The cornerstone is a curious ritual in which the key support for a new building is put in place.

Of course, modern building techniques make the cornerstone largely symbolic, and the contents of a cornerstone help preserve the hopes and vision of those who seek to improve on the past.

And they are windows on an honored past. This summer two such old windows offered their contents to new eyes as Keller and Sprecher Halls were removed to make room for the university's state-of-the-art classroom building, Hollenbeck Hall.

Both were once a part of the Hamma Divinity School, which has long since merged into Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus. Both buildings would have been more expensive to reconfigure as modern classrooms than to replace.

In near pristine condition, the cornerstones contained an 1870 edition of the Lutheran Book of Worship, and two Bibles, one dating from 1887 and the other still bearing its bookstore price tag (29 cents).

The cornerstones also contained documentation of the close relationship between schools of theology, between various synods, and with local Lutheran churches. For instance, there is a handwritten history of Springfield's Third Lutheran Church, set down seven months before the laying of the first Hamma cornerstone.

There is also a wealth of historic documents from Wittenberg's early decades. G. Gerlaw Clark's 1887 "History of Wittenberg College" was written when the university's second president, Samuel Sprecher, was still living. There are also well-preserved copies of the college's 1845- 47 catalog, and the June 1889 issue of the literary magazine "The Wittenberger."

College officials planning the cornerstones also wanted to show the importance of Wittenberg's community by including copies of Springfield newspapers. In Sept. 1889, the penny press was thriving. From the Springfield Daily Democrat we learn that for the beginning of the academic year "The new rules were distributed by Dr. (President) Ort in person. They are very extensive and cover all the ground."

The Springfield Daily Gazette also reported the pleasure felt by the Rev. Dr. Gotwald, a professor of practical theology at Wittenberg, as the Second Lutheran Church eliminated the final $8,500 debt from the building of that church. The Lutheran Evangelist offers news that Dr. Calvin Parker's 45-year-old plow mule "can pull 1,000 pounds two or three miles very easily today, and promises to live to be 60 years old."

The front page of the Springfield Republic-Times carries a notice that a high school club "paralyzed" nine Wittenberg students in baseball, drubbing the college students by a score of 12-2. In the same column the paper also reports that student Earl Humphries spent Sunday with his parents in Urbana.

Shortly, a new cornerstone will be prepared for Hollenbeck Hall. In it will go evidnce of how far Wittenberg has developed well into its second century, and how it intends to preserve its traditions of quality in a new educational environment into the 21st century. But the Hollenbeck cornerstone will also contain historic documents from Keller and Sprecher, reminders of the ambitious leadership that contributed to what Wittenberg is today.

Actual ornamental stones from Keller were also preserved from Hollenbeck's predecessor, to be incorporated into the new classroom building as a daily reminder of that continuity.