: Lexington, Ky.; Johet, 111.; Pittsjaeld, Mass.; Pasadena, Gal. These cities have ample space, are 22 CITY PLAN COMMISSION provided with parks and other recreational facilities and are surrounded with open country, while Newark's con- gested ward-cities are huddled within 300 acres and sur- rounded with other congested sections. Neither of these wards has a park, school yards are cramped and the need of general play facilities and open-space is imperative. The population, moreover, is largely foreign, over 70%,— the Italians, Jews and Germans predominating, but with many Irish and Slavs. These people by religious training and personal habits seek recreation Sunday after- noons and evenings in the open country, in parks and in active oUt-door sports and indoor festivities. The pre- vailing custom of closing the parks, playgrounds, recrea- tion places, commercial and other, on Sundays and large- ly during evenings and in winter, creates an enormous pressure amongst these people for some outlet for their energy and their play-hunger. The situation thus created serves to accentuate enormously the evils of idle- ness, the tendencies to frequent places of evil resort, to leave the home city for week-end carousals or expensive excursions and to an undue use of saloons. The streets are flooded with youths of both sexes aimlessly walking the streets or standing upon the curbs with nothing to do and nowhere to go. In theory it may be supposed the people should be either in church or at home. If all were to attend church only a fraction of the invaluable day of rest and recreation would be occupied. Thousands live under such home conditions as to make hours spent there intolerable, and other thousands live in boarding houses and have no home in any proper sense. These are the big facts which should shape the pohcy RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 23 of the city and the senthnents of the people in regard to the use of existing facilities to the full and enlarging such faciUties rapidly. 1. Newark's Schools. The aggregate value of Newark's public school prop- erties is ten millions of dollars (1913 Report). Value of sites: $1,753,375; buildings, $7,182,000; furniture and equipment, $430,100; total, $9,365,475. The annual cost of maintenance, $2,429,682. Enrollment, 66,217 (1913), or 16.6% of the city's population. The 14th city in the United States in population, it stands 11th in the number of pupils enrolled. Its total teaching staff numbers over 1,600. Newark has a notable reputation for the excellence of its school system and the distinction of primacy in such progressive educational expansion as summer schools, all-year schools; and its evening schools, lecture system, special schools, and the like, are worthy of highest commendation. Its provisions for physical training conform to the best modern standards and the policy of supervised sum- mer playgrounds seems to be well intrenched. The recent school reports show a keen sense of the need of enlarged grounds and new buildings, responding to the larger con- ception of the schools as community centers. The attendance at summer playgrounds is given as 9,926. The cost per attendant as $2.13 (classified as cost of "special activities"). The cost of High School education per pupil is given as $106.69; Elementary, $31.79; Evening High, $21.70- Evening Elementary, $13.40; Industrial Schools, $35.39; 24 CITY PLAN COMMISSION Special Schools for the defective, bhnd, deaf, tuberculous, etc., $110.90; Summer Schools, $3.28. Comparing the above costs per pupil one may aSk why the extension of the playground work, with its unques- tioned benefits, as compared with its relatively low cost, might not be much enlarged. The reports also indicate the need of more teachers trained for playground work and sustaining a more stable relation to the school system throughout the year. The Schools are following the methods of the "Public Schools Athletic League" with notably good results. One athletic field has been acquired and improved in part at a cost of some $65,000, of ten acres in area, with running track, football and baseball fields inside the oval, tennis courts on one side and two field houses for toilets and dressing rooms. Temporary "bleachers" ac- commodating 1,000 persons and a