I believe that Junod Playground is the most northeasterly playground in all of Philadelphia.  And what a playground it is!  There’s a beautiful stainless steel giraffe sculpture greeting you as you come into the playground, plus an arch inscribed with the name of the playground.  There’s a mix of standard playground equipment, plus the weird stuff that’s hard to draw.  There’s a cool sprayground that was not yet running on a hot Sunday morning around 11am.  One of the workers told us to come back in an hour since it was on a timer that started at noon.  He didn’t like it, either.

Philly Playground Project review (visited: 3/14/13)

Visited: June 2015

Fitzpatrick Playground was a fine little rec center playground surrounded by tall chain link fence to keep you from wandering out into busy Academy Road.  There’s a somewhat rare three-person see saw here which was cool because Susanna came along on this trip, too, so we all had a seat.  Just on the other side of the basketball court is a floor hockey rink which seems to be pretty standard at playgrounds in Northeast Philly.  An old sprayground arch is in the center of this playground but, sadly, it seems to now be defunct.

Visited: June 2015

We visited Chalfont Playground as part of Super Playground Day on Father’s Day.  Usually, we go out and visit 3-4 playgrounds, spending at least a half hour at each.  But on Super Playground Day, we visited 8 different playgrounds in the Northeast.  I think Chalfont was about #4 on the day.  And by the time we reached Chalfont, I realized that the playgrounds in the Northeast, compared to the rest of the City, are really really well maintained.  There were no worn holes in the rubberized mat.  There were few broken swings or missing basketball rims.  And the equipment all looked pretty new.  Chalfont was no exception.  They even had incorporated boulders into the play equipment to climb on.  And the sprayground provided a welcome cooling off.

Visited: June 2015

You would think that I would get more questions about what I’m doing when I show up at a playground with a clipboard and a pen and try to do a quick sketch of the place while I’m racing Zora around the playground and trying out all the climbers.  But you’d be wrong.  In fact, on the Father’s Day Sunday that we visited Picariello Playground, I was asked what I was doing for only the second time that I could remember.  And when I told the guy who asked me, I don’t think he believed me.  But meanwhile, Zora was loving Picariello.  It helped that on this hot day, the sprayground was active and crowded and loud.  There are two neat stand-alone rock climbing walls that look like they were pealed off of a Frank Gehry building.  Plus, as I recall, this was the playground that Zora learned about dangling from rings.

Visited: June 2015

We visited Mitchell Playground before the swimming pool was filled and were the only ones there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  That was a surprise.  Because Mitchell Playground is a lovely little oasis with lots of trees and not one, not two, but three tic-tac-toe games.  Too bad we didn’t visit here six months ago when Zora was a big fan of tic-tac-toe.  Now she’s all about monkey bars which, surprisingly, Mitchell is missing.  There’s a sprayground in the middle of the playground area.  On the day we were there, it was sadly dry.  Too bad, too, because it was really hot.  But maybe they turn on the spraygrounds when they fill up the pools?

Visited: June 2015

Boyle playground has one of the coolest integrated rope cone climbers around.  Other playgrounds have them, too, of course, but I really enjoyed how you can climb on the rope bridge over to the rest of the playground equipment pretty seamlessly.  And Zora was a fan, too.  This playground also has a batting cage and a mini-race track painted onto the ground on the other side of the building.  I forgot to get a picture of it, but it would make a perfect race for kids on scooters or even remote controlled cars.  On the Sunday afternoon we were there, the sprayground was surprisingly not running.  Not sure what happened there.  Otherwise, the playground was clean and colorful and awesome.

Visited: June 2015

This neighborhood playground sits right off of Bustleton Avenue, behind Loesche Elementary School. There’s a huge hill leading from the playground building down to the playground.  I suspect that it’s a crazy crowded sledding hill come winter.  But on the warm summer Sunday afternoon that we visited, we weren’t thankful for the hill as much as we were for the shady trees which kept the playground equipment cool. And Zora, despite having spent much of the day hand-over-handing on the monkey bars until her palms blistered, couldn’t say no to a fine looking set of monkey bars here.

Visited: June 2015

Man, it must have been 110′ when we visited this playground.  It had a lot of really cool equipment, but it would have been awesome if the swimming pool were open.  It wasn’t.  This is a playground worth going out of your way for.  On the one side is the Torresdale Boys Club.  But on the other side is some kind of business that looks to rent trucks and cranes and all sorts of awesome machinery.  Zora was pretty psyched to check those out.

Philadelphia Playground Project review (8/11/09)

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I had no idea that we had a boat launch in Philly.  Now if only we had a boat.  This playground is pretty great.  It’s on a hill overlooking the river.  One of the structures is about 12′ tall which means the slide is awesome.  And it’s got this extraordinary wire climbing tree in the middle.  Zora was too small to climb it, but other kids in the park seemed to love it.

Philadelphia Playground Project review (not yet reviewed)

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Visited: August 2012