Tonsler Recreation Center — Attraction in Charlottesville

Tonsler Park is a pretty nice park, it has a huge play structure with ladders, slides, even a children's rock climbing practice wall as well as a shallow pool. There are quite a few tables, basketball area, a softball field, sans bases if I recall correctly and the grass is obviously well maintained (by 'normal' city standards, as a country boy I say humans have a morbid fascination with cutting things down). I'm not really a fan of the paved portions but I can see it's appeal to parents with children still in strollers. There is also the convenience of restrooms with fold down changing tables... I can only verify that for the men's restroom but I imagine it is a safe assumption there is one in the women's restroom as well.

The amount of the park which is paved is the reason I hold back...

Attended my grand son's birthday party here last weekend and was pleasantly surprised at the Spray Park addition. I've seen comments on the sketchy people hanging around without children on the picnic tables under the trees. This park was a hang out mainly for men of he neighborhood, Fifeville Community. With all the regentrification and new urban residents/home prices so high, I just wonder how the community people feel about them seemingly being pushed out by recent upgrades to attract more residents/visitors to this area. After all the strife of Auust 12 I think the City might want to be a little more respectful of the...

My kids really enjoyed this park! We had a picnic at the picnic tables, which were in a comfortable, shaded area. The spray ground was a lot of fun and a great way for them to cool off. They both enjoyed playing on the playground, and there was an interesting climbing toy that surrounded a rope spiderweb. There were plenty of swings and also a separate playground area for smaller children. The spray ground and the playground are right next to each other, so it was easy to keep an eye on my kids no matter where they played.

There isn't much parking, but aside from that...