concrete fence eight feet high fit the grounds in part for athletic games and field meets with paid admissions. The attendance from June "opening" to Sept. 1st is given as only 21,259, including the public school field days with seven thousand pupils par- ticipating. This relatively small attendance challenges attention. One explanation is the location of the ground on the extreme outskirts of the city and far removed from the most congested residence sections. This field, when its equipment and structures are completed, and it has been adapted to year-round and evening use, will accommo- date an aggregate of several hundred thousand attendants in each year. It is clear that Newark's School Board and oJBficials RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 2r) are cordially interested to develop the schools as social and recreation centers, and to enlarge the supervised play activities throughout the year; but manifestly there is much need of larger funds. A system of physical education and physical training, as a part of the formal day-school program, is not equiva- lent to, nor to be confused with, the broader playground and recreational work for those not .enrolled in schools, youths and adults and all, during evenings, and vacations and holidays. This broader and more complex field of recreation constitutes a special department or method ol' activities and demands recognition in the administrative plans of the city and the School Board. 2. The Board of Playground Commissioners. The Board of Playground Commissioners, five mem- bers appointed by the Mayor, administers seven play- grounds, partly on rented or loaned property, and the Public Baths, one new and three old. The annual report of 1913 is comprehensive and clear in its analysis of needs and its constructive sugges- tions. It indicates a total budget for playground work of $34,644, and $16,793 for the maintenance of the baths. The reported attendance, based upon estimates made in the customary manner, indicates an aggregate use of these small and meagerly equipped grounds for nine months (Total attendance of 575,739) ranging from 163,550 (Prince St.); 106,220 (Oliver St.); 116,731 (Lafayette St.), to 53,882 (Newton St.). This attendance is a clear index of the appreciation of whatever facilities are offered, and but slightly shows what the response would be to grounds 26 CITY PLAN COMMISSION and buildings adequate and attractive, such as the Com- missioners in their report make an earnest plea to have provided as soon as possible. During the present year the Commission has been able to spend some $4,000 in repairs on the modified dwelling houses on certain of its grounds, which are used lor recreation centers. These repairs will make the build- ings sanitary and temporarily usable ; but these structures should be speedily replaced by adequate buildings, afford- ing auditorium, gymnasium, baths and club-rooms of standard recreation centers. The athletic meets, club organizations, cooperation by neighborhood committees, formal gymnastics and setting- up drills coupled with free play and organized games, the hikes and picnics in summer, and moving picture parties in winter, band concerts, moving pictures, enter- tainments, occasional social dances, library extension work, story-hours, demonstrations and exhibitions, winter- sports, and the like, show a resourceful efficiency in organ- ization and leadership, in view of limited funds and the difficulty of securing persons well-trained and of attrac- tive personality for the play-leadership under existing civil service restrictions. The plea for new public baths, with swimming pool and club-house and gymnasium in connection, in con- gested sections of the city, hardly needs reinforcement. 