Potter's Field - Washington Square Park

Beginning in the late 1700s through the early 1800s, the site served as the city's potter's field, a public burial ground for the poor, the unknown, and the many victims of the yellow fever epidemics that repeatedly swept through New York. More than 20,000 people are estimated to rest beneath the park's grounds today.

One of them was James Jackson, a 28-year-old Irish immigrant and watchman who died of yellow fever on September 22, 1799, and whose sandstone headstone was unearthed during pre-renovation archaeological work in 2009. At the time, potter's fields were largely reserved for the unidentified and indigent, with the dead buried in unmarked graves, which makes James' stone all the more mysterious and remarkable. It can still be seen today in the Park House window, a tangible link to the thousands of lives that came before the lawns and pathways we walk today.

By 1826, the filled cemetery was converted into the Washington Military Parade Ground, declared on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and the neighborhood around it began its transformation into one of Manhattan's most coveted addresses. In 1827, the City of New York purchased additional parcels near the Washington Military Parade Ground and officially declared the combined land a public square.

It is believed that over 20,000 people are still buried there.