Cincinnati Parks has released a design for a replacement playground at Sawyer Point, the riverfront site where a fire destroyed the 1000 Hands Playground in 2024. The department and the Cincinnati Parks Foundation say the concept builds on a familiar local tale: the Lazarus Lizards.
According to the agency's account, the story starts in 1951, when 10-year-old George Rau Jr., part of the Lazarus family, came home from a trip to northern Italy with lizards carried in a sock and let them go in his Hyde Park yard. The animals adapted, endured Ohio winters and spread, the agency says, and Ohio now classifies them as a naturalized, permanent resident reptile with protection matching that of native species.
Parks Director Jason Barron described the playground theme as young George at Sawyer Point, ice cream in hand, losing both his lizard and his cone, with children then imagined as shrunk down to play in the resulting scene.
Elements include a 10-foot lizard and sock structure for climbing and a 36-foot upside-down ice cream cone with a 20-foot slide, plus nature-based play features. The agency puts the cost at a minimum of $2 million, drawn from public and private sources, with the foundation leading fundraising. The playground is tentatively planned to open in 2028; officials say custom equipment fabrication could take six to eight months after the design is final, and construction cannot begin until all funding is secured. Midstates Recreation is designing and building the project.