Benjamin Banneker's Boundary Stone
Near Dc Northern Virginia, Virginia
Hidden in a quiet corner of this neighborhood is a small sandstone marker that carries enormous historical weight. This is one of the original boundary stones placed in seventeen ninety-one to define the corners of the new District of Columbia. The stone is designated Southwest Nine, meaning it was the ninth marker set along the southwestern boundary line.
What makes this stone remarkable is the man tied to the survey that set it: Benjamin Banneker, a free Black mathematician, astronomer, and farmer from Maryland. Banneker assisted the surveying team led by Andrew Ellicott in laying out the federal district's precise boundaries. He was already fifty-nine years old and largely self-taught.
This stone was added to the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen seventy-six, recognizing both the boundary survey's importance and Banneker's extraordinary contribution to the founding of the nation's capital.
