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1815 Cornerstone Ceremony Account
An Authentic Account of All the Proceedings on the Fourth of July, 1815, With Regard to Laying the Corner Stone of the Washington Monument.
On July 4, 1815 Baltimoreans laid the cornerstone of the first monument dedicated to George Washington, the first President of the United States. Within days a detailed account of the ceremony was published in the newspapers, and soon thereafter the entire ceremony was published as a pamphlet.
Although the account was very detailed, including mention of what was deposited in the cornerstone, the accounts did not mention where the cornerstone was, and it was lost to time until the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy restored the Washington Monument in 2014-15. At that time, while digging a sewage pit off the northeast corner of the Monument, the cornerstone was located below grade on that corner of the building.
Read the detailed account of this important day:
An Authentic Account of All the Proceedings on the Fourth of July, 1815, With Regard to Laying the Corner Stone of the
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