Two Playgrounds in Mayfair
Welcome! I've moved off Instagram (to see old posts, go here) and am trying this project out as a blog for the new school year, now that my family is back in Philly. So, hi! I started documenting some of our playground adventures since we arrived back in town a few weeks ago, and hope to sort and tag posts for easier browsing as the project grows.
I am not the first person to do this kind of project; I was inspired to get out and get to more parks by other bloggers (specifically, the Philadelphia Playground Project) who've stopped their projects as kids got older. Every year new parks are being built and old ones are being restored/updated (or not) so I'm going to try to keep current as my kids are still all park age. There are also many lists of best Philly parks that pop up annually, but I find that they tend to list the same ones over and over and I'm not sure I agree with all of their assessments. Parks and Rec alone maintains over 150 parks in the city, so I'm going to try to hit up some smaller ones along with the big ones. I hope to write a variety of posts, some straightforward, others more wandering. I'm an essayist and don't plan to fight that impulse, if it strikes. Some playgrounds are just playgrounds; other inspire my mind to wander. I'm also not married to this being exclusively about playgrounds. My kids also like to play in libraries, museums, and, much to my dismay, other public spaces perhaps less appropriate for their wild selves.
Without further ado, first post: two parks we visited yesterday in Mayfair.
As far as playgrounds go, I'm a pretty adventurous person. I'll take my kids essentially anywhere to visit a new playground. But I have an aversion to getting on 95N, especially since the "I-95 Revive" project began in earnest a few years back. It's annoying to keep track of which on and off ramps are closed and since nobody in my family works or goes to school off 95, I just like to stay away. But with amazing 65 and sunny weather (perfect for us, as we're now used to Michigan temps) we decided to head out of the neighborhood.
We left Philadelphia for Marquette, Michigan in summer 2016, and Google tells me that one of the playgrounds to get a major upgrade since then is Mayfair Memorial Playground. According to the Playground Friends' website, the playground, situated on the corner of Lincoln High School's surprisingly enormous property (who knew that jawn was so huge!?), was torn up abruptly in 2008 with no plans to rebuild, and community activists were responsible for the development of this playground. They planned, fundraised, and built the playground and have been maintaining it, and that community devotion shows. Two years in everything is in great condition and the grounds are super clean. This is in a residential neighborhood and the folks who live nearby are very lucky!
This playground is small and neat. It's got all modern playground equipment, including this firetruck. It was very popular with ZZ, who's 3.5. He could easily navigate most of the equipment himself and tends to love small fenced-in parks like this one.
The firetruck has two wheels, but it's hard for two drivers to get along.
The double slide is a standard playground feature, but a triple slide? Way rare-er. This is the main structure at the park.
Mayfair Memorial has a rope-climbing structure, but it's not very big. It might be fun for an average climber, but my prodigious middle kid climber scaled it in a few seconds.
Nearly half of this playground is occupied by ENERGI workout equipment. Like the rest of the park, this equipment is clean and well-maintained and all in working order. It takes the participant through a variety of exercises broken down by different parts of the body, difficulty level, and day. When we had to leave because SOMEONE had a bathroom emergency, this kid was the most upset because he'd been trying to take himself through the step-up workout.
Overall, Mayfair Memorial is a really cute neighborhood park, but not a park I'd make a trip for. It's only a few miles from our house and took about fifteen minutes to get there, but we have other larger parks that are closer. However, given its proximity to high school playing fields, I could see bringing the kids to watch a Lincoln soccer game and then to come play at the park after.
About five minutes after the photo above, we found ourselves in a nearby Dunkin Donuts dealing with the aforementioned bathroom emergency, and then we had a decision to make: go back to Mayfair Memorial to play more, or head to a different park in the neighborhood? Oldest kid wanted to finish his workout, but the other two wanted to move on, so we drove back the way we came and ended up at Russo Park at Cottman and Torresdale.
This park is so green! It has manicured lawns and fields surrounding the spacious playground. It's at a pretty ugly intersection; there's a big gas station, a Boston Market, and a high school on the other corners. But the park feels set apart once you're playing. For a large rec center, it's super clean and well-maintained, with tables, benches, and space to picnic.
I've been to Russo once before, and remembered it being a little out of my kids' league. The park was even newer then; it got a pretty complete overhaul in 2012 and when I last visited in 2016 things were still quite shiny. My youngest was a baby then. So...he's just the right age now to be a little overwhelmed by the equipment while the older kids have a blast. There is a small "tot lot" style structure (pictured behind him) that he spent most of his time playing on, but it took him a minute to get there. I like to think he was pep talking himself in this pic. There are a small number of swings at the park, and he still likes to be put in a swing.
Every play structure, whether or not it's expressly built for climbing, must be scaled. My kids like to caterpillar up these types of metal structures. Not pictured: a larger structure for older kids. Where other playgrounds might have one of those tic-tac-toe boards, this one has a math operations board. My older kid is 7 and LOVES math, but for some reason refuses to learn his times tables? He says it is a waste of time, but when I presented him with 7x7, he answered 49. When asked how he arrived there, he said "Well, that's simple. 14x3+7!" Ok, then...
This park also has a really big rope climb that my kids had a lot of fun scaling. Because it's bigger and more challenging than the one at Mayfair, they climbed on it for quite a while, scaling it multiple times.
We'll definitely be returning to Russo; I've read that the school across the street, St. Hubert's, has gone in alongside the state (the park received a quarter million dollar grant) for major improvements to be completed in 2021. These improvements will include turf fields, more walkways, including accessible walkways, and a workout station. The park is great as it is, but I'm excited to see a souped-up version as well.
Onwards! Eight days til school starts and we're trying to squeeze in some beloved old favorites and some new parks before we're a little more restrained in our ability to travel around playing.
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