Programs & Events

As part of Fairmount Park’s Holiday House Tours, please join us for architectural and historical tours of Smith’s magnificent 24,000-square-foot Playhouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Thanks to Primex Nursery for providing materials for Smith’s special holiday decorations.

December 1 – 4 & 8 – 11
10:00am – 4:00pm
Tour will be offered every half hour. $5 for adults; Smith members & children free!
A special craft activity – making graham cracker holiday houses – will be offered for kids all day on each of the tour days at no charge.

To get inspired, visit Liberty Place to see gingerbread replicas of several Fairmount Park Historic Houses, including Smith. Thank you to Amanda Kaewvichen of Loews Philadelphia Hotel for creating Smith’s Playhouse in gingerbread!

December 1 – 4, Smith is partnering with the Children’s Book World of Haverford to present a book sale. Smith will receive 20% of all books sold, so this is a great opportunity to start your holiday shopping while helping Smith!

The book sale is open during Smith’s regular hours, 10:00-4:00. On Thursday, December 1, we will be open extra evening hours until 7:00 for shopping and for play after work and school. On Friday, December 2, from 5:00-7:00, you are invited to a wine and cheese reception and another chance to shop. That evening, Heather Hebert from Children’s Book World will talk about this season’s best new books for kids of all ages.

Please RSVP to courtney@smithkidsplayplace.org if you plan to attend the party on Friday.

Dana Barbry-Nuble has been the Education Services Coordinator at Episcopal Community Services’ St. Barnabas Mission for the past 7 years and describes her work as “a labor of love.”  Dana grew up in South Philadelphia, visited Smith weekly as a child, and recalls that, “Smith was the only place in the city with pump swings and I would wait in line for a turn.”  When Dana visited Smith earlier this year, she was wide-eyed and excited at all the updates to the Playground and Playhouse.

Dana says she is thrilled to introduce St Barnabas families to Smith as part of Play for All, a new Smith program designed to make is easy for children living in homeless shelters and other crises to reap the positive benefits of unstructured play.  Dana notes that “it’s important for residents to have options outside of the shelter.”  As an educator, Dana is a firm believer that children learn through interactive play and that the socialization play provides is key to success later in life.

Sixty-one children who reside at St. Barnabas have made trips to play at Smith.  Dana says that after returning to their temporary home, parents always thank Dana for exposing their families to a safe, unique place, where they can forget their concerns of being homeless and “not worry about anything other than having fun with their kids.”

Dana misses the laughter of children in the streets of Philadelphia’s most challenged of neighborhoods, and proudly introduces families to Smith on a regular basis stressing that, “Play does not know race, religion or sexual orientation.  Play is just play when it comes to children.”  After many years of being intimately acquainted with Smith, Dana is eager to share Smith – and these values – to new visitors.

Thanks, Dana, for your help in making Smith’s Play for All project a success!

So far this year, over 125,000 children and adults have visited Smith.  People appreciate Smith for different reasons.  One of our recent visitors, Sharida Gillison, explained why Smith is important to her and why she brings young people in her care to play.  Sharida is a retired public school teacher and recreational and music therapist who has been playing at Smith since the 1960s, when she and her family would come straight from church in their Sunday best.  Her mother believed in the importance of physical play and activity for her children’s imagination, and wanted her children to be “exposed to different cultures and economic strata.”  Sharida recalls that the Giant Wooden Slide, whose steps seemed to go on forever, gave her a sense of fearlessness; taught her to look out for others; and to be patient in the long line before zooming down.

At just 5 years old, Sharida says she realized that Smith was “a treasure.”  Her visits even influenced her future career choice, as she says “to get paid to have fun,” because her imagination “was sparked at Smith.”  Some things have changed at Smith since Sharida’s youth, but opportunities to run, swing, slide, and spin – and the benefits associated with such play – are abundant.   Every day children improve their physical health through exercise, interact and solve problems with peers, and revel in the simple joy of play at Smith.

If this story sounds familiar, and you love Smith for the opportunities it gave you as a child or gives your children or grandchildren today, please click here to make a gift of $50 or more to become a member today!

During the week of October 10th to 16th, Smith will be the beneficiary of the Trolley Car Diner & Cafe’s Helping Hands Week program. When you dine at the Trolley Car Diner or Trolley Car Cafe and present a special coupon to the cashier, 15% of your meal purchase will be donated to Smith!

