A Little Bit Ritchie Episode 6: Child’s Play
In 1965, towers of smoke billowed above the Ritchie playground. Fueling the flames were paper mache replicas of political figureheads. The pyres were ignited by teen's hellbent on protecting their jungle gym. I’m Lydia Neufeld, and this is A Little Bit Ritchie.
To commemorate the Ritchie Community League’s hundredth anniversary, we’ll investigate local history to uncover what makes Ritchie—Ritchie!
Ritchie exists on stolen land. We gather on Treaty 6 Territory and Metis Nation of Alberta Region 4, a travelling route and home to the Nehiyawak, Siksikaitsitapi, Saulteaux, Métis, Stoney Nakoda, Inuit, and other Indigenous peoples. The Ritchie Community League is exploring what the land represents while drawing attention to the harm caused by settlers and colonization.
Our Reconciliation Committee reflects on the Community Leagues’ existence in Ritchie and its relationship to the land. To restructure how we understand the community, we have a favour to ask. The Committee would love to hear your stories about the area, whether you grew up here or you’re a newcomer. Your memories will help support our goal of building an equitable, welcoming community for all. If you’d like to share a memory, please contact Seghan at civics@ritchie-league.com.
With the growing popularity and practicality of city living in the early twentieth century came many new issues that plagued the lives of urban residents. Life in the city was viewed as a parasite to a child's mind, and motivated children—riddled with an excess of energy—to engage in destructive behaviour, which directly impeded contemporary visions of the ideal Dominion.
In the early days of the twentieth century, city dwellers across Canada and the United States learned of a new phenomenon that pledged to reduce crime, increase morality, and improve public health. Scholars, philanthropists, and pediatricians touted the potential benefits this “miracle movement” would bring to urban life and children's development: the Playground Movement. Today jungle gyms and greenspaces may seem like a routine part of city life—Ritchie is host to three formal parks, all of which vibrate with activity, and Edmonton is home to over 875 park spaces.1 But why do our neighbourhood, city, and country covet grassy expanses and pits overflowing with sand? In this episode of A Little Bit Ritchie, we're uncovering how and why playgrounds and park spaces became essential to the health of our neighbourhoods, children, and society.
Ready to party, Ritchie? On September 17, we’re teaming up with local artists, performers, and vendors to celebrate our centennial with a legendary summer send-off event. Join us outside the Ritchie Community Hall from 9 to 11 AM to fuel the day with delicious pancakes. From noon to 4 PM, enjoy family-friendly entertainment, including live music from John Guliak, The Brigadiers, Jay Gilday, and Lindsay Walker, food trucks, and historical walking tours. To close out the party, we'll celebrate in the hall with late-night snacks and music from Marlaena Moore, Major Love, and Aladean Kheroufi, starting at 7 PM ‘till midnight. For more details, head over to www.ritchie-league.com/centennial-celebration.
The idea of the modern playground surfaced in Germany in the 19th century, beginning with children's sand gardens. Sand Gardens were first documented in 1850 in public parks of Berlin after one of the founding fathers of modern education, Friedrich Froebel, touted the vitality of outdoor hands-on play.
From here, Froebel designed the sand garden as a way for children to engage with organic materials.2 The first Sand Gardens in the United States appeared in Boston in 1886 and are commonly credited as the beginning of formal playgrounds in the United States. Although indoor play equipment, called gymnasia, appeared as early as 1820 in Salem, Massachusetts, the structures were not popular.3 However, Boston’s sand gardens ignited community excitement, and thus a North American movement was born.
Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, a pioneering American-Polish physician, is credited with introducing play facilities to North America.4 In 1885, Zakrzewska travelled to Germany, where she watched children playing in public Sand Gardens supervised by the police. This prompted Zakrzewska to craft a letter to the Massachusetts Emergency Hygiene Association about the potential benefits of the gardens. Her letter inspired Boston to install two supervised Sand Gardens, one outside of a church and another in the courtyard of a nursery.5 After witnessing the joy that Sand Gardens brought to children, the City of Boston installed twenty-one facilities over the next fourteen years.6 In Canada and the United States, designated outdoor play spaces—similar to the Boston Sand Garden—gained popularity during the American Progressive Era, a time of significant political and social reform.7
The Progressive Era spanned from the 1890s to pre-World War I. During this era, many Canadians, influenced by popular American social movements, believed that there were inherent flaws in the modern city that would result in defective urban societies and populations.8 On the one hand, this helped many who were suffering from issues such as alcoholism; however, the motivations and activities of Progressive social activism were quite insidious when looked at as a whole.
