ANGELA MARIE PARKER Neighborhood Recreation Parks – Are They Historically Significant? A Case Study: Shelby Park, Louisville, Kentucky Under the Direction of MARIANNE CRAMER Shelby Park in Louisville, Kentucky is used as a case study to explore the issues in designating neighborhood recreation parks as historic landmarks. By using rehabilitation as defined in the NPS’s Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes, as a management strategy to guide design, neighborhood recreation parks can continue to adapt to changing recreational needs, community concerns and safety standards. The specific master plan and recommendations for the rehabilitation of Shelby Park were developed using historic research and community input. While designation protects the essential design characteristics of the park, community input informs the choice of recreational games and equipment. Finally, historic research of the Playground and Recreation Movements uncovered an important part of the legacy of the profession of landscape architecture thus far ignored. INDEX WORDS: Playground Movement, Recreation Movement, Neighborhood recreation parks, Preservation, Rehabilitation, National Park Service Methodology, Sand gardens, Settlement house, Playground Association of America, Shelby Park Louisville Kentucky, Community participation, User surveys NEIGHBORHOOD RECREATION PARKS - ARE THEY HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT? A CASE STUDY: SHELBY PARK, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY by ANGELA MARIE PARKER B.A., Spalding University, 1997 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ATHENS, GEORGIA 2001 © 2001 Angela Marie Parker All Rights Reserved NEIGHBORHOOD RECREATION PARKS – ARE THEY HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT? A CASE STUDY: SHELBY PARK, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY by ANGELA MARIE PARKER Approved: Major Professor: Marianne Cramer Committee: Ian J. W. Firth Todd Krohn Kent Kilpatrick Electronic Version Approved: Gordhan L. Patel Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2001 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Susan Rademacher, Karen High and all the LOPC staff for entrusting me with such an important project. Martha Berner, Carolyn Denning, and the Louisville and Jefferson County Parks Department staff were all very open to questions and assistance throughout the master planning process. The Shelby Park community played an important role in this process and I appreciate their friendliness and their acceptance of me. The research for Shelby Park was found with assistance from the Main Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library (thank you for all the free copies), the University of Louisville Library, Fairsted, and the Library of Congress. Everyone was always friendly, which made my research easier and more enjoyable. I would like to thank my major professor, Marianne Cramer, for her long hours of reading, contemplating, and editing my thesis. My reading committee also gave valuable insights. There are two groups whom I would like to thank most—my family and my friends—those who listened to my thoughts, ideas, and frustrations. I am very grateful. To my parents, Don and Karen Parker, words cannot explain how important you have been in the last eight months regarding this thesis. At times you have had more confidence in me that I have had. Thank you for always being proud of me and especially for telling me so often. You are very special people and wonderful parents. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................. iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................1 2 THE PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT ...............................................................6 Sand Gardens: The First Playgrounds.........................................................12 The Settlement House ................................................................................13 Recreation for Adolescents and Adults.......................................................22 The Social Center.......................................................................................25 Typical Features and Layout of the Playground/Recreation Park ................26 A National Organization Supporting Playground/Recreation Parks ............32 Transitional Period in Recreation Parks......................................................34 Conclusion.................................................................................................35 3 SHELBY PARK, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY..............................................37 Louisville Parks: A Story of Growth 1890-1938.........................................37 Olmsted in Louisville.................................................................................39 Shelby Park History ...................................................................................41 The Original Shelby Park Design ...............................................................53 A Comparative Study of the Physical Changes in Shelby Park ...................64 The Present Landscape...............................................................................70 Current Programming in Shelby Park.........................................................86 v vi Maintenance in Shelby Park.......................................................................87 Community Participation ...........................................................................88 Conclusion.................................................................................................99 4 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE APPROACH ........................................... 100 Methodology............................................................................................ 100 The Significance of Shelby Park .............................................................. 102 Period of Significance.............................................................................. 107 Integrity of Shelby Park ........................................................................... 108 Contributing and Noncontributing Features of the Landscape................... 112 5 RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................. 114 Management Strategies ............................................................................ 114 Shelby Park Detailed Recommendations .................................................. 118 Management and Operations.................................................................... 128 Conclusion............................................................................................... 130 REFERENCES............................................................................................................ 132 APPENDICES A PRESERVATION BRIEF #36..................................................................... 136 B PRESERVATION DEFINITIONS............................................................... 148 C COMMUNITY MEETING SUGGESTIONS............................................... 150 D NEIGHBORHOOD SURVEY..................................................................... 152 E NEIGHBORHOOD SURVEY RESULTS.................................................... 153 F PARK-USER SURVEY ............................................................................... 170 G PARK-USER SURVEY RESULTS............................................................. 178 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The neighborhood recreation park has been part of the American urban landscape for over a century. It evolved from the late nineteenth century playground movement, which was the social reformers’ answer to the urban problems of overcrowding and the increase of disease, crime, and social dysfunction that followed. Many reformers were also concerned with the immigrants who were seen as uneducated and “unamericanized” and sought for ways to mitigate these conditions. The Playground Movement began in Boston, Massachusetts in 1885, as a simple pile of sand contained within wooden squares big enough to hold five to six children. These “sand gardens” were hardly a complete solution to the problems of child welfare. Still, their establishment was an initial attempt on the part of the social reformers to deal with the inadequacies of the urban park system. I became interested in the playground/recreation movement while producing a Master Plan for Shelby Park for the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy (LOPC) in the summer of 2000. The process included gathering historic documentation, organizing community meetings, liaison work between the neighborhood group, a special interest group, and the Louisville Parks Department, and finally designing a preliminary Master Plan. While researching the events in American history that led to the type of design used in Shelby Park, I discovered a fascinating history of the urban condition in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century and how that condition sparked a new type of urban landscape. 1 2 In researching the origins of the movement it was found that most standard texts on the history of landscape architecture have ignored this period of landscape history. Only two authors of landscape history were found to include the playground/recreation movement and the typical park that followed. Norman Newton’s Design on the Land included a short but thorough description of the typical characteristics included in this type