B.F. Day Playfield is located in the Fremont neighborhood at 4020 Fremont Ave N.
The Olmsted Brothers’ 1903 Comprehensive Plan recommended building independent playgrounds in addition to an interconnected park and parkway system. They urged the city to secure land “where there are opportunities for playgrounds.”
This site was acquired and partially developed for playfield purposes by 1909, and in that year the parks commissioners reported that “though only a little over an acre in area and but recently completely improved, [this playfield] is an exceedingly popular recreation center for the youth of the populous suburb of Fremont” noting also that it “is on very high and slightly property. . . .” In addition to a playground and ballfield, the park includes a shelter house dating to 1911, making it one of the oldest in the parks system.
The playfield and neighboring school are named for Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Day, Fremont realtors who donated part of their farm in 1892 for a permanent school. When the park site was acquired in 1907, the ROW for 40th Street that separated the park from the school was also vacated.