Junipero Serra Playground & Clubhouse

Great hidden gem! My 3 year old likes it here and not too many people come here so he doesn’t get run over like at other parks. It’s clean and new.
I wish the cost to rent the clubhouse wasn’t so expensive as it would be great for parties.

We really enjoy coming to this little park. It’s newly remodeled and less people coming during the week (hardly any, if so everyone comes at different time). Both bathrooms are always clean unlike the other parks.

Review for Clubhouse rental–
You submit your request on the SF Park and Recs website and there are a bunch of restrictions (no jumpers, no helium balloons, etc). The rental is $ 90/​hr and they tack on an extra fee (I forgot what it was) for a SF park and rec person to be there monitoring the clubhouse while you host your event. They pretty much are out of the way while you have your party — they sit in a room doing their homework.
Parking — Plentiful on the street and no restrictions on time on the weekends.
We choose this park because it was close off the freeway and because of available parking.
You clean up the clubhouse (disposal of trash) into there dumpster outside. You get your deposit back in about 1.5 weeks.
Bathroom — it’s shared with the playground people but there is a separate entrance to go in from the clubhouse.
Clubhouse itself is bright and airy with a high ceiling. They provide LIFETIME brand rectangular tables and chairs. (In terms of dimension of the tables — when I emailed the recreation office, they did not know the dimension size).
If you want to check out the clubhouse, you’ll have to pay extra fee for them to opened it for you. Otherwise, it’s LOCKED.
Just because you rent out the clubhouse for a private event, the playground is still open to the public.

Nice little park next to a baseball field & basketball court.
It has a little bit of everything: sandbox, playground structure with slides, merry-​go-​round spinner, infant/​toddler swings, clubhouse, benches, water fountains & tables.
Brought my 3&½ yo, on an early beautiful, sunny & warm thursday morning, & no one was there… she had the park all to herself. She enjoyed the sandbox the most, and played with the water faucet in the sandbox area. (Note to parents: bring some sand toys, you’re kid will love you for it!)
As someone had mentioned before, parking is scarce & limited. Make sure to check the parking signs for parking hours (I posted a photo of the sign)
Great park, considering its in a busy city… would highly recommend taking your kids to enjoy a day relaxing while watching your kids play: D

This is a great little playground! It has a wide, flying-​saucer shaped swing that two or three kids can sit on; it’s suspended from two ropes on either side. It also has a tall tee-​pee shaped rope climbing structure, on a platform that rotates. That one was a little sketchy for my three-​year-​old, but she loved it. A good teeter-​totter, though we weren’t lucky enough to have another child of the right weight around to share it with her. The main play structure has (I think) three different slides. My only complaint here is that each has a metal bar at the top — lots of slides have these so that children can grab onto them and kind of «swing» into the slide as they head down, but most slides that have them also have a sort of protective plastic «hood» around the metal part, to make it more visible. My kid ran up the little slide and just about brained herself on the metal bar, and I overheard another family saying that their child did the same thing. The bar just isn’t that visible without the hood part. There is a little, LITTLE fireman’s pole that is perfect for small children just starting to grasp the concept of how to go down a pole, who aren’t yet ready to safely go down a big one. There’s a sand area with a tulip-​cup twirly seat in the middle, and a water spout, though it was too cold to play with that the day we went. There’s also one of those gliding things that you grab onto, and glide from one platform to another. And there are some odd beads on horizontal bars — kind of like an abacus? I didn’t see the point, but my child happily practiced counting on them, so I guess that’s the point.
The playground is small, but well-​kept, and the bathrooms are SPOTLESS! Can’t tell you what a difference that makes.

What a cute playground! It is a bit hidden but I love that. My only complaint is that it is geared towards younger kids. They only have swings with the bucket seats. The clubhouse is new and looks pretty nice. My daughter and I look forward to coming back.

A friend of mine who seems to know of ALL the updated parks and playgrounds around the city told me about this little hidden gem.
The weather was actually favorable yesterday, albeit a little cold the sun was still out! So I packed up the girls and a little picnic lunch and headed to this park before we went to Stonestown, as a treat for the 3yo.
On the sign as you enter the playground it says the equipment is meant for 5 – 12 year olds. I had my 3 yo and the 10 month old. Only a small handful of people on the playground, but I’m thinking it might have been b/​c it was nearing lunchtime/​naptime already.
The 3 yo had the run of the park and so did the baby. I liked that I didn’t need to worry that someone was going to trample her and she was able to crawl at her own will.
As with all the other renovated parks around the city, it’s the nice recycled tire floor. There is a sand section with a water feature and 1 spinning buttercup in the middle of the sand. There are 2 infant swings and a twirling «tee pee» structure. The 3 yo was able to handle the play structure with no problems! Plenty of seating areas too as well as picnic tables.
Honestly I think this might be one of the best planned out parks. It’s nice and enclosed and there’s plenty of seating. The sandbox is far enough away from the slides that the kids bringing the sand over is slim.
The one thing that I was impressed with is the «Clubhouse». It’s really nice. They started classes there this week as well and b/​c they’re so new, they’re FREE right now.
Yesterday there was an adult still life class. Tuesdays and Thursday are their Tiny Toys classes. I would love to take part unfortunately they’re from 2:30 — 3:30. There were also children’s guitar lessons listed.
I really, really, really wanted to rent out the clubhouse for a birthday party and was told by the groundskeeper, Oscar, that it was available. He gave me a number to call, and unfortunately SF Parks and Recs has told me there is not enough staffing for a director for that particular park/​clubhouse and hence no rental capabilities just yet.
There is also a tennis court and a basketball court. There is also an expansive mass of green lawn behind the playground!
No parking lot and parking can be hit or miss depending b/​c it is in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
I think next time we’ll hit up the library first and then walk over to the park!

Finally the playground reopened, and it is a jewel.
We love this new playground, and it’s very close to Stonestown, so if you want to take the kids shopping and give them a treat for good behavior, take them here afterward.
Beautifully done, this playground is a fantastic neighborhood playspace. It makes me a bit sad we are moving away and will not be able to use it anymore.