As we enter the day of the American Presidential Election it is perhaps apposite that I consider the link between 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Scottish Freemasons. In 1790 President George Washington (himself a Freemason of great renown) signed an Act of Congress and laid out plans for the new capital including the location of the Presidential residence. A competition was instigated to choose a design for the "President's House" and on July 16 1792 Washington chose the winning design submitted by one James Hoban (also a Freemason - although this in itself is unlikely to have influenced the selection of his design). In October of that same year the foundation stone was laid. (Although the ardent Freemason in me would like to think that this was in the Northeast corner, there does not appear to be any corroborative evidence to support this, in fact the Southwest corner appears to be able to lay better claim!) What is not generally recorded is that many of the masons working on the construction were members of the Lodge of Journeymen Masons (Number 8 on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland). The speculative lodge of today originated from an operative lodge working in Edinburgh (Instituted 1707). It is a credit to those Scottish masons that when the building was burnt by the British in 1814 the structure of the building remained sound and the exterior walls needed nothing more than a coat of the eponymous white paint to cover the smoke damage. Two hundred years on, the building remains a potent symbol of nationhood in the hearts of the American people, and a small sense of pride for a few Edinburgh Masons!