In April 1914 Dundee Corporation agreed to accept James Key Caird’s offer of £100,000 to pay for the new City Hall they had planned. Although the plans needed to be altered, reviewed and approved by the Council, Caird arranged for the laying of the foundation stone for the building in July that year. By this time Caird and James Thomson, the City Architect and Engineer had agreed on the rough design and location of the hall, final detailed plans had yet to be drawn up. It had been announced back in March that the King and Queen were scheduled to visit Dundee so why not get them to lay a foundation stone too, this was an opportunity not to be missed!
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Although the Crown Hotel on the corner of the Greenmarket and Shore Terrace was demolished at the end of June 1914, most of the rest of the area was extant. So it was quite lucky (or perhaps chosen on purpose) that the location of the foundation stone was in the middle of the Greenmarket Square. The Royal Visit had been planned for the 10th July so preparations had to be quick. The original plan was that the King and Queen would arrive from Edinburgh, drive along the esplanade to Magdalen Green, where all (yes all) of the children in public schools would be waiting to greet them. Then it was 20 minutes at Blackness Library, so just a fleeting visit. The main purpose of the visit was “to study industrial conditions of the people” so they also planned to visit Ashton Works on the Hawkhill for about 20-30 minutes. They would then head to the Albert Institute for an inspection of the building and then on to Baxter’s Jute Works and Keiller’s Factory.
As they only had about 3 or so hours to spend in the city there wasn’t much wiggle room for dropping by the Greenmarket to lay a big stone. So, as they were visiting Caird’s factory anyway, an inventive means of using new technology was devised. Their royal majesties would just push an electronic button from Ashton Works that would move the machinery at the Greenmarket. Thereby having them lay the stone but in the most time efficient way and without having to change the itinerary. However this was to be no ordinary button. Sir James had something flashy up his sleeve. Rather than a plain round metal button he had purchased a large emerald and a chines carved jade. They was hooked up to the system and used as the buttons that the King and Queen would touch to send the foundation stones into their places. Once they had pushed the ‘buttons’ a blind popped up which read “This stone is well and truly laid”. After the ceremony the stones were offered to the royal couple. Queen Mary kept her jade as a memento of the visit (it is still kept in the royal collection – you can see a picture of it here), but the King handed his emerald back to the city. It now forms part of the Lord Provosts chain.
However this did lead to what I can only assume was a rather odd sight in town. At the Greenmarket the machinery was set up and the stones put in place. A grandstand was erected in front of what remained of the Crown Hotel for 500 people (mainly councillors and local dignitaries) but there was plenty of room for standing spectators (which according to the Courier there were ‘thousands’).
At the start of the event a casket was placed behind where the stones would go. It contained a copy of the Council minutes where the council discussed Sir James Caird’s offer to pay for the hall, news reports of the gift, a current Dundee directory, a Corporation Diary, once of each of the coins in circulation at the time and four newspapers from the day before (Thurs 9th July 1914).
The appointed hour came and a message was received from Ashton Works that they were about to push the button. There must have been a hush amongst the crowd as a ‘click’ was heard as the two commemorative stones were lowered to the plinth. A prayer was read by Rev A W Fergusson and Bailie Paton gave a speech about the improvement scheme. There were three cheers for Sir James Caird, another three for the King and Queen and then the AMU Band played the national anthem. I wonder if anyone was disappointed as they had gone to the Greenmarket expecting to see the King and Queen.
The stones were then capped and bricked up at the sides to protect them until the rest of the hall was built. At some point it a wooden box was built around it for extra protection. As mentioned above the actual plans hadn’t been improved. In fact James Thomson’s report on the new design for the hall and what would become City Square wasn’t put to the Council until March 1915 – 8 months after the foundation stone was laid. The building warrant (a document allowing construction to take place) wasn’t issued until 23rd November 1915. So the foundation stone was sitting alone for at least 16 months.
The Dundee City Archives Blog 
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