Title: Dennis the Menace Playground Development Scrapbook 1952-1957

Dates: 1952-1957

Collection Number: ARC 537

Creator/Collector:

Extent: 1 scrapbook: 50 x 51 cm.

Repository: Monterey Public Library

Abstract: Scrapbook documents the planning, fundraising, and development of Dennis the Menace Playground in Monterey.

Language of Material: English

Access by appointment only; contact Local History Librarian or designated staff.

Reproduction by Local History Librarian or other designated staff; may be restricted due to condition of the materials.

[Identification of item]. Dennis the Menace Playground Development Scrapbook 1952-1957. Collection Number: ARC 537. Monterey Public Library

Gift from the Monterey Peninsula Junior Chamber of Commerce.

In the spring of 1952, the Monterey City Planning Commission designated a rubbish dump site at Lake El Estero for a new city recreation area, including a baseball park, a picnic area, and a childrenʼs playground. The Monterey Peninsula Junior Chamber of Commerce, under President Charles F. Warren, undertook the project of funding and building the playground. They enlisted the popular cartoonist Hank Ketcham to design the playground, and Mr. Ketcham employed the designer and sculptor Arch Garner to create the play apparatus. The Jaycees raised money, and obtained donated material and skilled labor for the project, including the transport of a railroad switch engine and tender to the site by the Army Corps of Engineers at Fort Ord. Monterey city crews graded the site, installed irrigation and plants, and erected fencing. The playground, named after Ketchamʼs comic strip character, Dennis the Menace, was completed by this joint community effort in one year, after some three years of planning, in the fall of 1956. Charles Warren, coincidentally, was acting city manager at that time.

It contains typed memos (digests) outlining plans for funding of the Playground, including master plan map; news clippings, black-and-white photographs and a color slide related to fundraising activities and advertisements; two descriptive brochures; correspondence; news stories and pictures of the Monterey Fishermenʼs Festival in which the Jaycees participated; flyers and a certificate signed by Hank Ketcham; blue prints of play apparatus (Spring Gym, Giant Swing, The Thing) and recreational areas (the wading pool); photographs of the designer, Arch Garner, trying out the play apparatus; news stories on the moving of the railroad steam engine No. 212853 (donated by Southern Pacific Railroad) to the Playground; news stories and announcements about the grand opening on November 17, 1956; black-and-white photographs of the Playground in overview and of children playing on the equipment and in the wading pool and sand areas; publicity correspondence; articles about the Playground that appeared in local, regional, and national publications; correspondence about a Universal Pictures Newsreel segment on the Playground; correspondence from numerous civic and government organizations expressing interest and appreciation of the facility; and publicity, including a 10-minute 16mm film, a brochure, and 6-page typed information letter produced by the Monterey Jaycees about the development of the Playground.