You never know where or when you will come across an awesome historic playground! The small town of Waterville, Vermont is such an example. The current library and town offices are housed in the former Waterville Central School, which is a classic 1930s two-room schoolhouse (a relatively common building type in Vermont). The school sits on a hill above the road, with its playground in front, basketball court and playing field behind the school.
The Waterville Central School.
Rear of the Waterville school – the window banks are classic indications of schools. This building had two classrooms as indicated by the windows.
This ramshackle playground remains on the property grounds, though it’s fallen into disrepair. A passerby mentioned that a couple used to take care of the playground, but he’s not sure what happened in recent years. Still, it’s a great look at a historic playground. I call this one historic because it has presumably original equipment and it is located in its historic setting.
View of the playground from the school.
The playground sits below the school.
Look at that slide built into the hill!
Obviously, I had to test the slide!
The worn merry-go-round and swings in the background.
One seesaw where there used to be two.
This leads me to guess that it’s a handmade seesaw.
Playground swings.
Another view of the swings.
A swing set on the playground with a seesaw, swings, and steps to nowhere – probably previously to a slide.
Only two steps on the swing set.
A slide would have been here, it seems.
How old is this playground? Many of the apparatuses appear homemade, which makes it more difficult to determine. However, based on the type of equipment it is plausible to say that playground dates to the early days of the school, ca. 1930s. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Maybe there was even a giant stride on the playground (sadly, no signs of one). But, what a great playground, right? Now it just needs some TLC.
Preservation in Pink 