Editing Cascade, Seattle (section)

== Cascade Playground ==
[[File:Seattle - Immanuel Lutheran from Cascade P-Patch.jpg|thumb|Immanuel Lutheran seen from the Cascade P-Patch adjacent to the Cascade Playground, 2007.]]
[[File:Seattle - Cascade playground restrooms 02A.jpg|thumb|[[Works Progress Administration|WPA]]-built restrooms, Cascade Playground; Supply Laundry in background.]]
The Cascade Playground (now also known as Cascade Park), originally the playground of the now-demolished Cascade School, has two play areas, a wide field, a picnic table, and restrooms. The park is adjacent to an active community [[P-Patch]] (allotment garden). Improvements to the Cascade Playground play areas, field, and entrance were unveiled in spring 2005, financed by the Pro Parks Levy. Sharing a city block with the playground and P-Patch is the Cascade People's Center, a volunteer organization that partners with over 100 businesses, churches, organizations, and community groups to address advocacy for social and economic justice.

By 1931, although most of this block had come to be owned by the City of Seattle or the [[Seattle Public Schools|School Board]], a number of houses remained owned by individuals. By the end of 1931, however, the owners of these houses had sold out and the buildings were removed (although some basements may still be intact under the park surface). There was debate in the neighborhood over building the playground; in 1934, the pro-playground group eventually prevailed. Still, as late as 1937, the Fairview-Stewart Improvement Club was protested that the Cascade School was old and out of date, itself not worth preserving, and that the increasingly industrial and commercial neighborhood did not need a playfield.<ref name="Link 2004 12" /><ref name=neigh-play>Summary for Harrison-Thomas St, Minor-Pontius AVE / Parcel ID 2467400335 (Cascade Playground). Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Retrieved on 2008-02-06 from http://web1.seattle.gov/dpd/historicalsite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=131518019.</ref>

Between 1934 and 1939, [[Works Progress Administration|WPA]] workers built a retaining wall (only part of which survive), the rest rooms at the northeast corner of the park, and a wading pool (which originally was part of a [[Japanese rock garden|Japanese stone garden]]).<ref name="Link 2004 12" /><ref name=neigh-play /><ref>[http://web1.seattle.gov/DPD/historicalsite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=1256424503 Summary for Harrison-Thomas St, Minor-Pontius AVE / Parcel ID 2467400335 (Cascade Playground Wading Pool and Garden)], Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Accessed online 6 February 2008.</ref><ref>[http://web1.seattle.gov/dpd/historicalsite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=1979976233 Summary for Harrison-Thomas St, Minor-Pontius AVE / Parcel ID 2467400335 (Cascade Playground Retaining Walls)], Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Accessed online 6 February 2008.</ref><ref>[http://web1.seattle.gov/dpd/historicalsite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=-539855928 Summary for Harrison-Thomas St, Minor-Pontius AVE / Parcel ID 2467400335 (Cascade Playground Comfort Station)], Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Accessed online 6 February 2008.</ref>

By the 1970s, according to the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, "the playground site was somewhat bleak and known by locals as the 'Sahara Desert'". A 1971 renovation included a mural on the retaining wall, funded by the Seattle Arts Commission and designed by Mike Love and George Shayler.<ref name=neigh-play /> This was followed by another round of improvements in 2005.