Tench Tilghman Elementary Middle School’s playground serves both school students and the wider community. Until 2017, it was in poor condition and lacked appropriate lighting, seating, trash cans, or equipment that served a diverse group of ages. The Monument McElderry Fayette Revitalization Plan set a goal of revitalizing the playground, and in 2014, a group of staff from the school, Banner Neighborhoods, and MICA Place came together with community residents from CARE and McElderry Park and local business owners to create the Playground Working Group. The group worked with landscape architects at Hord Coplan Macht to redesign the playground and basketball court. The group coordinated between Baltimore City Public Schools to remove the existing deteriorating play equipment and install new equipment (funded by KaBOOM!), rubber safety surfacing, basketball court surface, bleachers, fencing, trash cans, tables, and shade structures.
This project was supported financially by contributions from the Baltimore Regional Neighborhoods Initiative, the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Grant, the Baltimore Community Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, Citizens Planning and Housing Association, Maryland Governor’s Office for Service and Volunteerism, and Baltimore City Public Schools.
