Cornerstones & Time Capsules
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Setting the Cornerstone, Building 21
President William L. McKnight, accompanied by chief engineer E. M. Johnson, supervised the installation of the cornerstone in October 1939. The mason worked for the William Murphy and Son Construction Company. The date had been carved before the stone was set.Etching the Cornerstone, Building 42 The Building 42 cornerstone contained a time capsule holding samples of 3M products, the 1949 company annual report, a copy of Megaphone magazine, a history of the company, newspaper accounts of the attempted assassination of President Harry S. Truman several days earlier, and an aerial photo of the Saint Paul Plant.
Files
Building 42
Building 42, Mendota Street and Reaney Avenue, in 1952. | Source: Minnesota Historical Society
Foundation Excavation
3M breaks ground on Building 21. | Source: Minnesota Historical Society
Construction
Ongoing construction on Building 21. | Source: Minnesota Historical Society
Building 21, 1944
Building 21, 900 Fauquier (now Bush) Avenue, pictured four years after completion. | Source: Minnesota Historical Society
Setting the Cornerstone
President William L. McKnight, accompanied by chief engineer E. M. Johnson, supervised the installation of the cornerstone in October 1939. | Source: Minnesota Historical Society
Building 42, 1952
Building 42, Mendota Street and Reaney Avenue, in 1952. | Source: Minnesota Historical Society
Etching the Cornerstone
On November 3, 1950, President Richard Carlton inscribed the date on the cornerstone of Building 42 using a sandblast stencil, a 3M product that simplified stone carving techniques. | Source: Minnesota Historical Society