USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1930 > Part 15
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On January 30 of this year occurred the death of Charles S. Clark, an original member of the Commission at its incep- tion in 1917, and continuously thereafter. With the exception of two years he served as Chairman during the entire period, holding that office at the time of his death. His love of child- ren, his long experience in matters relating to child training, and his always dominant personality, made him throughout his connection with the Commission an influential figure in all its activities. His contributions of time, thought and action were of the utmost value.
The actual work of the year is set forth in sufficient de- tail in the annual report of the Director, to the Commission, which is submitted as a constituent part of this report.
Respectfully submitted,
GEORGE H. EVANS. Chairman
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ANNUAL REPORTS
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 1930
December 30, 1930.
To The Recreation Commission :-
At the beginning of this annual report to your Commis- sion by the Director I respectfully emphasize the point of view from which this report is prepared. This point of view is born of the unique phase of the Commission's business that belongs to the year 1930,-a year of transition. The transition is from a hitherto limited and experimental enterprise under your Commission, to a more expansive undertaking that places Pub- lic Recreation among the regular and important divisions of the Municipal Government's work. The Government has def- initely committed itself to the forward step long recommend- ed by your Commission in its Annual Reports and otherwise : -it has moved to extend to the entire community the possible benefits of a Recreation system, by removing the limitations that have restricted to children principally, and to certain sections of the City for limited seasons of the year, the well organized program of activities.
Naturally following upon this change have come
The extension of the program of Recreation activ- ities under the Commission :
The extension of the executive, a'lministrative and supervisory duties of the Director ; with employ- ment of the Director for full-time, all-year ser- vice instead of part-time service as previously :
Increase in organization and personnel of the staff of Recreation Leaders :
The expenditure of a considerably increased fund as compared with any previous year's expenditure.
The Director's duties under the changed situation may be summed up thus :- to take executive lead in applying to the foundation for a future community-wide system the results of the past well-organized and fruitful work, and to continue the effectiveness of the previous carefully-built organization. The central idea expressed in the foregoing statement has been
245
RECREATION COMMISSION
the guiding idea for the Director's activity during the year ; and gives rise to the point of view from which this report is prepared.
A quotation, here made, from your Commission's previous Annual Reports, the Director regards as embodying the at- titude and policy of the Commission towards the development of its business ; and expressive of the requirements of the Di- rector's position under present circumstances. The general thought in this quotation has been repeated in the Commis- sion's Annual Reports from 1925 to 1929 :-
The Commission's earliest duty has been that of exploring-investigating the nature of its task :- studying the general relation of Recreation to a Community's well-being, discovering the peculiar needs of Somerville, devising means for coping with local needs and problems, and organizing its polic- ies, corps of workers and mode of procedure. Its financial expenditures have been small. During this ... period, your Commission and the workers under its direction have eagerly and ceaselessly stud- ied the problem in hand. From time to time your Commission and these workers have defined their conclusions and offered recommendations for use by the City government.
"During this time a well-organized system of out- door recreation for children, limited, unfortunately, to certain sections of Somerville, restricted to a com- paratively few days of each year, and seriously im- peded by lack of facilities not within the Commis- sion's power to provide, has been evolved :- a system whose results, it may be affirmed without hesitation, are far beyond the proportion of the money expend- ed. And beginnings have been established in a rec- reation program for adults.
"That the exploratory time has passed, and that no further considerable progress can be made in meet- ing the very great recreational needs of this Com- munity without a far-reaching movement on the part of the City Government calculated to extend this sys- tem to the entire Community, to remove the impedi- ments in the lack of facilities mentioned, and to make unnecessary the limiting of the benefits from your Commission's work to a small fraction of the year, is the central idea of this statement "
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ANNUAL REPORTS
In connection with the foregoing expression of its views your Commission has also pointed out that the first neces- sary steps by the City Government, summed up, were (as ex- pressed in the Commission's Reports for the years 1925 and 1929.)
" (a) Provision for increased emphasis on those bran- ches of the work under the City Engineer's, Build- ing, Water and other Departments that have to do with Recreation facilities.
