The one inflexible rule, laid down from the beginning of the work, was that there should be no debt incurred, and the work of raising the necessary funds was a tedious undertaking. Every lady appealed to her friends, and the amount thus collected, together with that realized through holding bazaars, ice cream festivals, entertainments and lectures, was carefully deposited until the sum of fourteen hundred dollars was accumulated, which the ladies thought sufficient to erect a small building. The plan was donated by Mr. George Washington Smith and proved acceptable. The corner-stone was laid April 14, 1899, this day being chosen to commemorate George Washington's latest visit to Fredericksburg and his dying mother. The corner-stone itself is a portion of the old Mary Washington monument, begun in 1833, and never completed, and was donated by Mr. John H. Myer. It was laid with imposing Masonic ceremonies by Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4, A. F. and A. M., in which George Washington was made a Mason, District Deputy Grand Master James P. Corbin presiding, Rev. F. P. Ramsey, D. D., of Fredericksburg College, making an impressive address on the occasion. The hospital was completed the summer following, and all the money in the treasury was expended. The house faces the east and is a modest structure, with a porch in front and an extension on the west end. Two rooms open upon the entrance hall, one of which is the operating room, the other the especial room for a single patient. Back of this is a hall, running north and south, beyond which is the kitchen, matron's room, bath-room and store rooms; cellar beneath for wood and such articles as can be kept there. In the extensions are respectively the two large, well-lighted and ventilated rooms for the men's and women's wards. The capacity of the hospital is small, but there is plenty of room for any additions which the future may warrant being made. With the faith that characterized the movement from the beginning, the ladies met on September 25, 1899, elected a matron, Miss Virginia Aldridge, and appointed Wednesday, October 4th, "Donation Day." Their confidence was rewarded and donations poured in from every one, rich and poor. Among so many it would be invidious to mention names, but Mr. Spencer, of Snowden, a new comer to Fredericksburg, liberally furnished the single room with every appliance for comfort in illness, and the ladies gratefully named it, for him, the Spencer room. From the druggists came a generous donation of accessories, and everything--chairs and china, beds and other belongings--came in abundantly.