Open 1/2 hour before sunrise
Close 1/2 hour after sunset
Kandle Park includes walking trails, a new playground & sprayground, skateboard area, wave pool with four 25 meter lap lanes and a separate spraypool.
About the Park
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Play Area Accessibility Details
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- Parking: Yes – designated for Park & Pool
- Restroom: Yes
- Water Fountain: Yes – attached to restrooms
- Surface: Completely rubberized
- Swings: Yes – (0) high back support swings (one has been requested)
- Ground Play: Equal number and type of ground and elevated elements
- Adaptive Play: Ramped access to AeroGlider and all play structures; transfer to seats and saucer
- Sensory Play: Manipulatives, Imagination
- Play Tables: (2) play tables under each play structure
- Shade: Limited surrounding play structure; some structure alcoves
- Accommodations: Many picnic tables surround the structure; not enclosed
- Sprayground: A few water features adjacent to playground. Site is next to enclosed Kandle Pool water park.
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Park History
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In 1953, Leona Maude Kandle left the bulk of her estate to the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma for the establishment of a public playground. Ms. Kandle directed that the new park be called: George B. Kandle Playfield, in honor of her late father and former mayor of Tacoma. The terms of the will provided a five-year period for the conversion of these holdings into cash.
The Park Board planned to use the funds to develop playgrounds adjacent to Downing Elementary and Stanley Elementary. Eventually all the money went to the development of Kandle Park, adjoining Downing Elementary – between North 23rd street and North 26th street and North Shirley Street and North Baltimore Streets on land owned by the Tacoma School District. The School District sold the land to the Park District in 1958 for $1,104.
In 1960, Harold Sitts of Sitts & Hill Engineers was hired to design the new park. The cost of the project was $120,229.65. Work began on June 30, 1960 and the dedication of the completed playfield was July 1961.
In 1983 a Community Development Block Grant was awarded for $14,606 and used to modify the restroom building near the playground to remove architectural barriers.
New playground equipment was installed in 1994 and again in 2012. The 2012 improvement campaign also included irrigation throughout the park, extensive landscaping and walking trails, a mini sprayground, and a massive swimming pool facility featuring a seventy-five hundred square foot zero-depth wave pool, four twenty-five-meter lap lanes, spray toys, and a separate spray pool. ADA improvements to the pool were installed the following year.
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Park Improvements
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May 11, 1979 – NW Boys Club applies for a building permit for a clubhouse on School District property adjacent to Downing Elementary and Kandle Park. The Club will share parking with Kandle Park.
1983 – Thanks to a Community Development Block Grant, $14,606.90 was spent to modify the restroom/playground building at Kandle Park to remove architectural barriers. The work was completed in 1984.
1994 – new play ground equipment installed
- Work consisted of demolition of damaged logs and replacing with same
- Demolition of entire section of horizontal ladder and its footings
- Install free-standing Ring Maze Big Toy
2009 – Kandle Park & Pool Master Plan
2012 – irrigation throughout the park, extensive landscaping, walking trails, a new playground, skate dots, mini-sprayground, additional parking, 7,500 sf zero-depth wave pool, four 25 meter lap lanes, spray toys, separate spraypool, support buildings.
2013 – ADA improvements to the pool including installation of pool bars for accessible access
