1832 - WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY - FIRMA ZACHARY TAYLOR

The company was founded in 1832, the 100th anniversary of Washington's birth, by a large group of citizens in order to collect funds and donations: the largest backers were affiliated with Freemasonry. In 1836, a competition was announced and won by architect Robert Mills, who presented a rather ambitious design, which was later opposed partly because of its excessive cost. After various controversies, the erection of the obelisk was begun in 1848 and the foundation stone was laid in an elaborate and pompous Masonic ceremony. The running out of funds or their blockage, caused by political and economic reasons, meant that the monument was finished (even without the colonnade originally designed by Mills) and opened to the public only in 1888.