3. The Essex County Park Commission. The Essex County Park System comprises 13 parks with a total area of 3,206 acres. The aggregate invest- ment exceeds six millions. The largest parks are South RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 27 Mountain Reservation, 1,983 acres; Weequahic, 315 acres; Branch Brook, 280 acres; West Side, 23 acres; East Side, 12 acres; Riverbank, nearly 6 acres. In Newark the Essex County Park Board maintains two playgrounds in Branch Brook Park, one each in West Side, East Side and Riverbank Parks. There are wading pools at Branch Brook, West Side and Riverbank. There are playfields for football and baseball at Branch Brook, northern and middle divisions, and Wee- quahic; tennis courts at Branch Brook, East Side, West Side and Weequahic Parks; cricket fields at Branch Brook, croquet and roque at East Side and West Side respectively, and golf at Weequahic. In the larger parks boating, fishing and skating are possible. Field hockey can be played at Branch Brook. There are athletic grounds at Branch Brook and West Side Parks with shower baths and dressing rooms in the field houses. Separate divisions for boys under 16 and adults in the playfields are provided. Fields- are open to boys until 6 P. M. and to men from 7 until 10 P. M. The attendance at these various park play centers aggregate nearly a million annually. One of the most glaring recreational needs in Newark is facilities for swimming in sanitary and safe water. The canal and river are unsafe and probably unsanitary under existing conditions, although the future may make these waters available. Out-door and in-door swimming pools, connected with adequate field houses and gymnasiums, in the Newark Parks, with pavilions suitable for municipal dances under good supervision, would immensely multiply the social 28 CITY PLAN COMMISSION service and recreational value of these parks. Provisions should be made also for their year-round use under con- stant supervision. Access to the recreation facilities evenings and on Sundays for play and wholesome games would also add immensely to the health and good order of the citizens as a whole. The Essex County Park Commission has developed wonderfully, with limited funds, an extensive park and playground system, and would be responsive to feasible constructive measures to widen the usefulness of the system and extend the supervision and range of play activities as funds and public sentiment may make possible. VI. Recommendations — Summary of Constructive Suggestions. We recommend that the legislation be sought creating a Board of Public Recreation, with scope and powers similar to Recreation Departments of Commissions now in operation 'or being sought for in other cities of its class in the United States, with ample power and funds for the development of a comprehensive system of recreation, thus avoiding waste, duplication and friction. The Cleveland charter, in force January 1st, 1913, provides (Section 97) among the general powers and duties of the Department of Pubhc Welfare, that "the director of public welfare shall manage and control * * * the use of all recreational facihties of the city, including parks and playgrounds, pubhc gymnasiums, public bath houses, bathing beaches and social centers. He shall have charge of the inspection and supervision of all public amusements and entertainments." RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 29 The amendment to the Detroit Charter adopted last November by 10,000 majority provides for a "Recreation Commission" on which the Superintendent of Schools, Park Commissioner, Librarian of the Public Library, the PoUce Commissioner and the Commissioner of Public Works are represented ex officio, together with five citizens appointed by the Mayor to represent the city at large. This Commission is given power "to manage, direct and care for whatever provisions are made by the city for playgrounds, playfields, indoor recreation centers, debating clubs, gymnasiums, public baths, and to make the necessary inspections as provided by the ordinances of the city for maintaining wholesome and moral quality of all forms of commercial recreation for which licenses are required by the city." The essential principles of this charter amendment providing for the Recreation Commission in Detroit under- he most of the recent legislation secured or sought by cities in order to unify and harmonize and duly develop the recreational systems. The legal rights of the respective departments to con- trol their properties and protect their primary uses from impairment are amply safeguarded, but at the same time legal provisions are made for funds and rights of opera- tion, in plans approved by the respective boards, upon the properties of the parks, schools, and other depart- ments. In typical instances the power