Washington Square Park | |
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![]() Washington Square Park in Rochester, New York | |
Type | Urban park |
Coordinates | 43°09′12″N77°36′19″W / 43.1534°N 77.6053°W |
Created | 1817 |
Operated by | Monroe County |
Open | All year |
Washington Square Park is an urban park in Rochester, New York. It contains the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, erected in 1892. [1]
It was formerly known as Johnson's Square. [2] The land for the park was donated to the public by Elisha Johnson in 1817. [3]
On 1 August 1848, it was the site of a public address by Frederick Douglass. [4] Douglass also spoke there in 1852. [2]
In 1892, U.S. President Benjamin Harrison spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, without mentioning slavery, despite Frederick Douglass's presence next to the podium. [5]
Austin Steward wrote in his Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman that numerous Black Americans celebrated the end of slavery in New York in Johnson's Square on July 5.[ when? ] [6] [7]
In 2017, the Washington Square Park Neighborhood Association received a $15,000 grant to develop a new Master Plan for the park. [8]
An Austrian cannon captured by the Italian army during the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in World War I was given as a gift to Rochester in 1921 by the Italian government. [9] [8] The cannon was given as a symbol of the patriotism of the large Italian immigrant population in Rochester at the time. [9] At least 1,400 Rochester residents Italian descent fought in the war. [8] The cannon was restored and rededicated in 2017 in time for the centenary of World War I. [9]
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