Please bring your friends and family to dine-in or carry-out at the Trolley Car Diner or Trolley Car Cafe October 10th to October 16th to support Smith, support a local business, and have a great meal. The more the merrier!

On Saturday, July 23rd Smith celebrated 112 years of providing the children of Philadelphia and beyond with a free and safe place to play, and exercise both their bodies and imaginations. Despite temperatures just over 100°, several hundred visitors still joined Smith for games, crafts, birthday cake, water ice, story time, and musical performances.

The day began with staff in place to welcome the crowds and offer raffle tickets to win a Smith birthday party.

Denise's Delicacies, Fresh Grocer of Progress Plaza, and ShopRite of Parkside generously donated beautifully decorated cakes.

Chocolate or vanilla? Decisions, decisions.....

It did not take long for the cakes to be gobbled up. While perhaps less beautiful, they were no less delicious.

On such a hot day, many visitors preferred their sweets ice-cold. Girard Avenue Rita's Water Ice generously provided refreshing birthday cake flavored water ice.

Time to burn off all that cake with games provided by the Junior League of Philadelphia!

Kids made up their own competition to see who could get the biggest bubble captured on camera. Here's the winner!

Lolly Hopwood of the Let's Play Today Bunch on guitar and Carolyn Gadbois on African drums entertained young ones. The drums drew visitors from all corners of the Playground to dance and play games to the music.

Lolly and Carolyn also brought along a parachute canopy for more games on the Playground.

Is anyone under there?

Back to another station offered by the Junior League of Philadelphia, face-painting! Volunteers helped apply paint. Alternatively, caregivers, friends, or even self-face painting was encouraged.

Checking out his friend's face painting expertise.

On the Side Porch, kids and their adults could relax in the shade and choose from a variety of fun crafts led by the Junior League of Philadelphia. This little girl required her mom's assistance with making a festive birthday hat.

These boys were very serious about sticker placement on their potted plants.

Cynthia Kreilick, author of the bilingual book Slide! led story time and coached kids on reading in English and Spanish.

Just steps away from the Slide! story time with Cynthia Kreilick was the subject of the book--the famous Ann Newman Giant Wooden Slide. While SMITH was turning 112, the slide is just 106 years old and doesn't show its age due to an extensive restoration in 2005.

After a long day of play in the sun, kids cooled off in the sprinkler before heading home.

Thanks again to the Junior League of Philadelphia, Lolly Hopwood and Carolyn Gadbois, Cynthia Kreilick, Girard Avenue Rita’s Water Ice,  Denise’s Delicacies, ShopRite of Parkside, Fresh Grocer of Progress Plaza, and all the visitors for helping make Smith’s 112th Birthday Party a great day for celebrating play!

Click here to purchase tickets

04/06/2011

By Dawn Landers Ey, Volunteer Blogger

We couldn’t be happier that spring is finally here! With warmer weather comes the oppurtunity for our crews to return to the exterior ronovation work that slowed over the long, cold winter.

The side porches are receiving the final touches. We have installed new structural beams to provide the proper support to the porches, and the historic columns that were removed in the fall and restored over the winter are now back in their original spots. The few columns that were beyond repair and could not be salvaged were replaced with replicas. We’ll never tell which columns aren’t original (not because we don’t want to, but because we can’t tell the difference ourselves)!

There has been a lot of progress on the East porch. Support beams were raised and leveled – and one had to be replaced. The cornice is now installed and contractors are laying down protective stainless steel roofing panels. The West porch roofing deck deomolition is complete and new wood has been installed in its place. In addition, new posts for the upper porch have been delivered an are scheduled to be fitted shortly.

This is the beginning of the end of the current capital projects. With many restoration projects there are challenges and surprises. That holds true for us too, but all this hard work is so rewarding and makes our current ”SMITH family” feel connected to the original Smith family. We invite you to stop by and get aquainted with the old and new SMITH!

Media Sponsor: Univision  

Putting Challenge and Tip a Jug games provided by: J-Dogs, Inc. 

Cascarones provided by: Cascarones por la Vida

03/10/2011

By Dawn Landers Ey, Volunteer Blogger

As first signs of spring emerge from the ground, we are bursting with excitement at the beauty that continues to emerge with the reconstruction work at SMITH! 

