Some 12 million people visit Washington Square Park each year. They come for the green space, the energetic, artistic atmosphere, and the iconic arch. But the park's liveliness belies a darker truth: below the grass, the benches, the fountain, and the passersby, are around 20,000 bodies from nearly 200 years ago.
At the end of the 18th century, the city's Common Council purchased a plot of land to the east of the Minetta Waters, a stream which was culverted in the 1820s. This newly-acquired meadowland to the east was to be turned into a potter's field, or a mass burial ground for the poor, criminals, and John/Jane Does. It was much needed, thanks to a bout of Yellow Fever that was running rampant in the area, and which didn't end until 1803.
For nearly 30 years, the eastern two-thirds of what today is Washington Square Park saw thousands upon thousands of burials, including those from nearby churches that utilized the northeastern portion of the land for their own interments. (It is these church burials which were encountered in 2015, when workers digging up an old water main happened upon two large vaults containing around 30 skeletons.)
While we have no depictions of that potter's field, we do know that it was an enclosed area with nearby trees, and historical documents "...suggest a watered, uneven terrain, but one that was leveled over time." (pg. 13, Geismar, 2005)
In 1825, the potter's field closed, and the land was filled in and repurposed as a parade ground. The Washington Square Park we know today began to take shape in the second half of the 19th century, with the Washington Arch making its first appearance in temporary form in 1889, and finally in its permanent form in the early 1890s. The statues of George Washington were not installed until 1916-1918.
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