Cove Playground (Kimball-Haskell)

In the previous post, I had mentioned several playground updates. Let's start with the most exciting: Cove Playground, sometimes call Kimball-Haskell, located in Beverly.

Here's the playground before renovation.



And here's the new playground. This is just about at the same angle. AND, this photo is only highlighting the 5-12 year old set up. They have another toddler set up as well as you can see below with the cool ladybug spring rider.


This is a shot from the opposite side of the playground.

Some people would find this upgrade a disappointment as the classic, unique, wooden structure with real tires are on the verge of safety extinction. They would be right of course, but this upgrade is such a drastic change it really does make it better. Cove Playground is used by the Beverly Park and Rec as a summer play program destination. Now the kids at the program will have much more fun and have shade as the previous structure had none! In addition, those counselor's jobs will be much more exciting as now the campers are going to be EVERYWHERE as the playground just quadrupled in size!

The structure is essentially built by Little Tykes (Little Tykes and Miracle Recreation are now owned by the same company, PowerPlay) and has their Infinity Loop component as seen in the upper photo on the left side. My 11-year old (WHAT?! HE'S ELEVEN?) really enjoyed this as it is a new design.

With all the new equipment, quadruple the previous playground, some shade, and new wood chips, the playground has moved up from a two-star playground to a FOUR-STAR!


Although sad to see another classic playground disappear no matter how much it needed maintenance, luckily North Shore photographer Tracy Milkay has captured the old Cove Playground in her book, Child's Play: Vanishing Vintage Playgrounds.

You can see and order her book here.

There are some great photos of vintage equipment and structures in this beautiful book.

Bessie Baker Park

A long time ago, Lauren commented that Landscape Structure's newest 2008 playground setup, called the EVO, could be seen at Bessie Baker Playground in Beverly, located off Colon St. which is off Route 1A, Cabot St.

She was RIGHT!!

A full view of the partial EVO playstructure.

A rear view of the structure. Are those bunny ears in the right hand corner?

Bessie Baker had redone their playground and replaced their old wooden playground with the EVO, or part of it. It is a very fun looking playground and it is the new thinking in playground design, exploratory play. The idea is that there is not ONE way to play on the structure but many exploratory ways.

The draw back is safety. Children can climb ALL OVER this thing including on top and over the bars. BUT, I think this is GREAT!!! I have mentioned it before and posted links to articles discussing the unidirectional play that current structures provide and it is boring. It looks like some playground equipment companies are rethinking design. HURRAY!!

With that said, I am sad to report that it was not ALL that fun. Some extraneous stuff that make the structure LOOK cool but does not have a lot of play value. The web netting was fun and the "stand and spin" was fast enough to get me nauseous in just 4 revolutions. The middle section has some plastic, hanging, crawl throughs (think hanging tires in older playgrounds), which look cool and are moderately fun.

Than there were these completely useless hand-peddle things. You sat at it and use your hands to peddle. But all the peddling does nothing. You don't spin, move up or down, swivel or anything. Nothing happens. You just peddle. Very Zen, but not that fun.

My oldest son rated this playground three stars. I had to agree. If you're close by, definitely stop by and see the cool structure and have a new play experience. But don't be expected to be over WOWed.

Good Beverly Kids

This is a bit older news, but Dylan (10 years old) and Logan (8 years old) Stevens have taken it upon themselves to clean up graffiti from Beverly's playgrounds, one playground at a time this summer.

The brother and sister team were shocked to find graffiti at Obear Park, near the Kernwood Bridge, and proceeded to clean it off with sponges and various cleaners. Beverly patrolman David Costa saw the good citizens and went and restocked their cleaning supplies for them.

The best part is, these kids have inspired others to do the same.

Thank you Dylan and Logan!!!