Central to the Progressive Era was the rise of social activities developed through a belief in eugenics. In Canada, the influence of American Progressive ideals was seen directly in health education materials, which “reflected a social context shaped by industrialization, the increasing economic gap between rich and poor, the rise of public health campaigns, the arrival of new immigrants into slowly expanding cities, the Christian temperance movement, and war in Europe.”9 Additionally, eugenicists were concerned that not only was industrialization damaging Canadians physical and mental health, it was also “allowing the ‘unfit’ to reproduce, thus perpetuating their unfitness at an escalating cost.”10
Children were perceived to be particularly susceptible to “the vulgarities and contamination of public life.”11 This belief was magnified by the local government's lack of effort to implement necessities for a growing population, including schools, child care, and health facilities. Many philanthropists suspected that the negative impacts of city life, including moral decay, could be reversed through a connection with nature and outdoor play.12 And so, many of the ideas of the early Playground Movement arose out of the beliefs of the Progressive Era. Alongside the Progressive Era, the Playground Movement had a close connection to notions of eugenics in that the Era and Movement's motivations were to remedy the perceived ills of society to produce an elite race.13
Playground implementers and organizers favoured supervised and guided play as a method to influence children towards specific interpersonal interactions, physical movements, and psychological realizations.14 The motivations of many supervisors were primarily to assimilate immigrant children and encourage alignment with a particular attitude towards work and their peers.15 The final goal here was to produce a generation fit to uphold an idealized version of society through gender roles, work ethics, or inter-child communication.16 The Playground Movement also operated concurrently with the popular motivation to sanitize city streets, including removing anything ‘unsightly’ from the public eye. Commonly coined “Ugly Laws,” these municipal sanctions harmed immigrants, the unemployed, sex workers, those with disabilities, and children as they were often brutally removed from the streets with utilitarian action.17 Further, proponents of the Playground Movement believed that child’s play, in a way, healed a youngster's soul from the “dehumanizing” impacts of the industrialized city and primed the youth to be an exemplary and sound option to continue the race.18
Though many deemed children's outdoor recreation necessary for ‘proper’ moral development, adult citizens were less than approving of horseplay in public leisure parks. In his Master’s Thesis, Kyle J. Fitch relays accounts of children being shooed from public parks when playing baseball in the late 1800s as they disturbed the tranquillity of outdoor spaces.19 Here we see a clash between the reformist belief that children need to play outside and the lack of facilities for them to do so.20 What these disgruntled adults did not realize was the overarching view that occupying children's time through “productive” and non-destructive means would aid in the rejuvenation of cities, pulling children off the streets into designated spaces and forming them into the ideal citizen.21
Early Edmonton was no exception to the greater issue of child’s play. A lack of supervised outdoor playspace significantly impacted poor children and youth in predominantly immigrant communities. Consequently, precarious city streets and alleys became their jungle gyms, as mothers could keep an eye on their youngsters from their apartment windows as they went about their work indoors.22 When out from under their mothers’ eyes, troops of pent-up Edmonton adolescents, armed with peashooters, pelted cars, homes, and storefronts with stones, balls of ice, or anything they could get their hands on.23 Edmontonians felt helpless to the onslaught of ricocheting ammunition. Not only did these attacks create lots of property damage, but the streets posed a threat to the safety of children.
Adults shook their fists at kids damaging property, wiped their tears as children were injured, and lamented over the perceived downfall of the youth. It was painfully clear that streets were unfit for playing children, and they needed a safe place to blow off steam.24 In fact, H. Addington Bruce, a journalist for the Edmonton Journal during the late-Progressive Era, wrote that children under the age of fifteen accounted for roughly 50% of traffic-related deaths in Edmonton in the early twentieth century.25
To remedy this issue, civic leaders pointed towards playgrounds as a way to occupy children's time and implement educational programs that taught youth street safety.26 When safely supervised by adults, playgrounds were believed to be a natural way for youngsters to burn off some energy.27
In the original city plans, Edmonton had no designated park space; however, as time progressed, the city made an active effort to carve out spaces for parks.28 As we discussed in our episode about Mill Creek Ravine, Frederick G. Todd, a somewhat legendary landscape architect from Montreal, visited Edmonton and Strathcona in 1907. Todd’s visit to Alberta was primarily to draft landscaping plans for the legislative grounds. However, the landscape architect was commissioned by the city for further beautification work in both Edmonton and Strathcona.29 Inspired by Todd’s visit, Edmonton established a Parks Commission in 1911 under R.B. Chadwick that focused on the beautification of boulevards, roadways, and public parks.30 In Strathcona, on the other hand, by 1906, the city had not acquired any additional park space, but after Todd’s visit, city councillors reviewed the parks plan that Todd had developed and established a parks committee that began working to plant boulevard trees following beautification recommendations.31 Todd also identified the area surrounding the Strathcona CPR station as an ideal park location due to its beauty and proximity to transportation.32
It’s important to note that nearly simultaneously with the Playground Movement, the beautification of public spaces was on everyone's minds. The City Beautiful Movement, concerned with urban reform per renaissance standards in Canada, was extremely influential. In 1933, Edmonton’s Town Planning Commission had passed a motion to turn vacant plots of land into beautified recreational spaces—or city parks. Further, they voted to beautify existing parks per eurocentric ideals of landscaping to make them more enjoyable and nurturing to the human spirit.33
During the first and second decades of the twentieth century, there was a heightened pressure and interest on efficient and organized citizens to participate in local government to improve the city's quality for its residents. Various organizations hosted frequent conferences and events to encourage citizens to participate. The Canadian National Council of Women, shortened to NCW—an organization known for its campaigns for the segregation of individuals thought to be intellectually inferior34—advocated nationwide for the safety of children, including a push for supervised playgrounds. In addition to these activities, the NCW operated on a municipal scale under the Local Council of Women, which played a role in the local Playground Movement. From their conception, playgrounds were projects that relied solely on volunteer labour and donations, demonstrating that these facilities have always been viewed as a manifestation of civic duty.35
In Edmonton, the first LCW was formed in 1894 and the second in 1908. The LCW created playground committees to drum up support for jungle gyms and organize supervision groups for playgrounds. In addition to playground efforts, Edmonton’s LCWs made strides in political reforms, including “federal divorce law, property rights, parental rights, and widows pension.”36 Children's welfare movements appealed to the cultural zeitgeist and aligned with the Progressive Era. Middle-class citizens commonly believed that through “‘saving’ children and youth, they would also be saving the future of their cities by investing in the next generation.”37
Edmonton city employees attended the Alberta Housing and Town Planning Association's first conference in 1912, which contributed to the Alberta Town Planning Act a year later.38 Edmonton implemented the Act by forming Town Planning Commissions in 1929.39 A Parks Commission was responsible for the development of a supervised playground and engaged with the LCW.40 However, when Edmonton rejected proposals for playground supervisors to be employed by the city and a Recreation Commission, the local Gyro Club stepped in.41
The Gyro Club was a group of social reformists who focused on the importance of the welfare of children and the community.42 The club is symbolically named after a gyroscope, as the device is able to maintain balance despite external influences. The club closely follows three guiding principles: power in friendship, poise and consistency of friendship in the face of hardship, and the purpose of friendship in maintaining balance in a man's life. Gyro Clubs were international institutions present in the United States and Canada. Under the Club, middle-class men were positioned as active participants in civic life and children's welfare primarily through acts of community service and children's entertainment.43
The original Gyro Club was the project of a collective of University students from Cleveland, Ohio, who formed a group of civically-interested men in 1912.44 Toronto was home to Canada’s first Gyro Club, and Edmonton’s local faction was formed in 1921. At the time of its formation, the club boasted 49 members, and ten years later, membership was up to 119.45 Members of the Edmonton faction were largely well-educated, English-speaking business professionals, while a few were newcomers to the city. However, each member took an oath of friendship and civic duty. Each member was subject to a screening process that assessed social status and a swath of membership fees in addition to their community service. Here, we can infer that to be a member of the Gyro Club was to be a relatively well-off citizen.46
The Gyro Club pushed the importance of supervised outdoor parks and recreation activities as a necessity of urban life.47 Quickly, the main objective of the Edmonton club became playground building.48 Facing a surplus of vacant property in the early nineteenth century, the City of Edmonton donated multiple plots of land to the Club for playground building. Further, the Gyro Club was awarded a grant from the City of Edmonton for $760 and fundraised an additional $960 to construct a playground in Little Italy.49 Local Gyro members cut the ribbon for their first playground on August 1922, Patricia Park Playground.50 In 1981, Patricia Park was renamed Giovanni Caboto Park, after an Italian explorer, to reflect the community’s culture.51
After the success of the Patricia Park Playground, the Gyro Club wanted to build more jungle gyms around the city. To create the playgrounds, it organized drives, soliciting the volunteer work of community league members and neighbourhood residents as they scouted out plots of land to find adequate playground accommodations. One particular Drive in 1923 garnered 1,100 volunteers throughout a week.52 This drive was particularly timely, as there were many unoccupied plots across the city. The perfect parcel of land would be either owned by a public school or the city as a designated plot of recreational land. The next step was to source playground equipment.53 The Gyro Club pointed to their park at Patricia Square to demonstrate the positive impact playgrounds could have on a community.
