Hamilton’s iconic City Hall will mark its 60th birthday today with one of the craftsmen involved in its construction.

Tools used on the job by George L. Burt, who laid the cornerstone of the building in June 1958, will be put on display as part of the celebrations of the anniversary and Black History Month.

Mr Burt, 86, said: “The cornerstone is the very first stone laid for a building.

“It is usually in the northeast corner, but there was too much building material in that area, so we laid it on the southeast corner of the west wing, where the theatre is.”

The veteran builder, who has demonstrated traditional Bermudian building methods at Harbour Nights and worked on several other landmark Bermuda buildings, said the City Hall was one of the largest projects he worked on.

Mr Burt said: “We had a tower crane that ran on a track, like train tracks, it had a boom that stretched across the width of the building.

“City Hall was the first and likely largest truss roof I have ever worked on. I worked on the site for nine to ten months and then moved on to another job.”

Mr Burt’s tools will remain on display at City Hall until the end of February.