Young Life in an Old Town: Powhatan Park

I’ll confess that for the second week in a row, I did not take Sophia to any outdoor playgrounds. It was just too hot to do much besides visit the pool. Even staying indoors was warmer than usual as my air conditioning unit failed to cool the house below 81 degrees until the wee hours of the mornings.

I was determined to at least photograph and write up a playground this week. After all, September is right around the corner and our kids will play outside again eventually!

I remembered driving past Powhatan Park when visiting friends in the area but I had to refer to the Alexandria Parks and Recreation site to find the address. My GPS could not find Douglas Street (in Alexandria that is…apparently this address exists in Missouri as well) but my trusty iPhone saved the day.

Location: 1010 Douglas Street is just off of Powhatan and the street dead ends at the park and playground. It’s kind of a funny location for a park. On one side is an alley that runs behind a residential block of homes and busy Route 1 is on the other side. The playground could be considered walking distance from the Potomac Greens shopping and restaurant area in nice weather. However, there’s not much parking and I’m guessing that the park is primarily used by the residents of the immediate neighborhood. This is a small park designed for children ages 2-5.

Equipment: One play structure, a see saw, a crescent climbing structure, two regular swings and two bucket swings, and a bouncy rocking horse.

Shade? Not that I noticed.

For Adults: A bench.

Fenced? Yes.

Bathrooms? No. The playground is a few blocks from Vaso’s Kitchen, which I believe would be the closest public restroom.

Miscellaneous: I’m not sure if it just happened to be the day we visited, but this playground looks like it could use a little TLC. The surface area is a mix of mulch and grass and the grass was not in great shape.

One of the bigger kid swings appeared to be broken as well. On the positive side, there are basketball courts and tennis courts, as well as an open area for running and playing. It seems like this is a playground that would get a significant amount of use because of it is surrounded by a residential area so I was surprised that it was not better maintained.

When one of the swings broke in the Montgomery Park playground, it was replaced within a few weeks, and it seems like all of the swings are new there this summer. This is the first Old Town area park I have encountered so far that looked like it needed some work and I would love to hear from residents in this area as to whether this is an ongoing issue.