Hello and welcome to This Day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, September 18, 1793, during the first large public event staged in the federal city of Washington, D.C., a cornerstone is laid by George Washington for the U.S.

Capitol building. The building was originally named Congress Hall, but then Thomas Jefferson was like,

that name is kind of terrible. Let's call it the Capitol instead. I think that's a good choice by

Thomas Jefferson. And now plans were underway to execute on this design by a Scotsman named William Thornton.

So here comes George Washington to lay down the cornerstone.

And good thing that George Washington is a mason, though he is not exactly that kind of mason,

he's the other kind of mason.

And this is our chance to talk about, I guess, both types of masonry, the one where you

lay down stone and also the

free masons who are very important in U.S. history. And this ceremony was full of all sorts of

weird semi-cultish proceedings along with the actual laying of the cornerstone. So here to discuss

the capital cornerstone are, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hey there.

Hello, Jody. Hey there.

Are you either kind of Mason? Can you tell me if you are?

I can confirm that I am not the rock laying kind.

Okay.

I have no connections whatsoever.

None.

We have done for the, I think, 500 plus episodes we've done.

We've done surprisingly little Mason, free Mason stuff on the show, which is kind of interesting.

So this is our chance to get into that a little bit.

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