The present location of the Meridian Stone. 163 
White House. Exactly in line between these doorways, on the 
lawn south of the house, stood a low sandstone block, on which 
was placed a brass sun-dial. The stone was carved in cylindrical 
form on its northern side. This stone, so the story goes, was 
removed when Sixteenth-street hill was cut down some twenty 
years ago, and is now doing duty as a carriage step at the corner 
of Fourteenth and R streets. On talking with the owner of the 
place at Fourteenth and R streets, however, he denied vigorously 
that this was the Meridian stone. He described the Meridian 
stone as similar to the Capitol stone; and Mr King, who set the 
Meridian stone and the Capitol stone in 1804, also describes them 
as similar. I infer, therefore, that two stones at the head of 
Sixteenth street have been called Meridian stone. The original 
one, stili extant, is said to be now serving as a hitching post in 
front of the Reform school. The carriage step at Fourteenth 
and R streets is probably a later stone set up asa base or support 
for a sun-dial, and came to be known as the Meridian stone to 
the exclusion of the original freestone obelisk. 
The Center of the District—It is commonly stated and believed 
- that the Jefferson stone was established at the exact center of 
the original District, and that the Washington monument, which 
is less than 200 feet therefrom, practically marks such center. 
Unless I am mistaken, this is an error, and the center of the 
original District is nearly half a mile (2,048 feet N. 502° W.) 
northwest from the monument. ; 
When Ellicott marked out the District boundary he had to 
find a true meridian line astronomically. This he did at Jones 
point, but I do not know of anything to show that he ran this 
“true meridional line” through the present Washington. It is 
stated in the recent centennial history that he did, but on what 
evidence does not appear. It is also stated that this line ran 
exactly through the middle of the White House and up Sixteenth 
street, but the surveys now available show that the meridian of 
Jones point passes west of the State, War, and Navy building 
and nearly along Highteenth street. 
Itseems to have been assumed that because Ellicott determined 
the meridian at Jones point that he ran that meridian through 
Washington, and that the terms Meridian stone, Meridian hill, 
Meridian hill farm, ete, are derived from his work, whereas the 
facts seem to show that these names are due to the work of 
another surveyor, working thirteen years later, under different 
