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Benjamin Banneker Boundary Stone

About

Date: 1791

Historic Designation: National Register of Historic Places, May 11, 1976

Current Use of Property: Benjamin Banneker Park

The SW-9 Intermediate Boundary Stone honoring Benjamin Banneker lies in the Falls Church Park neighborhood directly on the line separating Arlington County from the City of Falls Church. The original 40 boundary stones are out of alignment now, but were placed in 1791 to outline the original boundary of the District of Columbia.

In 1789, President George Washington designated the 10-mile-area of the new United States capital and ordered 40 stones be erected to form the boundary. Benjamin Banneker served as scientific assistant under the leadership of Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant in surveying the city of Washington. It was the responsibility of the surveying team to locate the site of the Capitol, president’s house, city parks, streets and all other public buildings. Major L’Enfant resigned his position before the planned design was completed. It was through the efforts of Major Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker that the Federal City was completed.

Architectural Features

The stone stands approximately 15 inches above the ground and is made of sandstone one foot square. It is surrounded by a four-foot-tall green iron fence. Each boundary stone bore the word “miles” or “mile,” and they were numbered progressively from one to 10 miles on each surveyed line.

Significant People

Benjamin Banneker

Beniamin Banneker was perhaps the most famous black man in colonial America. He was a farmer, a mathematician, an inventor, an astronomer, a writer, a surveyor, a scientist and a humanitarian. As a scientist and inventor he constructed what was believed to have been the first working wooden clock in America in 1753. His astronomical calculations led to his writing one of the first series of almanacs printed in the U.S.

Banneker was born in 1731 and spent almost his entire life in Baltimore County, Md., where his ancestors had settled during the 17th century. His grandfather was an African prince named Bannke or Bannaka who married his mistress Molly Welsh, a former English indentured servant. Banneker’s formal education was limited to what his maternal grandmother could teach him and the instruction he received at a Quaker school. He died in October 1806. During his funeral, his home burned to the ground destroying all of his manuscripts and records, including the wooden clock he made.