Sketch from Solomon Willard's book of 1843, showing underground foundation 12 ft. deep and 50 ft. square for Bunker Hill Monument

Sketch from Solomon Willard's book of 1843, showing underground foundation 12 ft. deep and 50 ft. square for Bunker Hill Monument which as declared July 5, 1825 five weeks after the laying of the cornerstone, was to be thirty feet square at the base. The present cornerstone is a 9 ton block at the N.E. corner. The granite for this foundation weighed about 1400 tons. (East stone 2 1/2' x 2' x 12' weighs 5 tons.) The market price for granite was then about 90 cents per foot, but the Association bought and ran its own quarry, furnishing the blocks on the hill at 20 to 22 cents a foot. The association constructed the first railroad in the country to transport the granite to the shore.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library