The Hanging Tree

New York, NY - jack - Friday, December 15th, 2006 : goo

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in the northwest corner of washington square park can be found the one of the oldest trees in manhattan. the area was used as a graveyard for slaves and yellow fever victims, a dueling ground and a place of execution. in 1824, supposedly, the marquis de lafayette witnessed the hanging of 20 highwaymen. the last person hung here was rose butler in 1820 for arson.

there is a big notch on the left side of the tree, probably where the hanging branch was. in 1826 it became a military parade ground and then later on transformed into a public park. there were men playing scrabble and i took a look at some of the words and i was dumfounded by some of them. i researched the information from nysonglines a great place to look up info.

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Peter: wow, this is awesome, jack...

Guy McLaren: Interesting tale there Jack

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