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Once it stood as a pillar of community spirit in Nutley until it came crumbling down.

The town hasn’t forgotten Creative Playground 10 years after it closed down. The old wooden playground had many stairs and different levels to emulate either a castle, a fort, a ship or something else depending on how much imagination went into it.

A modern playground can now be found at Nichols Park where the old one stood, but people remember its wooden counterpart fondly.

“All the kids had fun over there,” Nutley historian John Demmer said. “I remember days where you couldn’t even get on the things that are over there because there were just so many people. People from Clifton and Bloomfield and other towns came to that playground to use it.”

In 1992, Creative Playground was built and funded through donations by the community. 

Jen Pela remembered being a child when town officials asked her class at Radcliffe School for suggestions about the park.

“They showed us plans and talked about environmentally friendly materials for padding and fill to make the ground soft,” Pela said. “And my dad went there for a few weekends and built it.”

For the next 16 years, it was a popular destination, but in June 2008 it closed because of a rodent problem. Later that year, it was announced the park would be demolished.

Experts found toxic chemicals emanating from the obsolete wood.

It was a tough blow for Nutley, Demmer said.

“It hurt a lot of people’s feelings,” he said. “It was much more than just a playground for the kids. It was a community effort and a big loss to the town when we had to change it over.”

In December 2010, the new playground opened at Nichols Park, smaller than its predecessor. The playground has a more open feel than the old one and uses plastic and metal instead of wood.

Demmer still misses the old part of Nutley history, and remembered bringing his kids there.

“The kids would go up in it and be pirates or storm the castle,” he said. “It had a lot more of the old-fashioned type feel to it than the ones today.”

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