In many Chicago public parks in the 1960s, they used to have a sort of waterspray feature. Sometimes they were associated with a playground, and other times, as standalone features.
As I recall them, they were circular and made of concrete - with a sharp cornered step-down/lip into the water area. In the center of the circle was a vertical pipe maybe 10-15’ tall, which sprayed a circular spray of water out the top.
I haven’t been able to find any pic or references on line.
(Tho we regularly went to the pools (Portage and Riis Parks), as I recall my mom wouldn’t let us use the spray pads, saying they used sewer water or were somehow otherwise “unclean.”)
Anyone else from Chicago remember these? Did they have them in places other than Chicago?
That might help you find some cites, historical pix, etc.
We had similar things to yours in SoCal when / where I grew up, but they were more like floor-level fountains you could walk on / wade in (couple inches deep tops) than a tall pipe with water spraying from the top.
Nowadays a fancy splashpad with colorful mosaic play surface and lots of dancing water jets seems to be de rigueur for newly built or renovated parks in ritzy neighborhoods.
Yeah - I searched splash pads, CPD history, etc. I’ve got no idea what we kids called those things. I always thought they were for kids who couldn’t swim and, since I could, I went to the pool.
Along with all the other playground equipment of the time, as I remember them they sure seemed like a bunch of injuries/lawsuits waiting to happen.
The city of Toronto would call them wading pools. Growing up in Saskatoon, we called them paddling pools. I checked the city of Toronto web site and I don’t see any with the lip/step down like they had when I was a kid (presumably because kids were cracking their skulls on them).
No - not at all. Much more industrial. Just a bare metal pipe sticking up in the middle. No “umbrella” from which the water was directed downward. At the top of the central pipe the water sprayed out horizontally in all directions.
I’m having a hard time remembering how far down the rim/step was. It was likely just the height of a step or so, but in my memory it was taller.
I vaguely remember these, they were at playgrounds growing up. They were very unattractive just the concrete as you described nothing like any of the pics in the previous posts. If I recall, they didn’t really have too much water pressure either, but we were kids on a hot, humid day, we didn’t care, it was wet and we were out playing all day so it was fun.
NYC developed a spray-top for fire hydrants that produces a big semicircle of fine spray, and can be turned on and off by a responsible adult. (And doesn’t actually use a ton of water.) I think neighborhoods can apply to get them installed in the summer.
There was a small playground right next to where I grew up in Chicago that had one of these. It was a circular concrete pond about twenty feet across with a metal pipe in the center, without any sort of “umbrella” top like in @Joey_P 's photo. It wasn’t more than a foot or so deep, and as I recall there was a sandbox about ten feet away from it.
My grandmother (in Chicago) had one near her home. When I’d stay there for a weekend in the 70s, she would take us as something to do. I vaguely remember it resembling those semicircle trough sinks in elementary school except a full circle and spraying water. I could be wrong on that but I do agree that it was an industrial looking piece of equipment rather than something that invited play. Sort of “Can’t make it to the pool/lake and no AC at home? Here, try not to die in the heat” vibes.
I remember there was one at Hermosa Park. I can’t quite picture the shape of it though. That’s because the shape was unremarkable to begin with. Fantastic on hot summer days.
Spray grounds and splash pools were common in Orange County, CA when I was growing up and were frequently modified over the years for maintenance and safety reasons. Some were just essentially a sprinkler in the middle of a concrete pad, but the first time something like that was renovated, it would be upgraded to something more extensive until you have spray grounds like this one at my childhood park.
You Chicagoans may have read Mike Royko’s Boss, an expose of the Dailey machine. In it he describes how the hydrants on the South Side were opened in hopes of preventing riots each summer.
Further out in the sea of corn where I lived, the humidity was so thick you could drive a nail into it. AC was a rarity and we’d shower and apply talc before bedtime. When it rained we’d change into swimsuits and run around in it to cool off.