In our last blog entry, we showed you the beginning stages of the reassembly of our first floor bathrooms.  The new floor is in, so our crews are no longer balancing on the studs to work.  The beautiful ceramic tile is complete – most of it is original and some of it is new, but you’d never know the difference. It looks that good.  New heaters, Koala safety seats, changing tables, water fountains, safety pipe covers, coat hooks, towel dispensers and energy-saving lights will be officially open on Tuesday, March 15.  In a nutshell, the bathroom looks incredible and we can’t wait for you to see it!

In other areas of the first floor, the walls are taking shape as well.  The plaster work is done and cured in the reception area, administrative offices, halls, play room and snack room.  A coat of primer is painted on and offers a hint that the end to the challenging “wall work” is imminent.  Final coats of low VOC paint are going up now!  Our friends at the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust have shellacked most of the woodwork and there are a few final areas that will be finished-up shortly. 

Work has also begun on the Playground side porch rooftop.  Weary old wood has been removed and a new layer is being put down.  Soon the columns will go back up on both side porches and the Playhouse will begin to look more like itself again!

Thank you for checking on our progress.  We invite you to stop by the Playhouse for a closer look at all the work we’ve done.  Remember, the outdoor Playground will open on April 1st.  So we hope to see you at SMITH soon!

SMITH’s annual report for the fiscal year 2010 is now available. We invite you to read a summary of exciting changes, activities, and accomplishments.

Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse, Inc. Annual Report 2010

01/26/11

By Dawn Landers Ey, Volunteer Blogger

Restoration is really starting to take shape around SMITH’s Playhouse. If you haven’t been inside in a while, we are certain you will share in our delight at the transformation!

Paint removal on the first floor is finally complete. As you can imagine, removing years of paint from the plaster walls has revealed long-hidden scars. The walls are badly in need of restoration before we can apply a fresh coat of paint. So plaster repair throughout the first floor is next on the agenda.

Stripping and refinishing the woodwork is an ongoing project for our friends from the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust. In the first floor playroom, they have finished brushing four coats of garnet shellac onto the refinished woodworking. We are pleased to report it looks beautiful and we can’t wait to see the same work take place elsewhere. The lobby, stairwell, snack room and administrative office on the first floor are also in various stages of stripping and refinishing in preparation for their own applications of shellac.

The first floor bathroom is taking shape as well. A new water fountain has been installed and the original cabinetry has been stripped of paint and is ready for shellac.

New walls cover the wooden studs we showed you a few weeks back and the newly formed stalls are being appointed with original ceramic tiles that were salvaged during the demolition phase. Chipping the originals tiles off the wall was a painstaking process, but so worth the effort. We are also using new, matching tiles to augment the tile work when necessary.

Because of the cold weather conditions, exterior work is at a minimum right now. We are thrilled to tell you the Playhouse columns stand tall and silent on our back porch graciously awaiting installation. While we were not able to salvage all of the original columns due to damage or weakened condition, the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust was able to strip and restore 20 of the 22 columns to their original grandeur. The Trust was pleased to find these original solid wood columns still in existence as this is a rare occurrence. We look forward to warmer temperatures that will allow the construction crew to set these beautiful columns back into place beneath the side porches.

In the meantime, we invite you to bring your little ones indoors to play at the Playhouse (and see the fruits of our labor for yourself). SMITH’s Playhouse is open to children 5 and under Tuesday-Sunday from 10AM to 4PM.

12/22/10

By Dawn Landers Ey, Volunteer Blogger

The weather outside might be frightful, but the chilly temperatures haven’t prevented our crews from working away to restore SMITH Playhouse to its original grandeur.  A lot of the projects we told you about last time are still underway and coming along nicely.  Every day the excitement builds and we are so looking forward to seeing the results of all the hard work.

We are thrilled to be winding down the paint removal process.  Paint has been removed from the walls in the first floor office, the stairwell to Smithville and the Snack Room.  The Snack Room floor and lobby walls have also been stripped clean of paint in recent weeks.

Our friends at the Fairmount Historic Preservation Trust are busy refinishing the woodwork throughout the first floor.  They started with the painstaking removal of the old finish in the first floor play space and office; and they are now stripping the woodwork in the hall.  To give you an idea of the intricacies of this work, the Fairmount Historic Preservation Trust volunteers had to dull darks spots on the play space walls while keeping the original wood patina.  Not an easy task!

