This Day in Norwood History-January 28, 1939-Wilson Street Improvement Association Ask For Playground

Seventeen Members Present Their Case For Appropriations

Seventeen members of the Wilson Street Improvement Association appeared before the Norwood Board of Selectmen on Tuesday night to request that a playground for their district be included in this year’s recreation budget. With Edson Eckhardt, president of the association, Mrs. Anthony Sansone, and Paul Bernier as spokesmen, the Association pressed their claim for a share of the recreation funds.

Citing the Association’s successful agitation for lifeguards at Willett Pond as a benefit to the whole town, Mr. Eckhardt said that with the children of the neighborhood forced to play in the streets, they were prepared to fight for a playground, with the selected site a ten-acre plot in the rear of Runnenburg Hall, a plot of land that would require the minimum of preparation for play purposes.

“Reasonable Request”

Mrs. Sansone told the board that she felt that section of town from Chapel street to the Walpole line was entitled to the playground, and that its “solid gold” people had never given the town any trouble or expense. They were willing she said to do their share and felt that they were making a reasonable request. Mr. Bernier calling attention to the fact that they represented a remote section of the town not accessible to the center, where a fine group of Norwood citizens were being raised, presented figures on the estimated cost of the project.

The plot considered, he said, was a ten-acre plot, and figuring the cost of clearing the ground at $200 an acre, that item would total $2000, 2000 feet of drain pipe he estimated at $1000, the grading at $1000, the seeding at $500 with a total of $4500. Equipment, jungle bars, sandboxes, etc., brought the total cost without the price of the land to $6000. The project costs, he said, would be 50% labor and might be included as a federal project. Mr, Bernier further pointed out that this playground project should be placed before the Dunns Field project where money had already been spent and which provided recreation only in the skating season.