Author: David B. Williams

Ontario, Canada: A Heritage in Stone

I recently received a very handsome book in the mail. It came from author and architectural conservationist Nina Perkins Chapple. The book is A Heritage of Stone: Buildings of the Niagara Peninsula, Fergus and Elora, Guelph, Region of Waterloo, Cambridge, Paris, Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough, Hamilton and St. Marys. In clear prose, Chapple describes the fascinating development of the stone architecture in southwestern Ontario in the nineteenth century.

Filled with excellent photographs, the book details 114 examples of stone buildings. They range from the simple Burlington Canal Lighhouse (1858) to the elaborate, Gothic Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (1876-1888); from the massive Galt Foundry and Machine Works (1875) to the one-story McDougall Cottage (1858); and from ashlar to cobblestone to rough hewn blocks. Each building includes information on the history, builder, and designer, along with an address.

Below is a sample of some of the buildings described in the book. They reveal once again how the underlying geology influences architecture and helps to create a local aesthetic. Chapple’s book makes me want to go this area to explore the amazing stone architecture, certainly some of the most diverse and intriguing that I have seen.

Paris, Ontario has an unusual legacy of houses built with cobblestones. The style was popular in nearby western New York from the 1830s to 1860s. According to Chapple, a cobble “can be held in the palm of a hand.” Cobbles served no structural purpose and instead were used as a thin veneer. (photo from Ontario Architecture web site)

House of Heads (1858), carved out of limestone by English mason Matthew Bell. Bell built several homes for his children in the town of Guelph, including one of which may include a bust of Charles Dickens. (photo from Ontario Architecture web site)

John Brubacher house (1850), a classic Mennonite home making use of stones cleared from nearby fields. The split granite stones were not laid in courses. Dozens of such simple farmhouses still stand. (photo from Mennonite Historic Society of Ontario web site.)

Galt Post Office (1885) – High Victorian style – One of many structures built with local granite fieldstones, which glaciers had transported and deposited on the plains surrounding the area now designated as Cambridge. The former town of Galt is known as the “granite city.”

The Art Deco Stone

From McDonalds’ bathrooms to Art Deco, the Morton Gneiss has a colorful history of use in architecture. I discovered this during my research for Stories in Stone, when I began to develop a list of buildings built with the 3.5-billion-year old, metamorphic rock. I was struck by the Morton’s popularity in the 1930s and specifically in Art Deco or Moderne style projects, where the gneiss was an ideal stone. Several of the buildings later were honored with designation on the National Register of Historic Places.

Adler Planetarium, Chicago, built in 1930, designed by Ernst Grunsfeld, National Register Historic Places

Architectural historians debate the exact dates of Art Deco‘s popularity but basically the period between World War I and II was the heyday. The term comes from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industrials Modernes, held at Paris in 1925, and applies to “modern” buildings incorporating exotic motifs, often dramatic, colorful, and playful. Art Deco style design elements also appeared in many non-architectural forms, particularly in machinery and machines.

Oklahoma Natural Gas, now Noble Drilling, 1929, Tulsa, National Register Historic Places

Builders incorporated the Morton for several reasons. It fit the Art Deco aesthetic for unusual colors, particularly as a counterpoint to the light and monochromatic stone, such as Salem Limestone, often used above the base. (By highlighting the dark/light contrast, builders created an unconformity, or missing time gap in the stone record. In the case of the Morton-Salem contact, the missing time gap covers over three billion years, what geologists would refer to as great unconformity. One of the fun aspects of building geology, I think, is to find these artificial unconformities. If readers find others, perhaps they could let me know and I could post a list.)

The Morton’s swirled surface provided a natural counterpoint, as well as complement to the era’s prevailing fascination with machines, geometric patterns, and abstract organic forms. These shapes include Egyptian-stylized form, zig-zags, and chevrons, and are part of define Art Deco. The Morton’s complex texture of light and dark bands typifies gneiss, a type of metamorphic rock formed from great heat and pressure. In the case of the Morton, the major period of metamorphism occurred when its parent rock rammed into the North American continent around 2.7 billion years ago.

Because of the Morton’s color and texture, quarries sold it under trade names such as Oriental, Tapestry, Variegated, and Rainbow Granite. Some people also refer to the Morton as marble. It does have a marbled texture but is not a marble, which is also a metamorphic rock, but one that forms from limestone.

Dark gneiss also helped distinguish a building and set off the base from the surrounding city. Builders may have used the gneiss only at the base because the stone was harder to work, had to be transported long distances, and cost more. In addition, it was more resistant than limestone and sandstone to urban degradation, such as road salt, soot, and noxious vehicle emissions. Each of these factors contributed to builders using the Morton only at the most visible, public ground level.

Close up of Seattle Exchange Building, 1929

And, the Morton was simply an interesting stone to look at. It drew people’s attention. It gave the building life; nothing about the Morton feels static or inert. It bestowed complexity; no two panels are the same. As I noted in my book, the dynamic nature of the Morton makes it the most living rock I have seen, quite a claim for what is probably the oldest rock that most people will ever encounter.

A Short List of Art Deco buildings with Morton Gneiss

Adler Planetarium, 1930, Chicago, (NRHS)

David Stott, 1929, Detroit, (NRHS)

Central Bank Trust, 1913, Cincinnati

Watts Building, 1930, Birmingham, (NRHS)

Mariner Tower, 1930, Milwaukee

Pythian Building, 1930, Tulsa

333 N. Michigan Bldg, 1928, Chicago,

Old State Library, 1938, Richmond, VA, (NRHS)

Wisconsin Gas Bldg, 1929, Milwaukee

Cincinnati Telephone Bldg, 1930, Cincinnati

Williamsburg Savings Bank, 1929, Brooklyn

Hartford Gas Co, Hartford, CT

Cincinnati Union Terminal, Cincinnati, 1933

Bankers Life Building, Des Moines, Iowa

Northwestern Bell Telephone (now Qwest), Minneapolis, MN, 1930

Originally the Bankers Life Insurance building, Des Moines, Iowa, built in 1939

David Stott building, Detroit, 1929, close up of entrance below, National Register Historic Places