A leftover stretch of pavement in East Fairmount Park is now a giant board game, and I would cross the park to see it. The SmithQuest Playground was unveiled on Monday, October 19, when Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse opened a life-sized game painted across the ground. It started as the part of a parking lot nobody needed.
Here is the quick version. Smith sits at 3500 Reservoir Drive in East Fairmount Park, and admission is always free. From October through March it is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Mondays. Smith is also closed now and then for private events or maintenance, so check its website or social pages before you load up the stroller.
How the SmithQuest Playground Came From a Parking Lot
A recent parking lot redesign added accessible parking at Smith and left a stretch of pavement over. Smith teamed up with Playful Learning Landscapes, a nonprofit that builds learning prompts into everyday public spaces, to turn it into a place to play. Executive Director Frances Hoover put the idea simply: see “possibilities where others might simply see pavement.”
The result, the SmithQuest Playground, is a ground mural with three-dimensional elements, laid out as a pathway of challenges. Kids move through it, think, create and work together, and the first group got to try it at an 11 a.m. ribbon-cutting. Think of it as a board game where the children are the pieces.
Playful Learning Landscapes led the project and coordinated the creative process. It brought in muralist Andre N. Chaney and fabricator Derek Weston of Weston Design & Fabrication Studios. Chaney is a Philadelphia painter, illustrator and teaching artist whose work centers African American history and culture, and whom Mural Arts named a featured emerging artist for Mural Arts Month in 2025.
Smith says the game design was donated by Metcalfe Architecture & Design, and that a William Penn Foundation grant to the nonprofit paid for the work. If you like watching paint turn a spare corner into something useful, our story on the Orianna Hill Dog Park mural is another good one.
SmithQuest grew out of technical help offered at no cost to William Penn Foundation grantees. The nonprofit connects those groups with experts who add games, nature activities and other prompts to benches, walkways, lobbies and outdoor gathering spots. The prompts nudge kids toward counting, talking, observing and solving problems.
Grantees can also tap extra resources for staff time and building costs, which helps an idea become a finished installation. For Smith, which already offers free play, it was a natural fit. Our look at learning adventures in North Philly playgrounds shows the same instinct at work in other corners of the city.
Visiting the SmithQuest Playground This Fall
Smith has been at this since 1899. The playground covers 6.5 acres of East Fairmount Park, with a three-floor Playhouse for indoor play, a 16,000-square-foot building designed by James H. Windrim, and the Ann Newman Giant Wooden Slide outside. Add the SmithQuest Playground and a grown-up has one more reason to stay a while. Smith says the game also gives caregivers a way to join in through shared challenges and conversation.
If you are planning a fall day nearby, our Fairmount Park guide has more ideas. I keep thinking about how many other leftover corners this city has, and what a few good ideas could do with them. For now, one of them is a board game. Next time you are in the park with a kid, check Smith’s hours, walk over, and take your turn on the SmithQuest Playground.
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