Washington Monument papers

In 1810 a petition extolling the virtues of George Washington and his services to the country was presented to the Maryland State Legislature with the request that a memorial be erected to his memory. The outcome of this appeal was the passage of an Act on 6 January 1810, authorizing the raising of a sum of money by lottery, not to exceed $100,000, for the construction of a monument.

The Act also created a Board of Managers which was given the authority to oversee the lottery and to direct the building of the monument. John Comegys, the author of the original petition to the Legislature, was elected President of the Board at its second meeting, February 1810. A Lottery Committee was appointed and for three years the Board's activities and attentions were directed to supervising the Monument Lotteries.

In 1813 sufficient funds were collected for the Board to offer a prize of $500 for the best plan for the monument. In May 1814 Robert Mills was awarded the prize and appointed architect. A Building Committee was created tosupervise the work of construction.

In 1814 James Buchanan succeeded Comegys as President of the Board after the latter's death in July of that year. On 4 July 1815 the cornerstone of the monument was laid at a site donated by John Eager Howard after the original site (on North Calvert Street) had been rejected in fear that the column might prove dangerous to surrounding property.

The building of the monument continued from 1815 to 1820 when the capital was placed inpposition and the pedestal was mounted to receive the statue. It was not however until 1827 that the Board advertised a competition for a sculpture to be placed on top of the column. The model submitted by Enrico Causici was chosen and in November 1829 his completed statue of George Washington was raised to the top of the column.

In the meantime, Robert Gilmor, Jr. became President of the Board of Managers following the resignation of Buchanan in 1819 and continued to serve in this capacity until the Board was dissolved. The Board of Managers was continually plagued by financial difficulties as lottery receipts were not sufficient to cover construction costs. The sixth, and last, class of the Monument Lottery was held in 1824. After that date, the expenses were met from funds made over to the Board from the proceeds of the State Lottery. By 1843 expenses for the Monument had totalled over $200,000.