On an early summer evening 200 years ago, the enthusiasm of an American Revolutionary War hero for the country he’d helped to found and the hopes and dreams of the people of a Vermont wilderness town came together on the top of the hill overlooking Burlington.

The Marquis de Lafayette, former general in the Continental Army, returned to the young United States in 1824 to tour the country whose independence he’d fought to secure nearly 50 years before. Over the course of thirteen months, General Lafayette visited all of the then 24 United States. In late June of 1825, he crossed over the Connecticut River at Windsor and traveled by carriage to Montpelier and, on the 29th of June, to Burlington. In Burlington he was feted by the townspeople and, late in the day, took part in a cornerstone laying ceremony for the new building of the University of Vermont, the structure now known as Old Mill. (University Hall, the institution’s first home, had burned to the ground the year before.) 

"I am sure that the young sons of Vermont will ever evince in their studies the same ardor and perseverance which at all times and on every occasion have characterized the spirited inhabitants of the Green Mountains," said Lafayette, addressing the gathering.

man speaking at lecturn behind ceremonial cornerstone
Former UVM President Daniel Fogel reprises the presidential address of 1825 at the cornerstone re-dedication ceremony.

Lafayette, like his former commanding officer, George Washington, was a member of the Masonic Order. The cornerstone laying took place according to the Masonic rites, with ceremonial anointment of oil, wine, and corn, and the Rev. Willard Preston, UVM’s fourth president, delivered an oration. The entire ceremonial party then retired to dinner at the nearby mansion of then Vermont Governor Cornelius Van Ness, (the building now known as Grasse Mount). Later that night Lafayette departed Burlington for Whitehall, N.Y., on the steamship Phoenix II.

man annointing ceremonial cornerstone
Masons of the Grand Lodge of Vermont anoint the ceremonial cornerstone during the re-dedication ceremony.

On June 29, 2025, exactly 200 years after Lafayette’s visit, the laying of Old Mill’s cornerstone was commemorated with a reenactment featuring a reprise of President Willard’s address by UVM past president Daniel Mark Fogel, and a formal re-dedication ceremony by members of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Vermont. 

A Lafayette interpreter speaks at the event. In the foreground is the original cornerstone of Old Mill that was laid by General Lafayette in 1825.
A Lafayette interpreter speaks at the ceremony. In the foreground is the original Old Mill cornerstone laid by General Lafayette in 1825.

More details about Lafayette’s 1825 visit, and the history of UVM’s Old Mill, can be found in “The Cornerstone,” an article in the current issue of UVM Magazine. Throughout this summer UVM's Silver Special Collections is featuring an exhibition of photographs and artifacts related to Lafayette's visit (including the actual trowel used in the original cornerstone laying), as well as UVM's grand 1925 centennial commemoration of the visit.