George Washington will haunt your dreams

Washington Square was called Southeast Square in William Penn’s original plan for the City of Philadelphia, but for the first 90 years of it’s existence the Square was better known as “that place we toss dead people no one cares very much about.”  Prior to the Revolution, it was the final resting place of the poor and the anonymous.  During the War, soldiers who died in Philadelphia (generally of disease) were thrown into mass graves here.  When the British occupied Philadelphia, the old Walnut Street Prison (which overlooks the park) became a “Dantesque vision of hell” and those who died at the prison were tossed in the park.  When the Americans retook the city, dead British soldiers were added to the pile.  In short, Washington Square Park is made of dead people.