Ritchie Playground was built in 1928 thanks to the hard work of the Ritchie Community League and the Gyro Club. It was one of the first in the city and was instantly popular among mothers of young children. Inspired by the success of the Patricia Square playground and Fredrick Todd’s words, the league pledged to build a park. In 1924, the Ritchie Community League planned to spend $83.20 on playground equipment, which was raised in connection with the Gyro Club.54 That year, the Club raised money for playgrounds in Boyle Street, Grovenor, King Edward Park, Prince Charles, Parkallen, Strathearn, and Ritchie.55 It sourced playground supervisors, who conducted group craft programs, games, sports, story readings, and other activities.56 These activities were curated according to the club’s ideals of friendship and citizenship. Eventually, this park supervision became a responsibility of the City’s Parks and Recreation Department. Due to their service to children city-wide, the Gyro Club was regarded as the most beneficial organization.57
The fall of the Progressive Era in the 1920s saw the decline of overt eugenics, making room for social welfare ideologies that would later influence playground spending in the post-WWII era. After the war, proponents of the construction of playgrounds and recreation centres cited that jungle gyms would promote dominion ideals of health and wellness. Though not overtly discriminatory, this language was a dominion dog whistle calling back to prior eugenics ideologies.
Angus McLaren writes, “With the outbreak of the Second World War the pendulum of popular opinion swung swiftly away from the crude individualism of the eugenicists and toward the social interventionism of the welfare-minded. Between 1939 and 1944 the federal budget increased fivefold. Money, which once proved impossible to find to provide relief, was magically conjured up to pay for munitions. There were now jobs for all, and the spectre of the unemployed that had haunted the propertied, disappeared”58
In the wake of federal budget increases, municipalities across Canada were faced with a budget surplus, which Edmonton chose to allot to expand children’s recreation. In 1946 Edmonton implemented a plan for city-wide playground facilities to encourage sportsmanship and team spirit among children—a ten-year project that would cost roughly half-a-million dollars.59 This plan came after the federal budget grew, and the City set aside funds to improve and add to playgrounds around Edmonton.60 Playground supporters pushed for the facilities to revolve around schools and community leagues.61 The Recreation Commission levelled, equipped, and upgraded fourteen playgrounds across the city, four of which would be completed by the summer. These four included Borden Park, Ritchie Park, Boyle Street, and Westwood Park.62 As part of the Ritchie playground improvement, a slide was installed, which today is still a favourite, beloved for its towering height and perceived precariousness.
In 1955, the City of Edmonton employed 33 playground directors and 28 play leaders, which cost $31,000. Additionally, the city allotted $20,000 to pay temporary playground employees.63You may recall from Episode 2 that Edmonton's Community Leagues are derived from the Social Center Movement founded in Rochester, New York, in 1907. The goal of the Social Centre Movement was to establish Neighbourhood Civic Clubs in municipalities where citizens could have a platform to engage with local politics, express new ideas, debate, and inspire local change. Members of the movement advocated for public buildings, like schools, as venues for neighbourhood meetings.
