Workers Renovating Baltimore’s Washington Monument Found A Centuries-Old Time Capsule Hidden Inside

Baltimore’s once-proud Washington Monument had seen better days. Raised as a tribute to the United States’ first president, the landmark was now deteriorating at a rapid pace and on the verge of becoming a public safety nightmare. Then as laborers fixed the monument up again, they uncovered a strange object lurking six feet underground. Carefully, the workers began to open up the decaying box — and what they found inside would change history forever. 

Strangely enough, the workers had been placing a septic tank into the ground when they made their find. But perhaps they shouldn’t have been too surprised to uncover their treasure. You see, they were working on the side of the monument that’s hit first by the sun in the morning. And based on Masonic ways of thinking, that’s precisely where you’d expect to discover something special hidden away.

What had the laborers found? Well, to begin with, a granite block in the ground. That may not sound all that exciting, but don’t be fooled! This was actually the cornerstone of the monument. And as it happens, there was definitely more to it than immediately met the eye.

Mind you, Lance Humphries was pleased just to hear about the block. He’s the executive director of the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, which seeks to maintain the region’s landmarks. And Humphries justified his excitement by saying to Baltimore’s WBAL, “It’s well known that they laid a cornerstone, but they never actually mentioned where the cornerstone was actually placed in the building. So, it’s pretty neat to have found it.”

The laborers may not have been so thrilled, but they still recognized the cornerstone’s importance. Works on the site were paused, then, so that they could retrieve it manually. And after the guys pulled the block to the surface, they noticed something very strange about the stone. Curiously, it had been hollowed out.