Ensconced in trees and spanning the entire city block between 6th and 7th Streets, on the south side of Lombard Street, is the festively colored playground and park called Starr Garden.  Entrances at the corner of 6th & Lombard open up into a cheerfully painted rec center, a jungle gym, a frequently-used basketball court and a Little League baseball diamond with an outfield big enough that it could probably be considered a pitcher’s park.

Ball field

Rec center

If you’re standing at first base, you’re somewhere pretty close to where the pulpit of the Colored Presbyterian Church used to be, according to an image from the 1860 city atlas by Hexamer & Locher, which we cribbed from the Greater Philadelphia Geohistory Network.  An Atlas image from 1875 also shows that prominent Irish businessman and early YMCA leader George H. Stuart once held property in shallow right field while “former star quarter-miler of the University of Pennsylvania,” Thomas O. Haydock once resided in what is now left field.

Old atlas map

By 1895, the public recreational space known as Starr Garden came to occupy this entire plot.  The postcard pictured below, printed in the early 20th century, advertises the addition of a playground to this spot, calling Starr “Philadelphia’s Newest Gift to the Play Activities of Her People” and explaining that “The playground keeps the child off the car tracks and thus out of the hospital.”  Little historical record exists to confirm what we assume was the momentous success of this snappy slogan and public safety campaign.

We miss the old rec center

–David Tomar