PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF GARRETT REID
Looking Back Through History: Splash Pad Safety Surfacing By Gwen Ruehle
O
n October 17, 1903, the first permanent municipal-built playground, Seward Park, was opened to a crowd of 20,000 children (nycgovparks.org/parks/ seward-park/history). By 1907, there were 90 municipalities with play-
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Parks & Recreation
grounds. In just three years, that number grew to 531 (pgpedia.com/p/play ground-association-america). As the rapid growth of playgrounds emerged, so too did the injury reports, emergency room visits and critical head injuries. Parents and experts across the United States recognized
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the growing injury trend and worked to eliminate the largest and most prevalent hazards. In 1981, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission published the Public Playground Safety Handbook (cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/325. pdf) and parks were retrofitted to eliminate hard surfaces and high falls.
