McCandless Tot Park, Upper Lawrenceville: 102 McCandless Avenue
Just a few blocks from busy Butler Street, the McCandless Tot Park and community garden await attention. Pairing a small play space with garden plots is a smart choice, allowing kids and adults to move between the two for different activities. The playground still has its Mayor Murphy-era “Site Improvement” sign from 1997 (lol, these things were built to last!), and Google Street View shows the gradual transformation of the overgrown, litter-collecting lot into the lush area it is today.
I flip through the years and watch the space grow, become more established, more robust. The young kids who came with their parents back in 2012, when the garden began, are now teenagers or young adults. For that generation, the playground and garden are all they’ve ever known. For parents, perhaps there are recollections from the days of the “new” playground, and for those older still, the slipping-away days of when a church occupied the corner space and even more homes lined the streets.
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