President Kennedy Unveiled Mason Dixon Marker

Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon arrived in Philadelphia to begin surveying the Mason Dixon Line on Nov. 15, 1763. Two hundred years later on Nov. 14, 1963, President John F. Kennedy, Governor Elbert N. Carvel, and Governor Millard F. Tawes stood on a platform situated on the historic line. The president and many other officials were on the state line to dedicate the Northeastern Expressway and the Delaware Turnpike.

After Mr. Kennedy and others made remarks to the warm, welcoming crowd of about 2,000 people, the president, flanked by the governors of Maryland and Delaware, walked down a wooden walkway and snipped a symbolic ribbon opening the Interstate. They then moved along the planks to a place where a 600-pound replica of a Mason and Dixon Marker had been placed in the median strip. There they unveiled the maker, which had on one side of the stone the coat of arms of the Baltimore Family and on the Delaware side the coat of arms for the Penn Family. It was limestone and had been carved in Milford.

President Kennedy and the governors of Maryland and Delaware dedicate a replica Mason Dixon Marker on state line during the opening of I-95

For More on Mason Dixon Markers See

A Fallen Mason Dixon Monument

For photos related to President Kennedy at the Mason Dixon Line visit our Cecil County History page on Facebook

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