HISTORY OF ADVENTURE PLAYGROUNDS
Noticing that children preferred to play in open spaces with raw materials rather than the designed playgrounds he built, Danish landscape architect Carl Theodore Sorensen organized the first Adventure Playground in Copenhagen in 1943, during the German occupation of World War II. Originally known as junk playgrounds, urban children were able to build their own spaces and structures using real tools, raw materials, and cooperation.
In 1946, Lady Marjory Allen visited from England and was so impressed with junk playgrounds that she brought the idea back to London where they became known as Adventure Playgrounds. From then on the movement grew and Adventure playgrounds spread through Europe.
Currently, about 1,000 adventure playgrounds exist in Europe, largely in Denmark, Switzerland, France, German, the Netherlands and England. Japan has a number of Adventure playgrounds as well.
In the US, the movement has been slower to catch on. There are only a handful of adventure playgrounds across the nation, and most of them are destination playgrounds, rather than the neighborhood-oriented playgrounds in other parts of the world. The Berkeley Adventure Playground is the oldest starting in the early 80’s. An adventure playground in Huntington Beach recently re-opened after being closed for some time. The Ithaca Children’s Garden in New York is now home to the Anarchy Zone. An Adventure Playground just opened on Governor’s Island in New York City. The Parish School in Houston Texas offers an Adventure Playground as after-school program for area youth.
Because if its mission to promote the imagination, creativity and education of children, Fairytale Town is proud to bring an Adventure Playground to Sacramento and to be part of the growing play movement in the United States.
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