Though community leagues around the city utilized local churches or meeting halls as their rotating headquarters, the boards craved permanence. To facilitate the playground and recreational development in the neighbourhood and to better serve the community, the Ritchie Community League needed a formal place to meet and hold events. Though the board established the current site as their community grounds with a skating rink in 1923, the league did not have a proper or permanent meeting place.
Discussion began in 1945 about building a formal meeting hall. During these conversations, the City of Edmonton proposed moving the Ritchie Community League headquarters to the old Gainers lands.64 However, the league voted against the move. In 1945, the league purchased a Texas hut from the US Army Surplus and had it installed on the community grounds.65 Though this structure was not ideal for the long-term, it served the league for the present. Over the next six years, the board renovated and added to the hut.
In the early 1960s, the league could not continue to operate out of the Texas Hut as it was crumbling at the seams.66 The board drafted new plans for the hall. However, they needed the approval of the City of Edmonton's Parks Department for the layout.67 To maintain their relationship and increase their chances of support from the Parks Department, the league offered to provide office space for city parks employees and the plan was approved.68 Though the new hall was proposed to cost $32,500, RCL President R.S. Taylor devised a financing system to fund the construction. This included the sale of building bonds in exchange for league membership,69 and the system served as a way to engage with the community through fundraising and community events.70 By 1961, the new hall was constructed and ready for community rentals. However, it was hardly large enough to accommodate all of the league's needs, so conversations about expansion began almost immediately after Taylor cut the ribbon.71
By the late 1970s, the league added changerooms for the skating rink, office space, and improved washrooms. Additionally, the league built a tennis court and expanded the parking lot.72 Taylor was involved with the Ritchie Community League executive for over thirty years and is to thank for the community hall that stands today. Because of his ingenious financing system, the community hall was fully paid off within ten years of its construction.
Looking for a way to show off your civic pride while supporting the Ritchie Community League? Look no further than the Ritchie Crew Subscription Service—an innovative way to display your community pride and donate monthly to the league's important programs. For as low as $7/month, you’ll receive a thank you package full of RCL swag, an annual League Membership for Ritchie dwellers, and a Ritchie Discount card, including your favourite local businesses like Long Roof Brewing, Fox Runner Tattoo, Under the High Wheel, and many more. Whether it’s the craft beer of the month membership, the quarterly Coffee tasting package, or an exclusive culinary experience at Biera, there’s a tier to suit everyone! Check it out at www.ritchie-league.com for all the details.
Children began to rely on and covet the recreational offerings Edmonton introduced. On the playground, youngsters formed close friendships, experienced a taste of independence, and enjoyed their summer vacations. When playgrounds were threatened, adolescents demonstrated their support in rather rash ways.
Disgruntled neighbourhood children burned effigies of Mayor Vincent Dantzer and Alderman Julia Kiniski in July of 1965 after City Council approved a 2 million dollar budget cut to children's programming. Though we’re unsure of the reasons for the cuts, they may have been motivated by overspending in several other departments and endeavours, including the Metropolitan Edmonton Transportation Study project.73
Playground Supervisor Carolyn Naylor watched as the children ignited the paper-mache effigies hanging from the Ritchie slide. Though a strange activity, Naylor attested to hosting a “unique” event for Ritchie children once a year. She stated that this year, the activity was “hanging and burning.”74 The paper mache corpses in question were allegedly designed to be nameless. However, a group of children stomped onto the playground carrying signs denouncing Mayor Dantzer and Alderman Kiniski. Naylor reports that things “got carried too far.”75 The supervisor felt that Ritchie was “a tough neighbourhood,” implying that such an effigy burning was not overly surprising.76 In another account, Naylor stated that the burning was a marshmallow roasting gone wrong.
