Washington Square Park

The Washington Square Arch, a towering marble monument designed by Stanford White, marks the northern entrance to this park. While it draws the eye today, the ten acres beneath your feet hold a much older, darker history. Before it became a public space for gatherings and performers, this site served as a potter’s field from seventeen ninety-seven until eighteen twenty-six. During those decades, more than twenty thousand people, including those who perished during yellow fever epidemics, were buried in the soil here.