History & local legend
Washington Square in Philadelphia was once a public burial ground. Poor residents, people without church burial arrangements, soldiers from both sides of the Revolutionary War, and victims of the 1793 yellow-fever epidemic were buried beneath what later became a landscaped park. Burials ended in 1794.
The square's ghost lore gives those dead a guardian named Leah. She is described as an elderly Quaker woman who watches over the graves and tries to keep grave robbers away. In the tradition recounted by The Philadelphia Inquirer, her vigil continues even though the burial ground is no longer obvious to people walking across the lawns.
The concern behind the legend has historical context: the National Park Service describes people gathering in the square to protect relatives' remains from removal for anatomical dissection.
