9. Washington Square Park Vaults
Washington Square Park is already rather ghoulish, with its prior history as a potter’s field – the city’s burial ground for the unclaimed and poor. In 2015, two burial vaults with human remains were discover just east of the park by workers who were in the area to complete a NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) water main project.
The DDC, in partnership with The Landmarks Preservation Commission and Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants, assessed the significance of the findings and catalogued the contents without actually disturbing the vaults. In addition to the vault entrance, human skeletal remains of a dozen people were found in the first vault. Both vaults are eight feet deep, fifteen feet wide and twenty feet long. The experts who analyzed the vaults believe that they are from the 19th century and likely related to the former Cedar Street Presbyterian Church.