The Socialist Roots of Schenectady's Parks: A City-Wide Realization of the Child-Saving Organized Play Movement

This thesis analyzes the beginnings of Schenectady's parks system, headed by Socialist Mayor George Lunn, and places the city into the greater story of the Progressive organized play movement, revealing how communities could come together, or split apart, over the welfare of children. Progressive reformers started the organized play movement as part of their greater "child-saving" campaign, encouraging the development of parks and playgrounds in industrialized cities to provide children with safe recreational spaces that would foster healthy development. An industrial city with a growing population at the time, Schenectady owes the development of its parks system directly to this movement. Progressives' occupation with the healthy development of society urged them to specifically target children in their reform efforts. The organized play movement emerged from the Progressive goal to guide and improve the development of children's bodies as well as minds. Activists in the Progressive Era pursued social and political reform movements to improve the lives of Americans using scientific methods, focusing on efficiency and expertise. Progressives sought to use the knowledge of professionals and power of government to rectify that which they recognized as social ills. They often targeted public welfare, working to improve working and living conditions in industrialized cities. Using Schenectady as a case study, this thesis reveals the role of municipal governments, local organizations, and grassroots efforts in realizing the organized play movement. This analysis of Schenectady's parks system brings attention to the concern the city had for its citizens' wellbeing, defending these particular reformers against criticisms of the greater organized play movement for its potentially discriminatory motives and practices against the, mostly immigrant, working class.