Description
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.