Afterwards, Alderman Kiniski remarked, “this is a disgrace to the newspaper and bad for Edmonton’s image.”77 She, who had previously been the focus of a Maclean’s article titled “Portrait of a Great-Hearted Woman,” was appalled by the children's acts, the lack of intervention from the playground supervisor, and the coverage of the event by the Edmonton Journal. Kiniski was confused as to why she was targeted, as neither she nor Mayor Dantzer had suggested the budget cuts.78 However, the Ritchie teen's actions may be somewhat understood when we consider what happened only a few weeks earlier. That’s when Kiniski called for “the use of whips on hoodlums terrorizing persons in public parks and playgrounds,” or teens drinking in park spaces. She even went so far as to suggest hiring senior citizens and arming them with whips to chase out teenagers.79 Another possible motivation for the Ritchie teens’ choice of effigy may have been Kiniski’s proposal to implement a 10 pm general curfew for children under 16.80 It’s hard to know which of Kiniski’s controversial proposals may have been sufficient to ignite the Ritchie teens’ anger and their pyres. Playground supervisor Carolyn Naylor remarked to the Edmonton Journal, “As for Julia [Kiniski], she’s just anti-recreation, period.”
The voices of movements are often not representative of the people who need to be heard. The rise of the Playground Movement was tied to many discriminatory beliefs that took hold from the turn of the century until WWI. While these were the early roots of playground development in Edmonton and Ritchie, the many iterations of playground development in the city were marked by transitions in the values and belief systems of each period.
In its beginnings, the Playground Movement sprang from many fears that defined the Progressive Era. While the Playground Movement resulted in outdoor play spaces, this movement shaped itself through worries of urban life and a moral judgement that children, particularly of poor and immigrant families, needed saving from their fundamentally flawed state. It was out of this belief system that the early parks of Edmonton and Strathcona were founded.
As Edmonton moved into the twentieth century, official playgrounds were established by the Gyro Club of Edmonton. This post-WWI period of children’s play development again followed a recreational zeitgeist wherein local government took on more of a role in correcting some of the apparent social ills of a playground-less city.81 New Edmonton playgrounds of the 1920s were formed through collaboration between the City, an upper-middle class-fraternal organization, and community leagues like in Ritchie. While no longer defined through Progressive Era eugenics, these new collaborations often stemmed from the belief that children could be saved by interventions and guidance from a Capitalist upper-middle class male society.
After the post-WWI period of public-private collaboration came WWII and the rise of the social welfare movement in Canada. This era of social welfare included an expansion of public spending on socially-motivated infrastructure, of which playgrounds were a part. Playgrounds took on a role of social support, with playground supervisors taking on a portion of the childcare that had previously been the mothers' responsibility. Alongside social welfare was a re-application of adapted ideals from the Playground Movement; post-WWII playgrounds were tasked with encouraging the physical health of children, which, in turn, was thought to lead to increased health and strength of the nation and Dominion.
While not the end of the transitions for playgrounds in Edmonton, 1965 was an important year for the relationship between the City and the Ritchie Community League playground. With City funds devoted to projects like the Metropolitan Edmonton Transportation Study—which may be characterized by a focus on individualistic perceptions of development—Parks and Recreation were not as valued. Perhaps as a return to earlier perceptions of the role of playgrounds, Ritchie teens in 1965 demonstrated that children faced with a cut to their jungle gyms might turn to brutish behaviour.
Today, an example of supervised outdoor play spaces is Edmonton’s Green Shack Program. We can infer that the Green Shack program and the early playground movement both represent a desire for children to have safe access to outdoor play spaces.
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of A Little Bit Ritchie. If you enjoyed this episode, please give us a rating and a review! A Little Bit Ritchie is brought to you by the Ritchie Community League Centennial Celebration Committee. Erin Fraser and Seghan MacDonald chair the committee. This episode was researched by Linnea Bell and written by Elyse Colville. A Little Bit Ritchie is produced by Castria Communications and Media Solutions. This project is supported by the Edmonton Heritage Council and the City of Edmonton. Thank you to Tierra Connor for creating our artwork.
To see photos of the locations and people mentioned in this episode, detailed show notes, a transcription, and references for this episode, visit the link in our description.
If you have a story you would like to share in a future episode of A Little Bit Ritchie, send us an email at community-planning@ritchie-league.com.
Thanks again for tuning in to this episode of A Little Bit Ritchie. I’m Lydia Neufeld.
Endnotes
1. City of Edmonton. 2020. “Neighbourhood and City Parks.” City of Edmonton. https://www.edmonton.ca/activities_parks_recreation/parks_rivervalley/neighbourhood-parks-alphabetical-listing.
2. Play and Playground Encyclopedia.“Sand Gardens.” Play and Playground Encyclopedia. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://www.pgpedia.com/s/sand-gardens.
