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Washington Square: a Site Plan Chronology 1683-1984 Washington Square: a Site Plan Chronology 1683 - 1984

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Washington Square: a Site Plan Chronology 1683-1984 Washington Square: a Site Plan Chronology 1683 - 1984 Im o (cvOfo^L. ¿n-e>ie^c>,sosL 'òli/fr-io 7 Washington Square: A Site Plan Chronology 1683-1984 Washington Square: A Site Plan Chronology 1683 - 1984 by Denise R. Rabzak May 1987 National Park Service n d /~'.rì 3Ti 'i c ■ H isto rica l Park Chronological Outline 1683 William Penn's Surveyor-General, Thomas Holme, laid out Philadelphia in the earliest known plan of the city, "a portraiture of the City of Phila. in the Province of Penna. By Thomas Holme, surveyor General. Sold by Andrew Sowle in Shore ditch, London." In this plan, Holme dedicated five squares - Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, and Center Squares - "for the like uses as the moorfields in London." 4>i The squares became known by these geographical names in accordance with Quaker tradition which avoided naming for persons. 1,2,3 (notes 4-18) 1700's (The following observations'? many from Watson's Annals, are presumably 18th century descriptions of the square, though exact dates have not a been established). The square was called "Beek's (sic, Beakes’) Hollow after an early settler. 4 At that time, the ground was not as high and level as it is today. It sloped from its western boundary "to a deep gully, through which a creek flowed near Walnut Street." 5 "...a descending ground, from the western side to a deep gully which traversed it in a line from Doctor Wilson's large church to the mouth of the present tunnel on Sixth Street below Walnut Street. Another course of water came from the northwest, from beyond Arch Street, fall­ ing into the same place." 6 A floodgate in the deep gully at the end of the tunnel retained water in the hollow basin of the square. When a large quantity of water was collected after a heavy rainfall, the gate was opened to cleanse the tunnel= 7 The square, surrounded by a privet hedge and enclosed in a post and rail fence, always produced much grass. 8,9 In the middle of the square was a 40 X 40 foot square of ground, enclosed by a brick wall, where members of the Carpenter and Story families were interred. A young woman of the Carpenter family was buried there after local chuchyards refused her burial because she committed suicide. Joshua Carpenter was buried under an apple tree in the middle. 10,11 "...David Evans, elected to the Carpenters' Company in 1769...fenced the square 'many years ago' under 'contract with the corporation'." 12 (sic) Before the Revolution, the square was surrounded by a privy hedge. 13 Earth was often dumped there in order to level the uneven ground. 14 The square was "used as a depository for cobblestones for paving. 2 Two or three small frame housed on the northeast corner, near the jail, were used by the commissioners as stables for the horses of the dirt carts. 16 Houses along the south side of the square were "miserable and de­ formed. .negro huts and sheds." 17 "...blacks, some slaves, some impoverished freemen who may have lived in the ramshackle dwellings that lined the south side of Locust Street opposite the square, were there interred." 18 1705 Common Council resolved to acquire ground for a burying place for 9> strangers, September 1705. 19 1706 The City requested "some convenient piece of ground for a comon and publick burying place for all strangers or others who might not so conveniently be laid in any of particular enclosures appropriated by certain religious societies for that purpose." 20 m "...the Common Council of the city had the land patented to them by the Proprietor's Commissioners of Property in 1706 for use as a burying ground for strangers." 21 January 20, 1706, "...William Penn's four Commissioners of Property - Edward Shippen, Griffith Owen, Thomas Story and James Logan - executed and signed a Patent for the Southeast Square as a Potter's Field." 22 A patent was granted to Common Council, January 29, 1706, for the burial ground. 23 « (Approx.) Thp ground was leased as pasture to Joshua CarDenter in consideration that he erect a pale fence around it in lieu of rent. It is not recorded how long Carpenter used the ground for pasture. 24 1745 Prior to 1776, the only building adjacent to the square was the "Loganian Library, designed and built by amateur architect James Logan, President of the Provincial Council, in 1745." The Loganian Library stood at the northwest corner of Sixth and Walnut, and faced the State House Yard. 25 1745-50 Timothy Matlack recalls a pond at the site of the First Presbyterian (Approx) Church, and shooting wild ducks. 