Joseph Lee

Joseph Lee (March 8, 1862July 28, 1937) was a wealthy Bostonian who trained as a lawyer but never practiced law, and is considered the "founder of the playground movement". He was a social worker, author, and philanthropist. Lee believed that community life could be strengthened by playgrounds and play. Lee was also a proponent of eugenics and a major financial supporter of the Immigration Restriction League, a Boston-based group that promoted race-based eugenics as a basis for restricting immigration from eastern and southern Europe. Background Joseph Lee was born on March 8, 1862, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Elizabeth Perkins (Cabot) and Henry Lee, a banker. In 1897, Lee married Margaret Cabot. They had four children. Margaret Cabot Lee died in 1920 and Lee remarried his secretary, Margsion Snow, in 1930. Lee's daughter, Susan Lee, was active in her father's work and later served as vice-president of the National Recreation and Park Association. His son, Joseph Lee Jr., helped establish the Massachusetts Committee to Further Outdoor Recreation and the Boston Board of Recreation and served as chairman of the Boston Park Commission and Boston School Committee. Lee founded the Massachusetts Civic League and served as its president from 1897 to 1937. He was an active officer in the Immigration Restriction League from 1905 until his death in 1937. He served as president of the National Recreation Association from 1910 until the time of his death.