3. Joe L. Frost, A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments:A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments, (New York: Routledge, 2010), 92.
4. Play and Playground Encyclopedia. n.d. “Sand Gardens.” Play and Playground Encyclopedia. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://www.pgpedia.com/s/sand-gardens.
5. Frost, A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments, 94.
6. Play and Playground Encyclopedia. n.d. “Sand Gardens.” Play and Playground Encyclopedia. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://www.pgpedia.com/s/sand-gardens.
7. Fritch, Kyle J. 2018. “The Right to Play: The Establishment of Playgrounds in the American City,” Master of Arts Thesis. University of Boston.
8. Kenneth E. Mobily, “Eugenics and the playground movement,” Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 21 no. 2 (2018): 145.
9. Mona Gleason, "Between Education and Memory: Health and Childhood in English- Canada, 1900-1950," Scientia Canadensis: Canadian Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine 29, no. 1 (2006): 54.
10. Gillian Martel, “For the Glory of the Nation: Eugenics, Child-Saving and the Segregation of the ‘Feeble-Minded’,” (Masters thesis, McMaster university, 2016), 15.
11. Gillian Martel, “For the Glory of the Nation: Eugenics, Child-Saving and the Segregation of the ‘Feeble-Minded’,” (Masters thesis, McMaster university, 2016), 16-17.
12. Fritch, Kyle J. 2018. “The Right to Play: The Establishment of Playgrounds in the American City,” Master of Arts Thesis. University of Boston.
13. Kenneth E. Mobily, “Eugenics and the playground movement,” Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 21 no. 2 (2018): 147-148.
14. Kenneth E. Mobily, “Eugenics and the playground movement,” Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 21 no. 2 (2018): 148.
15. Kenneth E. Mobily, “Eugenics and the playground movement,” Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 21 no. 2 (2018): 148.
16. Kenneth E. Mobily, “Eugenics and the playground movement,” Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 21 no. 2 (2018): 148.
17. Kenneth E. Mobily, “Eugenics and the playground movement,” Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 21 no. 2 (2018): 151.
18. Kenneth E. Mobily, “Eugenics and the playground movement,” Annals of Leisure Research, vol. 21 no. 2 (2018): 148-149.
19. Fritch, Kyle J. 2018. “The Right to Play: The Establishment of Playgrounds in the American City,” Master of Arts Thesis. University of Boston.
20. Fritch, Kyle J. 2018. “The Right to Play: The Establishment of Playgrounds in the American City,” Master of Arts Thesis. University of Boston.
21. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 102-103.
22. Fritch, Kyle J. 2018. “The Right to Play: The Establishment of Playgrounds in the American City,” Master of Arts Thesis. University of Boston.
23. "The Answer is Playgrounds," Edmonton Bulletin, 1946 Mar. 16, 4.
24. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 99-100.
25. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 99-100.
26. "Children and Street Traffic," Edmonton Journal, 1936 Aug. 15, 4.
27. "The Answer is Playgrounds," Edmonton Bulletin, 1946 Mar. 16, 4.
28. Susan Markham, “The Development of Parks and Playgrounds in Canadian Prairie Cities 1880 to 1930,” (Manuscript of paper presented at Canadian Parks and Recreation Association Research Symposium, 1991), 11.
29. Markham, “The Development of Parks and Playgrounds in Canadian Prairie Cities 1880 to 1930,” Manuscript, 7.
30. Markham, "The Development of Parks and Playgrounds in Selected Canadian Prairie Cities: 1880-1930," Dissertation, 171.
31. “City Council,” Strathcona Evening Chronicle 1907 July 31, 2; and, Markham, "The Development of Parks and Playgrounds in Selected Canadian Prairie Cities: 1880-1930," Dissertation, 173.
32. Correspondence from Frederick G. Todd to W.D. Mills, Mayor of Strathcona, 1907 May 6, MS-348, Box 4, File 44, City of Edmonton Archives, Edmonton, AB.
33. "Suggest Jobless Work in Parks," Edmonton Journal, 1933 Mar. 15, 12.
34. Angus McLaren, Our Own Master Race: Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945, (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990), 37.
