Phillips Park
Triangle North Neighborhood, Milwaukee
1800 N 17th Street, Milwaukee
Another on the MKE Plays Initiative list of recently renovated playgrounds, Phillips park is filled with play equipment you won’t find anywhere else in the city.
The park is a long, skinny strip of land along 17th Street between Walnut and Vine. There’s no real green space at this playground (though there are beautiful trees and bits of grass in between play areas). A sidewalk wraps around the perimeter from the two half-court basketball blacktops at the north end behind Cross church to the exercise equipment zone just south of Shalom High School on the other side. A fence separates the park from 17th Street traffic, and the alleyway on the east border. The terrain is partly concrete and partly rubber flooring. The color scheme is blue, teal, and dark pink. Street parking is available right along 17th as well as on 16th if you prefer a quieter parking spot around the block.
There are two benches at the center of the park, perfect for relaxing while you keep an eye on things. There’s also a picnic table with benches at the south end. When you walk up the park’s main entrance, the basketball courts are to the left and an equally kid and adult friendly exercise area is just to the right. Past this zone is a large round bouncing apparatus perfect for multiple kids to enjoy, along with a set of three drums. Next you’ll find an obstacle course style section with two spinners and a series of web climbers with suspended tunnels that leads to a round monkey-bar area. I love the footholds built into this which allow kids of all sizes to access the bars, and the handholds built into the support structure that encourage climbing all over the thing, not just dangling from the interconnecting circles.
There’s a slide next, but it’s another unique piece, with a climbing wall to scale and a curling structure which forms a tunnel at the top - again equipped with hand holds to allow climbing the outside and roof. A basic set of four swings (two standard, two infant) is at the center of the park near the benches, along with a large plastic disc swing. Duck past the shady area beneath the largest tree in the park and you’ll find a towering icosahedron filled with spiderweb ropes for climbing, and a second set of exercise equipment along with extra benches and a picnic table.
One of the neatest bonus features of this park is the fabulous art - the giant mural on the rear side of Cross church, the decorated basketball backboards, and pictures painted at the back of the school.
This park is awesome for kids who love climbing. There isn’t a ton of equipment designed for the toddler set, but my one year old found plenty to do, and the bigger kids were on cloud 9.
Check out lots more pictures of the park, its equipment and features below!
