A brook or stream (or was it a creek) once flowed diagonally aboveground in what is now Washington Square Park. Historically, the waterbody was known as the Minetta Waters. Minetta flowed into the parkland west of the arch and exited the park at the southwestern corner -- at West 4th Street, east of MacDougal. Minetta formed the western boundary of the eventual burial ground. The waterbody supported a swamp up until the end of the 1700s. The land east of Minetta was acquired by the city in 1797 to establish a paupers' grave or Potter's Field aka a burial ground for poor and unknown people. Upland meadow habitat was located in the northwestern and northeastern portions of the park, "on the relatively high ground above the 'valley' of the Minetta Waters." The area between Fifth Avenue and Waverly Place to University Place was once covered by a sand hill. In 1808, the upland areas were levelled and the soil was used to fill in the swamp in order to crea