Five-acre Independence Park public square laid out in 1682 that served as Philadelphia's primary potter's field from circa 1706 to 1794, mass burial site for Revolutionary War soldiers, and resting place of 1,300+ yellow fever victims; now home to the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier.
210 W. Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public park; no admission. Open 24/7 as part of Independence National Historical Park.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved diagonal walkways and surrounding sidewalks; level grass lawn. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument approachable via paved path.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1682 · One of five original Penn-plan squares (1682) · Philadelphia's primary potter's field (c.1706-1794) · Mass burial site of Revolutionary War soldiers · Burial site of 1,300+ yellow fever victims (1793) · Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier (1954)
William Penn's 1682 plan for Philadelphia included five public squares; what is now Washington Square was originally called Southeast Square. By 1706 the city was using the northwestern portion as a public burial ground for the poor, enslaved Africans, free Black Philadelphians, unidentified travelers, and condemned criminals. The southeastern portion was used by the city's Catholic community.
The Revolutionary War brought mass burials. After British and Continental forces clashed in and around Philadelphia in 1776-1778, long trench graves the width of the square were dug along 7th and Walnut Streets; the sexton later told John Adams that perhaps two thousand soldiers - many of whom died in nearby army hospitals - had been interred. Both American and possibly British dead lie beneath the present lawn.
The defining mass-casualty event in the square's burial history was the 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic, which killed an estimated 5,000 of the city's 50,000 residents over four months. More than 1,300 victims were interred at the square. Burials there reached capacity that year and the cemetery was closed permanently around 1794.
In 1815 the city began converting the burial ground into a fashionable public square; in 1825 it was renamed Washington Square in honor of the commander of many of the soldiers buried within it. The Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier, designed by G. Edwin Brumbaugh and completed in 1954, occupies the center of the square. The remains of an unidentified soldier - it remains uncertain whether Continental or British - lie beneath the monument, which features a bronze cast of Houdon's statue of Washington and an eternal flame.
In 2005 the National Park Service took ownership and management of Washington Square through an easement from the City of Philadelphia. It is now part of Independence National Historical Park. An unknown number of bodies remain buried beneath the square; remains continue to be discovered during construction and tree-planting projects.
Sources
The most distinctive paranormal account associated with Washington Square is the figure of Leah, a Quaker woman dressed in colonial-era clothing (often described as a black overcoat) who is reported walking the square at night carrying a lantern. According to Ghost City Tours and Philly Ghosts, Leah's lantern patrols originated in life: during the years when the square was an active potter's field, body-snatchers (so-called 'resurrectionists') exhumed fresh graves to supply medical schools with cadavers. Leah is said to have monitored the burials nightly to deter desecration. Whether a historical Leah is documented in city records is unclear; the name and identification appear primarily in ghost-tour materials.
Ghost City Tours, Philly Ghosts, and several Philadelphia haunted-tour roundups also describe floating lights, cold spots, and a persistent sensation of being followed across the lawn. Some accounts attribute these phenomena to the yellow fever dead - victims who died in summer 1793 amid panic, with many never identified by name. Others attribute them to the Revolutionary War soldiers buried in trench graves along the south and west sides.
The Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier in the center of the square is generally treated reverently in ghost-tour materials; it is not framed as the source of paranormal activity but as the historical anchor for the legitimate weight the site carries. The square's accumulated burial history - poor, enslaved, indigent, soldier, and epidemic dead - is approached by the more thoughtful ghost-tour writers as a memorial obligation rather than as material for sensationalism.
Notable Entities
Walk the diagonal paths of the original 1682 Penn plan square. The Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier (completed 1954, architect G. Edwin Brumbaugh) at the center features a bronze cast of Houdon's Washington statue and an eternal flame. Interpretive panels discuss the square's history as a colonial potter's field and yellow fever mass burial site.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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