This Capital Region Park Was Once Used As A Cemetery, Are Bodies Still Buried There?

New York's historic Washington Park, located at State and Willett Streets in Albany, is home to the annual Tulip Festival, beautiful lake house, spectacular fountains and more than 80 acres of family fun. Could it also be true that bodies are buried in the same Washington Park?

Urban legend has it that, for nearly 70 years, sections of Washington Park were used as burying grounds. If this were true the bodies could still be there right?

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Around 1800, according to Albany.org, before Washington Park was created the land was known as State Street Burying Grounds and it reportedly held 40,000 bodies, many with unmarked graves. As town officials made the decision to develop the park, these bodies needed to be moved.

In 1868 officials attempted to relocate the human remains and their headstones. Is it possible to move all of those gravesites without losing a few? According to locals, some of the bodies remain buried in Washington Park today.

The majority of the bodies in Washington Park were relocated just 6 miles away to Albany Rural Cemetery. One reason it is believed that bodies still remain in Washington Park is due to the unmarked graves and the difficulty at the time to keep proper records of the dead. Unmarked? Left behind.

When you visit Washington Park, explore the land west of Knox Street to Robin Street and south from State Street to Hudson Avenue. This is exactly where the cemetery once was. Or perhaps still is.