Cornerstone was designed for the new Town Square in Rockville, Maryland, and will be installed in August, 2010. The site faces North Washington Street, a centuries old roadway that saw Native American, Colonial, Revolutionary, and Civil War history. In this trompe l'oeil mural painting, three gossamer banners with historical text include Lincoln's handwriting and the "X" marks of illiterate freedmen who pledged support for Rockville's first black school in 1867. The artwork faces the site of this school, at the center of a constellation of African American heritage sites from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Key words from Lincoln's Gettysburg address are "carved" above. Lincoln's forces occupied the half-black, half-white city as the Civil War began. For the next century, Rockville was contested ground where profound issues of race, equality and American identity were settled forever.