The cemetery originated as the first public cemetery in 1706 called Potter’s Field for burial of the poor, but later it became known as Washington Square. Many soldiers from the Revolutionary War were buried there in unmarked graves. A tomb to the unknown soldier of the American Revolution was dedicated in 1957. It includes a statue of Washington facing a sarcophagus with a limestone backdrop. Source: Fairmount Park, a History and Guidebook, 1974, p.150, Esther M. Klein, 917.