A shellac finish will go onto all of the woodwork after it has been stripped and cleaned.  The moldings and paneling in the first floor play space have already received their first two coats.  Fact: Shellac was the original finish brushed on back in 1899.  The modern version we’re using is a non-toxic garnet shellac chosen specifically to match the original tone.  It is safe for kids and makes for easy repair work in the future.  All of the refinished wood surfaces will get three to four coats of garnet shellac.

Another exciting new development is the installation of a waste line in the first floor restroom.  This line will not only service the first floor restrooms, but it will also facilitate the future restroom expansion we have planned for the second floor.

Thank you for checking in our progress.  As a reminder, you can still come by SMITH for some quality playtime.  The doors to Smithville and the second floor of the Playhouse remain open to children under five on the weekends.  We hope to see you at SMITH soon!

12/07/10

By Dawn Landers Ey, Volunteer Blogger

SMITH Playhouse is changing before our very eyes!  It’s so exciting for us to see the transformation that we delight in sharing the progress with you.

Last week, we showed you a picture of the first floor playroom covered almost entirely in protective plastic while layers and layers of paint were being stripped from the ceilings and walls.  This week, we are thrilled to tell you that most of the drop cloths have been cleared away and our friends from the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust are now removing the finish from the wood panels and mouldings.

The first floor restroom is also taking shape.  New studs are all in place, creating the framework for the room’s new floorplan.  Additional wiring for electricity and new copper piping have been installed. Here’s a snapshot of that original cabinetry we told you about last week. We are so excited this gem will finally be revealed to our visitors when the renovations are complete.

Pool removal work continued last week as well.  The pump house is now removed and crews will continue to clear and level the ground.

The side porches look more beautiful by the day.  Both porches now have proper supports in place and all of the columns will be painted with historically accurate colors shortly.   We completed demolition of the northwest side porch balcony, which was beyond repair, and our plan is to restore both balconies to their original appearance.  We also finished painting the ceiling on the playground side porch this week.

The side porch renovation project is funded by a recent award from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.  The side porch restoration work completed in August was generously funded by The 1772 Foundation.  We are so grateful that these resources are helping to restore the Playhouse to her original grandeur.

Thank you to our many visitors who have been patient throughout this (sometimes challenging) process and to our supporters who have helped to make this renovation possible.  We appreciate your dedication and look forward to opening all of SMITH’s doors to you again soon!

12/01/10

By Dawn Landers Ey, Volunteer Blogger

It’s not just the sound of children playing that has SMITH Playhouse all abuzz these days.  Lately, it’s the sound of drills and hammers, too.  On Monday November 8^th we began extensive restoration work to the Playhouse’s side porches and the first floor interior.  The Playhouse has been buzzing with activity ever since!

SMITH’s goal is to return the Playhouse to its original condition with the greatest historical accuracy we can.  One example of this commitment is the paint analysis we’re conducting to determine the original color of the interior walls.  The (soon-to-be) refinished plaster walls on the first floor will be painted with the same color that adorned them on the day the Playhouse opened in 1899.  We can’t wait for you to see the changes!

The restroom on the first floor is being modernized.  We are taking the walls down to the studs and installing new (and separate) restroom stalls, a water fountain and a diaper changing station.  Previously hidden original built-in cabinetry will be revealed! These updates will provide our guests with more convenience when they are visiting us.

Outside, both of the Playhouse side porches are getting facelifts. The wood work is being cleaned, repaired and preserved.  This includes replacing a few of the original columns, which had deteriorated beyond restoration, and adding a fresh coat of paint. In addition, construction crews are demolishing the pools that were installed next to the Playhouse way back in the 1960’s and are no longer in use.

It is so exciting to see this stage of renewal in full-swing.  Our restoration crew is here Monday through Friday so the Playhouse is closed to visitors on those days.   But please come play on the upper and lower levels Saturdays and Sundays between 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  You can enter through the Playground side porch.  Look for our signs to point the way.

We will continue to share our progress with you through weekly updates on the SMITH Playhouse Construction Blog.  We invite you to check back regularly to see how things are shaping up at SMITH.