"(b) Recognition of the essential fact that the grounds for play, buildings for storage, basins for wading pools. baseball diamonds, etc., are, of nature, "Rec- reation tools", the utilization of which should be largely directed by the Recreation Commission.
"(c) Substanial increase in appropriation of funds to all of these Departments, with specification that the Recreation Commission's intentions and plans be regarded and consulted in the disposition of these funds ;
"(d) Substantial increase in appropriation of funds to the Recreation Commission."
An additional consideration, submitted as background for complete understanding of this Report, is again quoted from the Commission's Report to the City Government for the year 1929.
"No report by this Commission can be clear unless there is clearly kept in mind the underlying fact that, despite its name, the Recreation Commission has not, and cannot under present conditions as- sume, jurisdiction over the the City's Recreation facilities. Instead the jurisdiction is distributed, under the City Charter, among several Departments, of which the City's Engineer's Department and the Building Department bear the major responsibility. The Recreation Commission has no jurisdiction over facilities which might be styled the chief tools of recreation. Examples are the play areas, maintained and controlled by two other departments; storage places ; basins for wading pools and the municipal bathing beach. Other examples are skating facilities. and regulation in allotment of baseball fields to users. While the officials of these other Departments have practiced co-operation within the bounds of
247.
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possibility, the resources at their disposal are ex- tremely limited and the business of providing and conditioning these "Recreation tools" is decidedly incidental to their general jurisdiction.
"To offer recommendations for co-ordinating the work of these departments for Recreation, is we be- lieve, the function of the Recreation Commission. Accordingly, this Commission has repeatedly brought. to the attention of the City Government the Com- mission's analysis of what ought to be accomplished through these various Departments for the improve- ment of the Recreation situation in Somerville."
The progress during 1930 and the laying of foundation for the future have been made possible not only by
(a) Substantial increase in appropriation of funds for. use by the Recreation Commission,
but also by the City Covernment's
(b) Provision, through increased appropriation of funds to the other Departments concerned, for those- branches of the work under the City Engineer, Public Buildings Department, and other Depart- ments, that have to do with Recreation facilities ; and
(c) More nearly adequate recognition of the essential fact that the grounds for play, buildings for stor- age, basins for wading pools, baseball diamonds, etc., are, of nature, "Recreation tools", the uliliza- of which should be largely directed by the Recrea- tion Commission.
(At this point is seems proper to express the Director's cordial appreciation of the thorough efforts and cooperation in this regard continually manifested by the City Engineer, the Commissioner of Public Buildings, the Chief of Police, the Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, the Water Com- missioner, the Street Commissioner, and the Commissioner of Electric Lines and Lights. The thorough support and co- operation received from His Honor the Mayor has also aided in effecting the cooperation just mentined.)
Features of Progress
The present report discusses the features of progress, dur- ing the year, under three main classifications :-
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ANNUAL REPORTS
I. Expansion, Extension and Intensifying of Programs Previously Established ;
II. New Features And Programs ; and
III. Improved Administrative Organization.
Increased Developments in Branches Already Established
In the program of supervised Summer play for children ; in the Saturday morning supervision of "neighborhood" play- grounds ; and in the After-school Supervised Athletics for older boys and girls, the increased funds available and the full-time services of the Director have made possible notable expansion, extension, and intensifying of programs.
INCREASED ATTENDANCE. Consider- SUMMER PLAYGROUNDS ably larger number of Children, for a sea- son 14% longer than in 1929, have been attracted to supervised play activities during July and August, and careful study has shown that the average child in attendance has been remaining nearly twice as long during his average stay at a playground.
NEW UNTS. Five additional units were added, for the 1920 season, to the Summer organization. The new units were located at the grounds of the Highland, Cummings, Edgerly, and the new Charles A. Grimmons school, and also on the grounds of the "Old Campus" of Tufts College, located at the corner of Curtis Street and Professors' Row. Attendance at these units, about evenly distributed among boys and girls, with the largest proportion of attendance among children of the lower ages, was about average for the typical playground of the same size; but most notable is the fact that the at- tendance at all these new units far exceeded attendance ex- perienced during the first season at any unit previously es- tablished.
