Art
In early 1900s Boston, thousands of families crowded into tenement buildings near textile mills where they worked. Children had nowhere safe to play except narrow alleys between buildings. This photograph captures one of the first attempts to create a public play space for working-class kids.
Art · Full story
You squeeze into a brick alley barely wide enough for sunlight. The ground is hard-packed dirt. A handful of children crouch over marbles or stand in clusters, making their own games from nothing—a stick, a stone, each other. The mill buildings rise close on both sides, their windows dark. This is their park.
Reflect
Where did you play as a child, and what did that space mean to your family?