Petworth Playground at 8th & Taylor is officially open
/The new playground at Petworth Park, 8th & Taylor Streets NW
After many years of planning meetings, back and forth arguments over play-surface materials and a $2 million budget, the Petworth Recreation Center is officially open again.
The park offers three play areas and a splash / spray park, along with the basketball court and soccer pitch. The large grassy area now has a shaded canopy, has been regraded to be flatter, and will remain closed until March so the seeded grass has time to grow and lock into the soil.
There are a bunch of new amenities, including baby/toddler swings that lets the parent swing with the child (and there’s even a place to put your phone to take video!). The new pavilion next to the field offers a great place for Petworth Jazz Project to set up bands or other activities under the roof, and there are new water fountains with a bottle-filler next to the playground. There’s even a new younger-kids’ basketball hoop and an outdoor ping-pong table.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser was on hand for the opening of the park, as was DPR Director Delano Hunter, outgoing Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd and DGS Director Keith Anderson, among others.
The surface of the playgrounds are engineered wood fiber — something the community fought hard for DPR and DGS to agree to install. Complying with ADA requirements, at the entrances to each of the three playgrounds there is “wood carpeting” — areas made for wheelchairs to enter the softer wood surface.
The playgrounds include one for 2-5 year olds, a larger one for 5-12 years olds, an outdoor teen play space.
Benches and seating for parents are in every section of the park, including “sails” to create shade, along with many new trees planted in the park.
New security cameras installed all around the park helped push the budget a bit higher than originally planned, and those cameras will be reactively monitored by the Protective Services division of DGS.
Get Involved! Friends of Petworth Park, the non-profit that has helped guide the renovations and worked closely with DC government, can finally breathe a bit freer now that the work is done. And they’re looking for new board members to help guide the park into the future. If you’d like to be involved in working with other community members, shoot Sarah Gabriel an email!
Related Articles