The location of these units is such that their establish- ment brings the Commission a long distance towards realiza- tion of its aim to provide as soon as possible some supervised play activities during some season for every section of Som- erville. As a result of establishment of these units, about half of the children not reached by the Summer Playgrounds in the 1929 season have been reached in 1930. It sill remains trus that for older children these newly established units are not well adapted.
SECTION OF DOLL SHOW AT RICHARD TRUM FIELD
MMOINO
AT THE PET SHOW
SOME PRIZE-WINNING PETS
60-YARD DASH AT LINCOLN PARK ATHLETIC MEET
GOING TO THE MORSE PET SHOW
"BOAT DAY" AT FOSS PARK
POSING AFTER A PET SHOW
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RECREATION COMMISSION
Nineteen units, in all, were included in the Summer Play- grounds system for 1930, but twenty areas were supervised. The two areas at the Hodgkins School grounds and Western Junior High School grounds have, for several years, been jointly operated as one unit. Of the fifteen units previously operated, one had to be discontinued because of the building program of the Southern Junior High School grounds.
The ease with which the new units were assimilated in- to the system and the ready response of the children to or- ganized leadership are both indicative of the results already established in the task of securing citizens' response to leader- ship provided under the Commission. These results unques- tionably demonstrate also the high calibre of experienced lea lership practiced by the trained workers who were assigned to leadership at the newly established units.
NEW SPECIAL ACTIVITIES. Not only new units, but also several entirely new lines of play and recreation activit- ies were introduced to the Summer program. Some of these activities enlisted such interest and enthusiastic activity by the children that they became major features of the season's program. The nature of the new activities was such also that they won for the playgrounds a notable increase of interest among parents and adult citizens. This increased adult in- terest has itself been a great factor in what the Director judges to be the greatest success for a season since the Summer Play- grounds movement was inaugurated in Somerville in 1908.
Included among the activities mentioned in the foregoing paragraph are to be noted :
Eighteen Pet Shows conducted on eighteen play- grounds.
Eighteen Doll Shows on eighteen playgrounds.
Boat day at the pond in Foss Park.
Wagon day at Central Hill Park.
Balloon day, during the opening week, involving a balloon race.
Soap-bubble Contests.
Kite days at Lincoln and Foss Parks, Dilboy Field and Glen Street playgrounds.
Bicycle Day at Western, Foss and Tufts Campus playgrounds.
Playground and street "showers."
Stilt contests.
Organized league in Playground Ball.
Play Vaudeville "Shows."
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ANNUAL REPORTS
These new and special activities are further explained below.
INCREASED PERSONNEL. Four distinct needs in lead- ership have been met by addition to the corps of summer play leaders, as follows :
(a) For leadership at the newly established units four ad litional workers were added. A fifth was provid- ed for by the transfer of a worker from the South- ern Junior High School grounds where the play- ground unit had to be discontinued in 1930 because of the building program there.
(b) To supply "man power" on two smaller units where women only have been employed as leaders, two ar- rangments for joint supervision of smaller units in pairs were made; so that one man divided his time in collaboration with the young women lead- ers at the Highland and Nathan Tufts Park Play- grounds ; and one other man performed similar ser- vice jointly at the Edgerly and Northeastern play- grounds. This arrangement had previously been shown effective in similar combination at the Morse and Southern playgrounds. For the summer of 1930, with the suspension of the Southern Play- ground, the newly established unit at the Cummings School grounds shared the services of the man who collaborated with the woman leader at the Morse playground.
(c) The growth of hanwork activities made necessary the assigment of a special leader of handwork as assistant to the special supervisor who has been in service for several seasons.
(d) For promotion and organization of the more impor- tant of the special activities listed above, one addi- tional leader was employed.
These additions bring the number of play leaders and su- pervisors for the summer organization up to 48, not including the Director.
Aside from actual leadership and supervision of play, one male assistant was added in the work of maintenance, equip- ment and supplies.
LONGER SEASON. Eight weeks were included in the summer playground season as against seven in 1929.
