327 Patton St, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Hours: Monday-Sunday (7 AM-6 PM)
Restrooms? No
Playground Surface: Rubber
Parking Lot? No. Street parking only and is very limited
Gated/Fenced? Yes. Completely fenced with a gate that closes upon entering
Overview
Located in Echo Park, just on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles, Patton Street Park is a small, quaint park. The gated park features exercise equipment and a big picnic area above the playground. The main attraction for the kids is a boat with a slide built into it. On the rocks below the boat, there are built in sculptures of starfishes and an octopus. The area surrounding the boat is encompassed by artificial mounds or “ant hills” for the kids to climb. Smaller kids such as our daughter absolutely love these. The only other equipment for kids here is the deceptively fast metal slide. Even though the playground is lacking basic equipment, it is still very enjoyable and the smaller size focuses the kids attention to the one main area with the boat and on being more imaginative.
Features
- Really cool concrete boat for kids to play on with a slide
- “Ant Hills for kids to run and play on
- Super fast metal slide at the top of the hill
Other Amenities
- Good size picnic area and exercise equipment
Drawbacks
- Street parking only and it can be hard to come by
- There is some graffiti on the boat, aesthetically taking away from it. I have no idea why anyone would find it necessary to graffiti on a kids playground
- No restrooms
- No swings
Scouts Story
My wife and I, along with our 19 month old daughter, Scout, set out early for downtown Los Angeles. We don’t typically spend a lot of time in the Los Angeles area, however, Scout would be getting PET scans at Childrens Hospital the following day for her cancerous tumors so that we could determine our next steps as to her treatment. These are never fun days for Scout, so the idea was to let her have some fun before going to our hotel. Our initial stop was at Vista Hermosa Park. As we were leaving, I was on google maps and noticed Patton Street Park less than five minutes down the street. Scout was getting close to being ready for a nap, but we decided to stop and play for a bit.
The first thing we did was head for the slide at the top of the hill.
My wife and I took turns taking her down and were both caught off guard by how fast it was. Once at the bottom of the slide, Scout ran towards the boat and the main play area. The boat has a slide built into it that Scout went up and down for some time. My favorite thing about the playground was the Ant hill in front of the boat.
I have only seen these at a few other parks but Scout absolutely loves them. They are little mounds that younger kids have a great time climbing on. There is not a whole lot to the park but it is extremely cute.
Scouts Journey
After about 30 minutes, we packed up and headed for our hotel. We got Scout her last meal of the day and then started the fasting process. One of the hardest things is not being able to feed your kid when they are begging for food and having no way of explaining to them as to why, being that Scout isn’t even two years old yet. We woke up at 5 AM the next morning and made the five minute drive to Children’s Hospital. Everything went off without a glitch and after 10 weeks of waiting for scans we would finally be getting some answers.
