Model Playground
Occupying a location in the center of the Model City, the Model Playground acted as a daycare for children.
Before the Fair
Description
One of the most important areas of the Model City was the four-building Model Playground and Nursery that was designed by Ruth Ashley Hirschfield of New York City, a crusader for the establishment of playgrounds and childcare programs, who hoped the Fair’s Model Playground would become an example for all communities to follow. If parents wanted to see the Fair on their own, they would drop off a child (or children), into the experienced hands and watchful eyes of nurses. There, they were tagged and let to roam around and play. They were given two meals a day, bathed and provided beds if needed.
The Model Playground was filled with pavilions, canopies, cottages, croquet and basketball courts and restrooms with tubs and showers.
Older children we allowed to use gymnastic equipment which included: parallel bars, ladders, springboards, swings, see-saws, tumbling mats and trapezes, or partake in supervised games.
Any lost child found by the Jefferson Guard, were taken to the Model Playground.
The Model City playground was awarded a grand prize by the Exposition’s Social and Economic Jury.
