City Hall Park: The Common, the Gallows and the Almshouse

New York · USA · Execution site · Grusel 3/5

The tidy park in front of City Hall was the city common during the colonial period.

The tidy park in front of City Hall was the city common during the colonial period. An almshouse, a prison and a workhouse stood here, and the ground was used for executions and for burying the poor, prisoners and enslaved people who were not given space in the churchyards. Gallows were raised and punishments carried out in front of an audience. Even today human remains and traces of the old institutions turn up when anyone digs beneath the park and the surrounding streets. The calm greenery by Broadway hides one of the oldest layers of poverty and violence on Manhattan.

A common that has held gallows, a prison and unmarked graves carries a particular charge, according to local lore. Night watchmen and passers by have over the years described a stillness that feels too deep for the middle of one of the loudest cities in the world, cold currents near the oldest sections close to Broadway, and the sense of being watched from the vanished windows of the almshouse. There is no named figure here, only the sum of all the anonymous people who were punished, went hungry and were buried here while the city grew around them.

FAQ

Wie gruselig ist City Hall Park: The Common, the Gallows and the Almshouse?

City Hall Park: The Common, the Gallows and the Almshouse hat einen Gruselfaktor von 3/5 laut den verifizierten Bewertungen von Haunted Places.

Wo befindet sich City Hall Park: The Common, the Gallows and the Almshouse?

City Hall Park: The Common, the Gallows and the Almshouse liegt in New York, USA.

Image: Momos · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons