City Hall sets record straight on 200th anniversary.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum celebrated the 200th anniversary of the construction of City Hall during a ceremony on Nov 14.

The three unveiled a bluestone paver on the southeast side of the plaza that was carved especially

Researchers, led by the City's Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Art Commission, pored over period newspapers, the diary of John McComb, Jr., one of City Hall's architects, and the minutes of the Common Council, to check historical details of the building.

They found that, in 1802, a competition was held for the new City Hall and 26 proposals were submitted. The first prize of $350 was awarded to John McComb, Jr. and Joseph Francois Mangin. McComb was a New Yorker while Joseph Francois Mangin was trained in his native France. City Hall is the only known project on which the two architects collaborated.

The researchers, however, found that a foundation stone had been laid at the southeast corner of the City Hall building during a ceremony on May 26, 1803 and that John McComb, Jr. had received sole credit as the architect of the building on the actual foundation stone itself, as well as in most of the news coverage.

In order to correct this historical error, one of the bluestone pavers in City Hall Plaza was

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