Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse

Specialties

Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse opened its doors in East Fairmount Park in 1899. Funded by Richard and Sarah Smith, the site was dedicated to the memory of their adult son, Stanfield. Smith’s beautiful, 24,000 square foot Playhouse was designed solely as a play space for children by one of Philadelphia’s most prominent late 19^th century architects, James H. Windrim. The Playground is situated on its original historic landscape — 6 ½ acres of open fields, wooded terrain, and sloped hills — and is home to the century old Ann Newman Giant Wooden Slide, a treasured play experience for generations of Philadelphia’s children, as well as other unique pieces of play equipment.

History

Established in 1899.

In the late 1800s, in conjunction with the American Playground Movement, the Richard and Sarah Smith Trust created Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse. The Movement was developed in the mid-​1890s when child-​saving reformers, social workers and child psychologists, concerned about the health and welfare of urban children and believing that supervised play improved the mental, moral and physical well-​being of children, urged local governments to construct playgrounds where children could play safely. Smith, an embodiment of the Movement, opened in 1899.