Evening star., 1960-09-05
The
Rambler
Cont Find
Cornerstone
By GEORGE KENNEDY

A new permanent flag staff
had been erected over the
cornice. The old staff had
been taken down when con-
struction of a new facade
began, 321a feet in front of
the old one. A temporary
flag pole was set up slanting
from one of the pillars sup
porting the dome.
1t was a nice little cere-
mony. Speaker Rayburn
and Minority Leader Hallack
spoke briefly. The Marine
Band played as the flag was
lowered from the temporary
pole and another raised on
the new pole.
The Immediately white
and clean new Georgia mar
BILE of the facade gave Old
Glory a splendid setting.
After the ceremony, D.
Stafford Kelley, project di-
rector in the Office Of the
Architect of the Capitol,
gave the Rambler a tour of
the work, which is nearing
completion.
Even more impressive
than the new facade is the
rejuvenated appearance of
the entire Capitol due to its
first Scrubbing. The CRIME
that had accumulated for
more than a century had
been removed by streams of
water and sand blasting and
the marble thereby revealed
looks almost as good as that
freshly quarried.
H& y
ONLY THE PILLARS and
the cornice of the Senate
wing remain to be cleaned
and the $4,000 job, which
was awarded to a Philadel-
phia firm of building clean
ers, will be completed. The
reconstruction is a $21 mil
lion JOB.
In a few weeks, work will
begin on building the stand
for the January 20 inaugu-
raj. At that time work on
the new front will be COM
pleted. But there still will
be work to do inside.
We walked up the broad
steps to the floor level of the
great rotunda and enjoyed
the magnificent vista the
elevation afforded. The steps
are the granite steps of the
Civil War period of con-
struction. They were taken
down, numbered, stacked
and replaced.
The cornerstone which
George Washington laid
with Masonic ceremonies in
1894 has not been found. In
those days the cornerstone
was the first stone laid
in the construction Of a
building.
There is a plaque erected
in 1886 which says that the
original cornerstone is be-
meath it. When the stone
stairs we're removed, work.
men searched for weeks,
carefully examining every
stone at the base of the wall,
but they never did find it.
Here is one theory: All the
plans submitted in a compe-
tition for the design in the
179Os we're rejected. Then
DR.. william Thornton, a
physician and am a teur
architect, who came from
the British West Indies, sub
mitted a plan that was &C
cepted.
His plan was for the center
part of the Capitol includ-
ing the facade of stone
quarried near Aqua Creek.
It had a low wooden dome.
(The House and Senate
wings and the great cast
iron dome, inspired by st.
Peters in Rome, were de-
signed by william Walker in
the 1850S.)
STEPHEN HELLET, one of
those whose plans had been
rejected, was employed to
Superintend construc tion.
DR.. Thornton found that the
man was building according
to his own plans and not DR..
Thornton's. Thornton dis
missed him. In his resent
ment, Hellet may have re-
moved the original corner
stone.
We examined the "Colum-
bus door," a great bronze
arch at the center of the
Capitols East Front. Bronze
figures at the top show Co
lumbus landing from a small
boat while his little feet
stands by.
The arch had been ripped
out of it's place in the old
wall. It's removal had left
a jagged hole in the wall