Walter Pierce Park Athletic Field

The Walter Pierce Park athletic field sits in a sunken depression that once functioned as the City Refuse Crematory. In the early twentieth century, this site housed the Adams Morgan incinerator, where the city burned its trash in large furnaces. Today, the grass covers the old foundation, and the steep embankments that frame the field are the remains of the original earthworks. People play soccer and walk dogs here, unaware that the ground holds the remnants of incinerator ash and industrial debris.