Kansas City's first playground to be fully equipped and supervised was Holmes Park, bounded by Eighteenth, Cherry and Holmes streets. This 1906 postcard in color shows the shelter house, benches and flowerbed and was printed in Leipzig, Germany.The ground was acquired in 1896 and completed as a park the next year. By 1910 supervised activities for both winter and summer recreation were available to children of all ages, and swing, slides and teeter-totters were in place as well as tennis courts and baseball and hockey fields. A 1920 Souvenir pamphlet of the park commissioners (reprinted from a 1914 report) stated: A bath house on this playground contains two waiting rooms; attendants room; shower rooms one gymnasium and playroom; two clubrooms and one comfort room for men and one for women. A fee of 2 cents for towel and 2 cents for soap is made. About 500 children a day patronized Holmes Park in 1920. The use of the park was limited in recent years because the property, which was originally surrounded by modest homes, was circled by business establishments. In 1960 voters approved the sale of the property, which had been requested by the park board. The revenue was used for other park purposes. Today a most unusual Kansas City Power & Light Company substation occupies the entire block. Electrical transformers, towers and insulating devices are visible through openings in the walls and the apparatus is painted in different colors so the viewer can understand the function of the equipment. Kansas City Star, October 25, 1969.
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