by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, June 18, 2021.
It isn’t named ‘Barney.’ It would be a copyright violation if the purple dinosaur in the playground on Front Street was named ‘Barney.’ When it was installed as a riding toy, in 1996, the PBS program “Barney and Friends” was wildly popular with the under-five set. Purchasing a branded version of the popular character would have sent costs soaring, so the park’s version is simply called ‘Purple Dinosaur.’
The playground is on a triangular piece of land that was owned by Colonel John Gilman in the early 1700s. When Gilman died in 1742, his will left most of the land to the town to be used as a cemetery. The three ‘points’ of the triangle were left to Gilman’s three sons. The Winter Street Cemetery was in use for the next hundred years and is the final resting place for many of Exeter’s Revolutionary War veterans both Black and white. The cemetery is enclosed by a rock wall that was erected in the 1820s and upgraded over the years. When a new cemetery on Linden Street was laid out in 1844, the old Winter Street location fell into a cycle of neglect and restoration. The three points of land adjoining the cemetery had different fates. The one closest to Front Street and the railroad tracks was developed with shops and a few homes. The tip on the corner of Railroad Avenue and Winter Street was home to the town pound. The piece that would become the playground had no structures and seems to have been maintained as a piece of open land. Neighboring families often used the area as a park – a nice place to have a picnic, perhaps.
The town erected a schoolhouse on Winter Street just opposite the cemetery in 1893, bringing school children to the area. In 1906, the little school was moved and a larger one was built in its place. The following year, the land was available from the estate of Annie Leavitt Marsailles. It was purchased and offered to the town. Voters accepted the proposal at the 1907 town meeting and the area was dubbed West End Park. Although likely used for play by area children, it wasn’t an official playground. The movement towards playground development began a decade later with organized play programs during the summer months. Winter Street school got its own playground in the 1920s. Meanwhile, the West End Park continued to be a beauty spot.
The park’s location abutting the cemetery made it the perfect site for the Daughters of the American Revolution to hold a patriotic ceremony. “The public is invited to attend the exercising on Saturday afternoon, May 28, (1932) at 3 o’clock, when Exeter Chapter, D.A.R., will plant a tree, commemorative of the George Washington bicentennial celebration. These exercises will take place on Upper Front Street, on land adjoining the old cemetery. The committee in charge have arranged a program that should prove interesting and in this the children of the town schools will participate.” Boy Scout bugles called the program to order and singing of the newly adopted national anthem, “Star Spangled Banner” preceded the unveiling of a tablet on a boulder that reads, “In memory of George Washington 1732 – 1799 This tree planted by Exeter Chapter D.A.R. in the bicentennial year of his birth.” A tree was planted behind the boulder with costumed George and Martha Washington stand-ins presiding.
We hear little more about the park until 1974. The town, by that time, had a full department of Recreation and Parks overseeing the leisure time activities available to town residents. Ball fields, tennis courts, public ice skating, arts and crafts, swim team, basketball, soccer, baseball and a senior citizens club had grown over the decades. The little park is mentioned in director Doug Dicey’s annual report only to mention, “the two swing sets that were installed at Front Street Park and Park Street Common will add to the enjoyment of children in those areas.” Other playground equipment was added in the following years. By 1996, however, the Exeter Friends of Recreation began raising funds to refurbish the park, describing the existing condition in an Exeter News-Letter article as: “’pretty seedy.’ The grounds are ‘rough’ and the equipment is old.” Indeed, the accompanying photograph shows an old swing set, a half-buried tractor tire and a teeter-totter that is too high off the ground for small children to attempt. The purple dinosaur arrived and, as the most visible feature of the playground, became the unofficial mascot for both the park and the cemetery.
Often, here at the Exeter Historical Society, we direct genealogists toward the cemetery only to be asked, “Oh, you mean the purple dinosaur cemetery?” Of course, we would never use that as the name for such a historic place, but it was good that the renovations to the park last year included keeping the friendly piece of equipment. The playground today is officially called “Kids Fun Park” and caters to our preschoolers. Stopping by to visit the place this week, there were over a dozen kids riding the swings and climbing over the new log structures. “I have a question,” I asked a small group of parents, “when you tell the kids you’re going to this park, what do you call it?” Without a moment of hesitation, one mother answered, “Purple Dinosaur Playground.”
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Photo: Members of the Exeter Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution dedicate a small monument in the West End Park on May 28, 1932, to commemorate the George Washington bicentennial.