YORK – Last week, a reader asked about the location of the cornerstone from York County’s historic courthouse. As the reader recalled, years ago there was a story written regarding speculation it had been found among property at the county roads department.
Since that time, there has been no mention of it and the reader asked if it could be located and maybe displayed somewhere – at the courthouse, at the historical association building?
After that question was passed along, York County Commissioners Andy Bowman and Daniel Grotz asked roads staff if they could take a look, as this reporter had memories of seeing it, many years ago, in a specific building at the roads department property.
Sure enough, roads staff found the cornerstone and four stone slabs, on a pallet, in a corner of that particular building.
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The stone has the following engraved words:
Building committee
A.C. Corey
J.W. Bullard
D. Graves (there is a first initial, it can’t be read)
W.H. Haskell
Name that can’t be read
O.H. Placey, architect
D.B. Howard, builder
The historic courthouse was built in 1888, which is reflected by one of the stone slabs accompanying the cornerstone which says “erected 1888.”
"After the question was asked, Andy made some calls, I made a call, and Ashley (Rasmussen, at the roads department) went on a scavenger hunt, based on the information we had. We found the old cornerstone from the old courthouse," Grotz explained to the county commissioners Tuesday morning during their committee reports.
"It's very big and it's on a pallet, in that building at the roads department. It's unfortunate that it was out there for many years as it should have been inside, it's in tough shape," Bowman said. "So we talked about this and we'd like the historical association to help us with this. We will bring it inside and they will help us by cleaning it and doing what needs to better preserve it. And then, at some point, when it is in good shape and they can display it for a while, we can maybe then display it here in the courthouse. But we need to get it inside first and cleaned up. We are very fortunate that the historical association has some very knowledgeable people who know how to preserve this. It's going to take a little time, though, so the public should know they won't be able to immediately go to the association and see the old cornerstone. But I am so excited about this, that we found it, a lot of people are really excited about this."
Grotz agreed. "This is an incredibly exciting find for York County."
