Washington Square Park United States

Legendary

Located in Lower Manhattan, it’s one of the best known parks in New York City.

Photo by HyunJae Park

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About 20,000 people are buried under this park. Most of them are still there.

Long before it was a park, this land was a potter's field, a public cemetery for people who were very poor, died alone, or had no one to bury them. People who play chess, listen to street musicians, and splash in the fountain today are walking right over their graves.

The park sits in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City. It covers just under 10 acres.

Long ago, a Native American village called Sapokanikan stood nearby, and a stream called Minetta Brook flowed across the land. Later it was farmland.

In 1797, the city bought the fields to use as a burial ground. A few wealthy neighbors protested, but the city went ahead anyway.

Soon, terrible yellow fever outbreaks swept through New York. The burial ground filled up fast.

By 1825, the city had grown up around it, and burials stopped. The next year, on July 4, 1826, the land was turned into the Washington Military Parade Ground, named in honor of George Washington, the first president of the United States.

People quickly shortened the name to Washington Square. It became a public park in 1827.

Fancy townhouses went up around it, and it became one of the most fashionable places to live in New York. In 1849 and 1850, it was redesigned with paths and trees.

In 1889, New York celebrated 100 years since George Washington was sworn in as president. A temporary arch made of wood and plaster was built for the party.

People loved it so much that the city replaced it with a permanent marble arch, designed by architect Stanford White and finished in 1892. He modeled it on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and it stands about 77 feet tall.

For years, cars drove right through the arch on Fifth Avenue. Neighbors fought to stop it, and in 1964 the park was closed to traffic.

By the mid-1900s, the park had become a hangout for artists and writers. Poets of the Beat Generation gathered here in the 1940s and '50s, followed by folk singers in the late '50s and early '60s.

Walk under the Washington Square Arch and look for the two statues of George Washington on its north side. Watch the chess players at the game tables in the park's southwest corner, some of the best in the city. Then find the giant English elm in the northwest corner, the Hangman's Elm, and decide for yourself if you believe the legend.

Sources: NYC Parks, Washington Square Park Conservancy, and New York Public Library.