26 A.J. Morris recalls a water-course running from High (Market) and Tenth Streets, southeastward through the square, to the tunnel under the prison. 27 Hayfield Conyngham, Esq., recalls catching crayfish and six-inch fish in the watercourse. 28 ♦ 3 0 1758 April 13, 1758 - Notice is given in the Pennsylvania Gazette that the City Square known as Potters Field, containing 5 3/4 acres, is to be let. Those interested may send proposals to the Mayor of the City. 29 1760 (Approx.) The southern branch of Dock Creek began near the site of the public Alms House, ran along Spruce Street to the corner of 8th, m then ran northeast through Potter's Field, cutting off about one quarter of the square. That quarter was very unsightly, filled with many cartloads of brick bats, stones and rubbish. From there the branch ran through the middle of the Jail Yard site, crossing Walnut above Fourth Street. 30 • 1766 Council minutes of April 14, 1766: "The lease of Potter's Field to Jacob Shoemaker having expired, it is agreed to lease it to Jasper Carpenter for seven years, at ten pounds per annum." 31 1773 Construction of the Walnut Street Prison began. Designed by architect Robert Smith, it was the first major structure built adjacent to » Southeast Square. 32 1774 The Society of Friends purchased a 3-acre plot from the Penn Family in 1774 to use as a burial ground. Bounded by Spruce, Locust, Seventh and Eighth Streets. Due to water close to the surface, however, only one burial was ever made, and most of the tract was sold for building '+ purposes. 33 1776 "The 'New Gaol'...was ready in part to receive prisoners in January 1776, and 105 prisoners were moved to their new quarters." The site, bounded by Walnut and Prune Streets, was about two hundred feet wide and four hundred feet deep. 34 « There were no other buildings beyond the New Jail. Potter's Field was "the receptacle of sailors, the destitute whose remains are walked over." 35 1777 Sally Wister's Journal, January 27, 1777: "You can scarce walk a square without seeing the shocking sight of a Cart with five or six » Coffins in it___Large pits are dug in the negroes burying ground [Washington Square], - and forty or fifty [soldiers']coffins are put in the same hole." 36 "I have spent an hour this morning," wrote John Adams on April 13, 1777 "in the congregation of the dead." He told of his walk ♦ into the 'Potters Field', (a burying place between the new stone prison and the hospital) and I never in my whole life was so affect ed with 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 melt away. The sexton told me that upwards of two thousand soldiers have been buried there, and by the appearance of the graves and trenches, it •’.* t - arcb-ble to ~s J-u-at he soeaks within bounds. To what . cl'.g ? ’' — ~e attributed, I don't know - disease was * 4 destroyed ten men for us where the sword of the enemy has killed one! 37 "American prisoners of war who died during the British occupation of Philadelphia from October 1777 to June 1778 were buried in the square." 38 Burial of soldiers was in pits 20 X 30 feet square dug along the line of Walnut Street by Seventh Street. Coffins were piled on top of each other until the trenches were filled up. Trenches were also dug along the southern line, the whole width of the square. 39 "Trenches for receiving dead soldiers of camp fever were dug from street to street; [they were] buried after a little while in a blanket, €> sheet or nothing; as they happened to die, they were laid tier upon tier. Beyond this to Schuylkill [it was] all commons." 40 Conditions in the prison were described as deplorable. British soldiers were taken here, as well as American soldiers incarcerated during General Howe's capture of Philadelphia. 41 # 1783 (Approx.) Watson described a row of 'red-painted frame houses' on Walnut Street, south side, east of Eighth Street. Watson stated the houses existed at the end of the Revolution. Demolished in 1807-8, York Row took their place. 42 1784 "In 1784 a row of red-painted houses at Eighth Street marked the end of habitation on Walnut Street." 43 Mr. Carnes of Baltimore ascended in a balloon from the Walnut Street Prison yard, July 17, 1784. Carnes was thrown from the balloon; the balloon caught fire, and landed near the South Street Theatre. 44 1785 "Debtors and all misdemeanants, convicted or not, were to be placed in the workhouse building on Prune Street (completed by 1785..." 45 (Approx.) Watson states that negroes would gather in the square for fairs and holidays.
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