Plan of Evanston
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ADMIRABLE and necessary as they are, parks and beaches do not meet all of the requirements, as a recreation scheme for a city like Evanston. This scheme should be as comprehensive as the word recreation itself implies. It should provide everybody, from infancy to old age, with the means for play. Play is one of the prime necessities of life. Young or old, everyone plays, just as everyone eats, and if proper means of play are denied, others will be found. An enormous proportion of the crime of the world is play gone wrong. The means of play must be attractive. If it isn't pleasant, it isn't play. Therefore, a recreation scheme cannot be imposed in a relentless and militaristic manner, upon an unwilling public. Public likes must be consulted, public requirements accurately met. For the purpose of meeting them, the public may be divided into four groups, each with a different set of recreational needs.
Group 1. Little children up to seven years old.
Group 2. Children from eight to fourteen years.
Group 3. Young people of from fifteen to twenty- one years.
Group 4. Adults.
The needs of Group 1, the little children, present a very difficult problem and, for a reason which will be obvious, we deal with it separately, at the end of this chapter.
The needs of Group 2" children that is, of the primary grades at school, can adequately bemet by the careful planning and treatment of school grounds. Practically all children of this age go to school, and a supervision of their play, which is still necessary at this age, can more easily be had in the school yard than elsewhere. The yards should be equipped with suitable apparatus, playground, ball-diamond, and so forth. We propose that more land should be acquired around
Evanston Area History
