Washington Square
Washington Square, one of the five squares William Penn laid out in his 1682
survey of Philadelphia, was then simply called the southeast square, for Quakers
did not believe in naming places after people. In 1833, however, it was renamed
to honor the first President. The trees in Washington Square are older,
wider-spreading and taller than those in Rittenhouse or Independence Squares,
and the square itself has a more open, spacious quality — but then, it started
as a pasture. Later the square served as a burial ground — potter's field — and
many American and British soldiers of the Revolution lie here, along with
victims of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793.
"I never in my whole life was
affected with so much melancholy." -John Adams
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier lies within Washington Square, one of the five
public parks drawn up by William Penn in his 1682 blueprint for Philadelphia. Shortly after the square was laid out, however, it was being used for a
wholly other purpose — as a potter's field. Burials in Washington Square, then
known as Southeast Square, started in 1706 and continued for nearly nine
decades. Initially located on Philadelphia's westernmost settled area, the
square proved an out-of-the-way repository for the impecunious as well as a
permanent residence for deceased "strangers" — those unknown visitors to
Philadelphia whose stay proved to be longer than expected.
George Washington
Others, too, were buried in the square on occasion. For example, the Joshua
Carpenter family, a prominent Philadelphia clan, had maintained a private family
burial ground in the square's center owing to the suicide of a family member —
this kept her from being buried in a church cemetery. Amid this funerary setting
grazing cows and at-play urchins would blithely go about their business.
The living and the dead have long commingled in the square. Over the years, the
square has been used for as a fishing hole, cow pasture, hayfield, duck hunting
spot and, appropriately enough, revival meeting grounds. 19th-century historian
John Watson reports that slaves would be allowed to congregate in the square
during holidays, sometimes numbering a thousand, holding dances and honoring the
"sleeping dust below."
By 1776, that "sleeping dust" would be jolted by the first Revolutionary War
casualties.
A letter of John Adams, dated the 13th April, 1777, captures the somber mood in
the square.
"I have spent an hour this morning in the Congregation of the dead. I took a
walk into the 'Potter's Field,' a burying ground between the new stone prison
and the hospital, and I never in my whole life was affected with so much
melancholy. The graves of the soldiers, who have been buried, in this ground,
from the hospital and bettering-house, during the course of last summer, fall
and winter, dead of the small pox and camp diseases, are enough to make the
heart of stone to melt away! The sexton told me that upwards of two thousand
soldiers had been buried there, and by the appearance of the grave and trenches,
it is most probable to me that he speaks within bounds. To what causes this
plague is to be attributed, I don't know--disease had destroyed ten men for us
where the sword of the enemy has killed one!"
playing with the Fall leaves
By 1778, Washington Square would be the last barracks for the thousands of
soldiers who died in Philadelphia. Though not much fighting occurred in
Philadelphia during the War, plenty of dying did. Those wounded in nearby
battles, or those sick with disease would be brought to Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania Hospital and the Bettering House for the Poor filled quickly.
Churches became ad-hoc hospitals. And during the British occupation of
Philadelphia in 1777, the Walnut Street Jail became a Dantesque vision of hell.
Historian Watson interviewed a survivor of the Walnut Street Jail some years
after the War's end. The veteran, Jacob Ritter, recalled that prisoners were fed
nothing for days on end and were regularly targets of beatings by the British
guards. The prison was freezing as broken window panes allowed snow and cold to
be the only blankets available to the captives. Ice, lice, and mice shared the
cells. Desperate prisoners dined on grass roots, scraps of leather, and "pieces
of a rotten pump." Rats were a delicacy. Upward of a dozen prisoners died daily.
They were hauled across the street and slung in unmarked trenches like carcasses
from an abattoir.
The Colonials reoccupied Philadelphia in 1778 and became the jail keepers at
Walnut Street. No doubt a Millgram (where prisoners became the guards)
atmosphere prevailed when the prisoners got to run the jail. Suffice it to say,
many bodies of British soldiers also are interred in Washington Square, sleeping
far from Albion's shores.
In 1793, the square once again served as a mass graveyard — this time for
wracked, malodorous victims of the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic. Philadelphia was
literally decimated by this epidemic: about 5,000 of Philadelphia's 50,000
residents were taken by the Aedes mosquito. Washington Square was once again
pockmarked by stench-filled trenches.
After the square stopped functioning as a cemetery, a beautifying campaign was
undertaken. In 1825, the Square was renamed in honor of George Washington,
commander of many of the troops buried within it.
Moon tree
1956 monument
In 1954, the Washington Square Planning Committee decided to erect a memorial that honored both George Washington and an unknown soldier from the Revolutionary War. There was a catch, however — culling a Colonial soldier from this unmarked golgotha. In 1956 an archaeological team was brought in. They dug nine holes mostly in the northwest quadrant of the square. The first bodies the archaeologists discovered belonged to three paupers, identifiable as such by canvas sheets serving as their grave clothes. Some exploratory holes found single graves, not the mass trenches which were being looked for. Finally, a mass grave was found. Within they found the undisturbed remains of a male about twenty years old within the vestiges of an oak coffin. The skull had evidence of a "plow wound" which could have been caused by a musket ball. This would be the body used for the unknown soldier.
eternal flame
Though the archaeologists and historians were fairly certain that this disinterred body was that of a Revolutionary War soldier, one vexing question still remains: Was the body that of a British soldier or a lad who had just started calling himself by a new name — American?
Various messages engraved on the wall of the memorial include: "Freedom is a
light for which many men have died in darkness"; "The independence and liberty
you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts of common dangers,
suffering and success [Washington Farewell Address, Sept. 17, 1796]"; and "In
unmarked graves within this square lie thousands of unknown soldiers of
Washington's Army who died of wounds and sickness during the Revolutionary War."
The tomb of the Unknown Soldier itself bears the words: "Beneath this stone
rests a soldier of Washington's army who died to give you liberty."
An eternal flame flickers in front of a wall bearing a replica of Jean Antoine
Houdon's famous bronze sculpture of George Washington. Washington's eyes gaze
eternally upon nearby Independence Hall.
Curtis Publishing
Directly across the north side of Washington Square is the Curtis Publishing Company building, formerly the home of The Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies' Home Journal and Country Gentleman magazines. Inside the lobby is "The Dream Garden," a spectacular glass mosaic of 260 different color tones made for Curtis by the Louis C. Tiffany Studios. It was based on an original painting by Maxfield Parrish.
Walnut Street Theatre
At 9th and Walnut is the Walnut Street Theatre, the walls of which make it the oldest theatre in the U.S. It was first opened in 1808 as the New Circus, in 1811 a stage was added and it was renamed the Olympic, and the first play, Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals, opened on January 1, 1812. In 1820 it was given its present name. Edwin Forrest made his debut here; Edmund Kean, Edwin Booth, the Four Cohans and Ethel Barrymore all played here. The interior was remodeled in 1920 and in the 1970s the facade was restored to look like the John Haviland original.
the restored facade
art sculpture across the street from the theater
in front of the Medical School
Hall of Graduate studies
winged bull