WOODS PLAYGROUND
CHAMPIONS
KICK BASEBALL
THE BANNER HAS JUST BEEN AWARDED
MORE PET SHOW PRIZE WINNERS
UNDER THE NEW SHOWER SPRAY
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RECREATION COMMISSION
OTHER SUMMER FEATURES. To the customary clos- ing events of the summer season-the annual "Twilight Play Festival" and the annual Interplayground Athletic Meet- there was added this year a third event that attracted almost equal public interest and assumed among children equal im- portance ;- the final Interplayground Tournament in Paddle Tennis doubles.
The "Twilight Play Festival" conducted on Wednesday, August 20th, at the Richard Trum Field, saw 4,000 boys and girls actively participating in twenty-four numbers on the program with an attendance of about 12,000 additional citizen spectators. It is the Director's judgment, and seems to be the judgment of scores of officials and unofficial spectators, that this demonstration was more successful as an interpretation of the summer season than any demonstration previously given. Electric amplification of the music accompanying folk dances at the Festival added to the attractiveness of the program.
The annual Interplayground Athletic Meet was held at the twilight hour instead of during afternoon hours; and it was held at Lincoln Park instead of at Dilboy Field as form- erly. Approximately 5,000 spectators, about half of them adults, witnessed the spectacle. Sixty-three numbers on the program were conducted in two hours and five minutes ;- the program commencing at 6:00 o'clock and ending at 8:05 o'clock just in time to avoid the falling darkness. For this event also amplifiers were provided by means of which an- nouncements of the progress and results of the Meet were from time to time presented to those in attendance.
The Interplayground Paddle Tennis Tournament was con- ducted also at twilight at Lincoln Park. Twenty-five courts were in operation at one time and the spectacle afforded great interest to participants and to both children and adult spec- tators. In the Director's judgment the emphasis of this event should serve materially to increase activity and interest in Paddle Tennis for future seasons.
In further comment on some of the special activities list- ed above, the following excerpt is quoted from a news report of playground activities in the Somerville Journal of August 8, 1930 :-
"Somerville citizens who do not have time to see playground life as it is encouraged under the Rec- eration Commission would be proud of what their city government is accomplishing this summer, if they could steal a day to follow the doings of the
ANNUAL REPORTS
thousands of boys and girls who frequent these cen- ters
Doll shows, one on each playground, pet shows. "boat day", "wagon day", kite days, soap bubble contests, archery, clay modeling, specially designed shower sprays, checker tournaments, jackstone tournaments, are a few of the activities added this season on the twenty playgrounds. In addition there have continued with the usual interest the baseball leagues, paddle tennis, track and field athletics, folk dancing, handwork, sand play, swings, teeters, and the usual round of ring games, singing games, running games, acrobatics, trumbling, etc.
"Parents and adult citizens in large numbers have enjoyed many of these features on the occasions of their visits to the pet shows, doll shows and special "days". They have seen almost every kind of anim- al entered by the children in their efforts to win prizes in the pet shows, from a bay leopard at the Morse School playground, to twin grasshoppers at the Highland School playground. Between these two extremes have come ponies and white mice-or, if you will, rabbits, love birds, and turtles.
"In the doll shows-there have been eighteen shows on eighteen playgrounds-where prizes are offered for handsome doll, tiny dolls, unique dolls, best dressed dolls, etc., some large-sized dolls have been photograped and been mistaken for living children; and, on the other hand, some very young tots who have taken part in the costume days, particularly at Tufts Park, have been mistaken for dolls in the photographs."
"Stunts" by individual children and small groups. com- monly witnessed on the various playgrounds, were worked in- to a playground vaudeville, of which two performances were given, with the cooperation of the management of the respec- tive theatres, at the Somerville Theatre and the Central Thea- tre. At the former auditorium the children from those play- grounds in the western half of the city attended; and those from the other playgrounds attended the performance at the Central Theatre. With attendance restricted to children of 12 years and under, about 2,500 attended the two perform- ances.
PLAYING IN COMFORT UNDER THE SHOWER SPRAY
DRYING OFF
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RECREATION COMMISSION
Costume parties and similar festive events were included among activities at the Nathan Tufts Park Playground, where the play leader, Miss Eileen M. Bailey, gave special emphasis to promotion of such features.
