History
In stark contrast to today’s beautiful park setting and the lovely homes and buildings that surround it, Washington Square, during its early years, was a rather drab and melancholy place.
Not long after William Penn set aside this land at the city's western edge for a public park, it was claimed as a burial ground for victims of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic, for African-Americans and for 2,600 soldiers who died during the Revolution.
But by 1815, the installation of a public walk and tree-planting program initiated what would become the scenic modern-day square — renamed Washington Square in 1825 — with over 60 species of trees.