21st-century playground enhances fun, community

By Juanita I.C. Traughber, Director of Marketing & Communications

Making a festive debut and memorable start to the school year, a new 21st-century playground has generated enthusiasm among generations of University School of Nashville students and families. 

“It is 100 times better. It’s like a real, real playground,” said Teddy Arsenault ’37 while at recess. “It’s pretty cool because I like climbing things.”

Situated on the northeast corner of the Back Lawn, “the real playground” is actually a 10,368-square-foot turf play space lined by a walking path. It has several climbing structures, including a 5-foot-tall tiger head with Columbia blue stripes, a “Physics Full Moon” covered in ropes, a faux rock billy goat climber, and a rotating cone-shaped climber that spins when pushed, similar to a merry-go-round. Teddy said his favorite is the “Tapered Tower,” an 8-foot-tall workout-like structure that encourages competition through a rope ladder and foot and handhold bars with a bell to ring once at the top.

The main play structure is two stories tall, nearly touching trees, and has four slides. 

“That is a fun obstacle course,” said Carter Cox ’35, catching her breath.

Nearby are a balance walk, six swings, a net swing, and circle benches forming a perimeter around trees. The entire playscape is developmentally appropriate for children ages 5-12 and compliant with safety standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, among other international entities.

And Lower Schoolers said they are excited and relieved to leave days of splinter-filled play behind.

Last fall, Director of Auxiliary Services Rebecca Stokes solicited input from students attending After School and partnered with Director of Operations Erik Mash ’93, Chief Financial Officer Alex Heiberger, Director of Development Anne Westfall, and then Kindergarten Teacher Misha Davydov to solicit bids from vendors. Working through multiple design drafts, the project team settled on Miracle Recreation, which manufactured playground equipment in Missouri and subcontracted a turf vendor from North Carolina. The Board of Trustees approved the project in April, just a few hours after a tree fell on the former playground.

The new playground is dedicated to Interim Director Juliet Douglas for her steadfast leadership, welcoming presence, deep care for students, and enduring commitment to USN's mission and community.

“It was a unanimous Board vote. We just felt like she needed to be honored as she came back in the same way that Kay [Simmons] was an Interim Head. Juliet is an Interim Head who has brought back the joy,” said Building and Grounds Committee Chair McLean Barbieri ’97. “And it brought full circle the kind of community that USN embodies. This new playground structure is going to honor both of them and the commitment that they've had to USN being what it is.”

Although the official grand opening of the playground was during the annual back-to-school Popsicle Party on Sunday, August 10, alumni and parents of alumni gathered a day earlier to reminisce about the 1991 community-built playground, which was dedicated to the late Interim Director Kay Simmons two years later. Among those in attendance were the Simmons family, retired After School Director Beth Thornburg who worked through design charets with students, retired faculty and staff who organized food for 200 volunteers and assisted with the $12,315 Buy-A-Board fundraising campaign, alumni who as young students painted nails and rubbed them in soap, parents of alumni who worked far out of their regular professions and skillsets to build the wooden playstructure, and professional builders who guided dozens of students and parents. 

“These are all people I love and know, and they can't be hoping for anything other than greatness for what's going to happen to the school. It's so important to get it right, because all of you did something so big in the life of our school, in setting the example for linking arms, dreaming big, and working really hard,” Douglas said. 

They traded stories about Simmons, playground building accidents, and working 18-hour days to complete the former wooden structure in one week. The end result landed the school on the front page of The Tennessean and gave the USN community a structure that brought joy and imaginative play to recess for 34 years.

“I want us to remember that that's really what makes [USN] so special. I just want you to know my heart is full with gratitude. I also want to say, of course, thank you,” Douglas said. “Many of you are in the room who donated already to this awesome kind of spaceship, 20-story playground.”

An extraordinary $600,000 endeavor, the playspace has come to life thanks to the generous and heartfelt philanthropic support of USN families.

“The moment we received the Board’s green light in early April, excitement surged, and the fundraising began, all while we carefully kept the joyful secret that the playground would be dedicated to Juliet,” Westfall said. “Imagining the laughter, the friendships, and the countless adventures of future generations swinging, climbing, and spinning on these structures filled our conversations with delight. We are profoundly grateful to the families whose generosity made this dream a reality.”

Demolition of the former playground began July 9, and contractors and Operations staff continued working, adding finishing touches the day before school began. Other than the April fall of an otherwise healthy hackberry tree, no existing trees were removed.

Have a community-built playground memory to share? Can you recall any play structures that predated the 1990s? We’d love to hear from you. Email those recollections to Director of Marketing & Communications Juanita Traughber.