35. Kyle J. Fritch, “The Right to Play: The Establishment of Playgrounds in the American City,” Master of Arts thesis, ( University of Boston, 2018(, 29.
36. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 98.
37. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 98.
38. Markham, Susan. 1991. “The Development of Parks and Playgrounds in Canadian Prairie Cities 1880 to 1930,” Manuscript for paper presented at CPRA Research Symposium.
39. Markham, Susan. 1991. “The Development of Parks and Playgrounds in Canadian Prairie Cities 1880 to 1930,” Manuscript for paper presented at CPRA Research Symposium.
40. Markham, Susan. 1991. “The Development of Parks and Playgrounds in Canadian Prairie Cities 1880 to 1930,” Manuscript for paper presented at CPRA Research Symposium.
41. Markham, Susan. 1991. “The Development of Parks and Playgrounds in Canadian Prairie Cities 1880 to 1930,” Manuscript for paper presented at CPRA Research Symposium.
42. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 96.
43. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 97.
44. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 97.
45. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 107.
46. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 97.
47. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 96.
48. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 97.
49. Edmonton Maps Heritage. n.d. “Giovanni Caboto Park.” Edmonton Maps Heritage. Accessed August 10, 2022. https://www.edmontonmapsheritage.ca/location/giovanni-caboto-park/.
50. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 97.
51. Edmonton Maps Heritage. n.d. “Giovanni Caboto Park.” Edmonton Maps Heritage. Accessed August 10, 2022. https://www.edmontonmapsheritage.ca/location/giovanni-caboto-park/.
52. "The Gyro Drive," Edmonton Bulletin, 1923 June 28, 7.
53. "The Gyro Drive," Edmonton Bulletin, 1923 June 28, 7.
54. "Ritchie League to Equip Playground," Edmonton Bulletin, 1924 Aug. 7, 8.
55. "Recreation Board Sets $20,000 Budget," Edmonton Journal, 1928 Sept. 19, 3.
56. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 98.
57. Paulina Retamales and PearlAnn Reichwein, “‘A Healthy and Contented Band’: The Gyro Club and Playgrounds in Edmonton Urban Reform, 1921-1944,” Sport History Review, 45, no. 2 (2014): 98.
58. Angus McLaren, Our Own Master Race: Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945, (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990), 157.
59. "Ask Ottawa Aid Municipal Plans," Edmonton Journal, 1946 Jan. 22, 3.
60. "City Constructing 7 New Playgrounds," Edmonton Journal, 1946 May 29, 7.
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62. "City Preparing 14 Playgrounds," Edmonton Bulletin, 1946 Apr. 23, 15.
63. "48-Mill Tax Rate Approved; Council Ratifies 1955 Budget," Edmonton Journal, 1955 Apr. 1, 10.
64. “Ritchie League to Discuss Site,” Edmonton Journal, 1945 Mar. 5, 2.
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66. "Ritchie Community To Repair Hall," Edmonton Journal, 1951 Apr. 24, 23.
67. Memorandum from J. R. Wright, 1960 Apr. 13, RG-29-5, File 49, City of Edmonton Archives, Edmonton, Alberta.
68. Correspondence from A.V. Pettigrew to Mr. S. Taylor, 1961 Feb. 9, RG-29-5, File 49, City of Edmonton Archives, Edmonton, Alberta.
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71. “Opening of Ritchie Hall,” Edmonton Journal, 1961 Apr. 10, 24.
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73. “City’s Overspending Close to $1 Million,” Edmonton Journal, 1965 May 8, 3.
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75. "Playground Supervisor Offers to Apologize," Edmonton Journal, 1965 Aug. 4, 35.
76. "Effigy-Burning May Result In Demand For Apology," Edmonton Journal, 1965 Aug. 3, 20.
77. "Alderman 'Deeply Hurt' By Ritchie Incident," Edmonton Journal, 1965 July 30, 49.
78. "Austerity to Hit Police, Fire First," Edmonton Journal, Apr. 29, 1965, 1.
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80. "Put Sirens to Work," Edmonton Journal, 1965 June 22, 17.
81. War Museum of Canada - Musée Canadien de la Guerre, “The War’s Impact on Canada,” War Museum of Canada - Musée Canadien de la Guerre, October 16, 2017, https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/after-the-war/legacy/the-wars-impact-on-canada/