A grand event unfolded on the corner of B and First Streets in 1906. The laying of the cornerstone for the first House Office Building included a performance by the Marine Band and a speech by President Theodore Roosevelt, during which he reportedly coined the term “muckraker.” The box that the President placed in the cornerstone contained a copy of the Declaration of Independence and a weather report. Capitol cornerstone-laying ceremonies started when President George Washington presided over an event organized by his local Masonic lodge in 1793.