ADULT PUBLIC INTEREST. As has been suggested, a feature of the Summer season was the marked increase of in- terest by the adult public-particularly parents-in the do- ings of the children and the leadership supplied through the Commission. In far larger numbers than ever before, parents attended playgrounds with their children and many adults traveled with children to interplayground events. Most nota- ble instances of this fact are to be found in the adult attend- ance of "Boat Day" at Foss Park, "Wagon Day" at Central Hill Park, the various Doll Shows, Pet Shows, local athletic meets, and the three events of the closing weeks, previously mention- ed.
Leadership of play on Saturday SATURDAY "NEIGHBORHOOD" PLAYGROUNDS mornings for the younger children on the smaller area has been increas- ed during 1930 by increase in the number of units from twelve to fourteen. This increase involves addition of three units, since the unit at the Southern Junior High School grounds had to be temporarily discontinued because of the building program there.
In the after-school program of su- AFTER-SCHOOL ATHLETICS pervised athletics for older boys and girls there had for several years been a gradual growth. Beginning several years ago with two units, for boys only, operated two days each week and for ten weeks in the Spring and ten weeks in the Fall, the program had been intensified by the close of the year 1929 to the point where four boys' and girls' units were under supervision-those for boys three afternoons each week and those for girls two afternoons.
In the Spring season of 1930, boys' units were operated four afternoons each week instead of three, and those for girls three afternoons instead of two. Later, in the Autumn sea- son, the program for boys was intensified by adding an as- sistant for each Supervisor. At the close of the Fall season of 1930, twelve leaders were thus employed as against six at the close of the preceding year. The purpose, and the ap- parent results, of the increased personnel and the greater con- tinuity of activity were: larger attendance, wider variety of
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ANNUAL REPORTS
organized activities, more interplayground competition, and more regular attendance by the average individual boy.
Attendance among girls has been slightly increased dur- ing 1930.
New Features and Programs
Quite as important as the development recounted in the foregoing paragraphs, with regard to expenditure of energy and funds, and to the task of building foundations for the future development of community Recreation, has been the in- troduction of new branches of the work under the Commission. These branches affect the recreation of the adult population of Somerville more than that of children. They include
Out-Of-Door Twilight Recreation for Men, under leadership during May, June, July and August.
Indoor Evening Recreation Centers for Men and Women, during the period November-to-April.
Indoor Gymnasium Recreation for Men and Women during The November-to-April period.
Out-of-Doors and Indoor Adult Athletic Activities, covering nearly the entire year :- Bowling, base- ball and basket-ball.
Community Drama Movement.
Two of these branches, the Evening Recreation Centers and the Adult Athletic Leagues-are here classified as new, though in one limited sense, they are in part not strictly new. Ex- planation follows below.
In Basket Ball, Baseball and Bowling ATHLETIC ADULT LEAGUES Leagues several hundred men have direct- ly competed in regularly scheduled activ- ities ; a still larger number of men have been active in connection with the var- ious teams ; while a far greater number of men and a large number of women have indirectly or passively enjoyed the sports.
Two adult baseball leagues aggregating fourteen teams and with more than two hundred players registered, were promoted by the Municipal Recreation service; scheduled games were played during the seventeen-week period, May through August, with each team playing one or two league games each week; and, in most cases, occasional games with
First national Stores Baseball 1930
--
ANA.S
S
NA.
LINCOLN PARK WINNERS RESTING AFTER MEN'S HORSESHOE PITCHING TOURNAMENT
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RECREATION COMMISSION
non-league teams. The leagues were known as the Somerville Municipal League and the Somerville Amateur Twilight League. Emphasis at all times centered in the recreational phase of the activity as distinguished from athletic prowess, in accordance with the slogan advanced-"Athletics for Rec- recation, Not for Reputation". Information available affords certainty that very few of the teams mentioned would have been organized at all, without the stimulus afforded through the Recreation service; and it is certain also that the regular- ity of play and the neighborly, community-wide interest would have been lacking, even had the teams become organized, with- out such stimulus.
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