“Street Revival” is a term heard more and more often these days in the Skinker-DeBaliviere area. Lively new facades on several homes and apartment buildings and a proposed “Tot Lot” for pre-school children at Pershing and Des Peres are only a few of the ideas of this enthusiastic group for “reviving” St. Louis streets.
Ten Washington University architecture students organized the “Street Revival” project last year. Working in cooperation with neighborhood residents, they combine their planning and design talents with the community’s eagerness to make streets and homes safer and more attractive.
One of the group’s most successful ventures is the “Mobile Hydro Pipe Dream,” a moveable jungle gym structure built for use in University City Parks. The brightly-painted fronts of buildings renovated by West End Townhouse, Inc., are also the work of Street Revival.
The “Tot Lot” is the latest plan of the group. The pre-school recreation area is to be built on a lot leased from West End Townhouse at the rate of one dollar a year. A model of the plan was presented to the community and approved at a meeting of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council on November 1.
Designed for children up to six years old, the playground will be divided into sections for various age groups. One end of the lot will be equipped for toddlers with indoor-outdoor carpeting or cushioning, and will be placed near the parents seating area for easy supervision.
The sections for older children will have climbing structures and sets of swinging panels which the child can move to create a playhouse or whatever form his imagination directs.
The City of St. Louis has donated plantings and some playground equipment for the “Tot Lot.” The area will be fenced in as soon as the land fill is completed, and plans are underway for the placement of a stop sign at the busy corner of Pershing and Des Peres.
Parents will be asked to accompany their children to the lot to insure safety.
A spokesman of the Street Revival group stressed that the actual building of the Tot Lot will be done by residents of the area. Construction can begin as soon as all of the materials are collected and could be completed in a weekend, he said. Many of these materials might be donated by building or construction firms, and help is needed to make phone requests and collections. The following articles must still be found for the Tot Lot:
- Five to ten truckloads of fill
- Two to four truckloads of limestone gravel
- Lumber of all sizes, including railroad ties
- Four by eight foot sheets of 5/8 or 3/4 inch marine plywood
- Nails (no. 10 and no. 20 common), bolts (9×1/2), rope (3/4 to 1 inch) and paint (bright colors)
- Six and ten foot lengths of two and three inch steel pipe
- Concrete
Anyone interested in helping to locate the materials or to help in the construction of the Lot may call Pat Kohn, 863-9259, or Kathy Harleman, 725-8929.
Originally published in The Paper, December 1970.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1970_12.pdf, printed page(s) 3.
Original photograph caption
“Tot Lot” to be installed at the northwest corner of Pershing and Des Peres.
