Playgrounds In Pictures: Sekler Playground (Cambridge)

This is part of a series photographing and reviewing playgrounds and parks in the Boston Metro Area; playgrounds and parks are an important part of the infrastructure that promotes healthy early childhood development; they should be celebrated and invested in to support young children and their families. (unfortunately, parks are currently closed due to COVID-19)

So far, we have looked at:

1.     Perkins School For The Blind’s Playground (Watertown)

2.     Pat and Gabriel Farren Playground (Watertown)

3.     Transportation Children Center’s Playground (Boston)

4.     Irving Park (Watertown)

5.     Smith Playground in Allston

6.     Watertown’s 552 Main St Playground

7.     Mother’s Rest Playground along The Muddy River

8.    Clifford Playground (Boston)

9. Dorothy Curran Playground at Joe Moakley Park (South Boston)

10. Martin Richard’s Part at The Smith Family Waterfront (Boston)

11. Filippello Playground (Watertown)

12: Artesani Playground (Brighton/Along Charles River)

13. Lowell Playground in Waltham

14: Bemis Playground (Watertown)

15. Beaver Brook Reservation Playground (Belmont)

16. Stanley A. Ringer Playground (Allston)

This post will focus on Sekler Playlot in Cambridge. This is a relatively small playlot next to Mount Auburn Hospital and right next to the Charles River bike path. In addition, on Sundays in the summer Memorial Drive which runs next to the park is closed for walking, biking, and other recreation which makes the park convenient to get to and possible part of a family recreation day. The playlot is named after Patricia (Pat) Sekler who is an art historian and photographer with strong ties to Cambridge that got her PhD in Fine Arts at Harvard. She is also ”president of the People for Riverbend Park Trust, and as coordinator of the Trust's adopt-a-lot program she began in 1982 with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Pat has helped to preserve and enhance landscaping along a portion of the Charles River in Cambridge. She has found particular pleasure in this volunteer public service work. Since 1990, classes from the Shady Hill School have helped maintain and improve the area in and around the "Sekler Playlot." Pat's efforts have received recognition by the city, the state and the EPA.” A stone near the entrance of the playlot honors Sekler and her first planting flowers at the lot in 1981. As you will see in the pictures below, while the actual play structures are pretty basic, the most unique feature of the playground are the flowers planted along the edge on both right on the inside and outside of the fence.