St. Mary's Playground

St. Mary’s Playground is anchored by a steep, terraced hillside that drops sharply toward the baseball diamond below. When the city acquired this land in the nineteen thirties, engineers struggled with the unstable slope, which threatened to slide into the housing bordering the park. To secure the hillside, crews built massive, tiered retaining walls using local chert stone. These walls still hold the park together, creating a distinct, fortress-like edge that separates the ball field from the quiet residential streets above.