to receive funds in trust, and administer private properties for public recreation is also given in the legislation. We can see no reason why legislation, conforming to these general principles, should not be secured which 30 CITY PLAN COMMISSION shall thus unite the Essex County Park Commission and School Board, with representative citizens, in a Public Recreation Commission, whose powers shall be similarly defined. It is our conviction that this is the next most important step for the advancement of recreational interests in the public policy of Newark. The piecemeal, uncoordinated development of these interests, under three or four legally independent boards, or any informal and advisory cooperation between them, can hardly secure that commanding place and authorita- tive recognition which a Recreation Commission, spe- cifically carrying the weight and sanction of these boards and backed by citizens at large represented upon the Commission, would seem bound to carry. If legislation is needed to legalize the use of park properties for amateur sports and active games on Sun- days, in the interests of the large public good, that problem deserves fair-minded treatment, in view of the enormous moral perils and vital waste involved in the present pro- hibition of the use of the public recreation properties on Sundays. RECREATION SYSTEM FOR NEWARK 31 TABLE 1. PUBLIC BATHS, 1914 Average Daily Attendance Name Location Showers Men Wonlen Receipts Morris Ave Morris Ave., between So. Orange and 14th Aves... 25 180 47 $783.17* Montgomery St. .Montgomery St., cor. Charl- ton St 95 1060 347 2,451.13 Summer Ave. . . .Summer Ave., cor. D'Auria St 29 164 33 702.68 Walnut St Walnut St., between Van Buren and Tyler Sts.... 25 168 26 897.76 * Eight months only. 3UJ0JJ 33BJ3AY sn03aE[i33S!i\[ SPPH siooj spi'M IPS smEa spunoj3XBi(j [ooiios spunoJSXEid; 'Eajy- 3J0V •"<£ saJDy 'E3JV 0I6I pjEjVV ^ u M o'S « _i.2 a S " ■» 3 C 4J [i. rt (H 1? hJ) lU . r C .- O J= cj o rt QJ i— Oh O, C c c- "O -4-1 ^ * 3^ E O J3 •— I 0) C CJ O " r- Ih en" Oh rt M ^ <» OJ ^ O o) lu ^_. O s H *J QJ .a bb ■o >j^- rcs ni rt C " U lU — fc. O J — . u o U t4 I a o a O M tj (» Oj " tn « ti J3 c 2 "out. ■«-S . o •z^ C(J en 5 Q rt u ~ O i+H T3 wv^ — < — O it a - o G •;3tj — . pH CO K S-S ^ a i-s raple crea- anch play ment <« § . o with a and rei St of Br f strong or settle M ^ a» o 0) P^ > bi) QJ 1" -a V -a od ho for p ection in nee housi a S2 itly tunit One Par or a ction a u o ^ XI Moi oppor tion. Brook direct instrui O ola a Ph O S i>% fc. a tl p s 1- CO CM Ol C^ + \D "M r^i w-» i-H C^ CSJ CO O O en CO -a .- bo + + o o v en 3 O G ^ O -w . r^ CO CO *^ CO CO CO M^ • d d o o o « Brq M .5 3 *< o Js ts. — o ffi «t3 $ -II a«^ en l>c to en M -^ a •a o o cm -a a a u J u u Rt a, ^ « Hi c-a V o. tm o a S M •a g ■» £l £*■ 3 m *^ e J3T3 J3.S § S B WI « bo tu >-.'& ^ S S 5-« 2 M^ 2 c ■-* t^ CT3 J< O M n gj u J3 tc c i.s £J c c 2 3 u § 2 " £ bJQB ii •h m ° 3 .2i 3-d B 4j C .2S P PL) C ij on T3 ♦J U A V a 8 " Si ^ aj w K O *-* o oj Q Z O o ►J Ph o 03 Oh eo H s >> ~ >^ ■— c c S >- S i^ « .5 "I JS B S C C (up qj 3 ■a [3 w S " 5 ^" ° _2" o K n '5ij'S '3)'E "Ei t3 ^ ■r) -tj a M B M a T3 ■a « K ^°i < i J3 < T3 C a « P! CO B M p: O Z < a 'u u Z 3 — I 0) u s ? MH > iH Ph Z 1-1 o P5 ^^ aj 6^ ■a i-sS-^ ^^g,™ . m MH 111 B t3 " o B (U •2 " c En T3 u m O to all ages, round instru tinued after playground er supervisi indants. B a MB t;^ S ^ r >-, o B c ti Q, rt O .Q 3 « M oS u^ CM Tf- O o t^ ^ VD •+ vn vo ^O t^ TH O T-* C^ Cvl 1-1 »-( ^ t^ o CJ vo ri- oo rj *-( csi vo od en be B 5 "2 -o 13 "2 ca iH iH rt ^ g JS J3 -S -1-1 C 4-t 4-J C<-| OO i-( w-1 0^ i-T n w 4-t U > D dj i-H , e^J a^ M W Pi ■^ - ^ E^ ■a B 3 o M S i>-.2 B V} s^S a •S o o Q O O Sirs ^ I e 2; tn »^ *- < wx) ^ 0) c 2 ^ rt >, to IH OfeM 000000*-(OOOOOOC>0000000 > 2 ^ ■2 " Q " J; pq " ■a ■« MM J .5? = o Pi] U rt M T3 n ti o (1 ffi T3 tt- .ffi U J^ > «) > V u > ^ > S -rt rt < N g C J3 Pj ■" << u ^ = o o G & a a " <» c 8 -13 G o 3 2 ^ ■^' 1^^ s< . C/3 •^ G r ^ en o S *^" 2 CO tJ3 :. ON *^ ir, ■^ 3 oo CO -iS ^ *^ IJ 2^^^ CO < w -a ^, 4ii s ^ CO ■£ « " 3 O C g g O S s s ? ^ J3 < O . 3 CO CZ) CO .5 ■" H^^^ •a o ■a o PQ c < « M H c X B g T1 a. C < < ,«\ 'k.. rA ^ >/ F •l--^. \r -^1 HI ^^ ^1 T^^/ / ^ '^m ^./ .A ?i£: J'y - x 1 ■'■■- ■ f A- V*;*.',^ y^ f5 M***