Category: Stories in Stone Blog

Bluestone and "a thousan’ rattlesnakes"

The most famous building stone in New York after brownstone is another sandstone known by its color: bluestone. The term generally refers to flagstones quarried in the Hudson River Valley in central and south New York, as well as in northern Pennsylvania. What made it so popular was the sandstone’s ability to be split into slabs of consistent thickness, which could then be used most famously for sidewalks.

Classic bluestone sidewalk, on a street of classic brownstones in Brooklyn

Beginning in the early-1800s, numerous bluestone quarries opened to provide stone for New York city. According to the Jan 17, 1872 New York Times, one “Uncle Steve” Griffin, a “noted character,” found one of the earlier quarries while out on a rattlesnake smoking expedition near Westbrookville. The area was noted for rattlesnake dens and a local pastime was to “kill the venomous inmates [by] prying and smoking them out of their places of resort.”

Antique bluestone paving for sale. (From Monterey Masonry in western Massachusetts)

Griffin had located a den and inserted his crowbar when he was “astonished by the splitting of a thin, smooth slab.” The Times added “[Uncle Steve] did not attach any importance to his discovery, merely remarking when he returned home that he had “killed more’n a thousan’ rattlesnakes, and had buried ‘em under a patent grave-stone he’d found there.” He subsequently exhibited his “patent grave-stone” to others, who at once pronounced it a blue-stone quarry.” The quarry, however, wasn’t developed for 35 years, when in 1865, six barge loads were shipped to market.

The bluestone flagging went into curbs, caps, sills, and steps—called “edge stuff”—as well as street pavement. Bluestones got their name from the blue color, though the sandstone ranges from gray to green to lilac. The quantity and type of iron controls the colors with chlorite imparting green and hematite bestowing lilac. An absence of hematite, along with unaltered iron minerals generates the famous blues.

Bluestone has also been used to describe bluish limestone, particularly in the Shenandoah Valley. Good examples of this stone are found on the James Madison University Campus. Archaeologists working at Stonehenge also refer to the igneous rocks there, such as diabase and rhyolite, as bluestone.

The majority of the quarries are in Devonian rocks. In New York the rock is the Upper Walton Formation of the West Falls Group and in Pennsylvania, this group is equivalent to the New Milford Formation. The sands were deposited in a classic delta complex, of shoreline and non-marine alluvial plains dotted with lagoons and tidal flats. Quartz is the dominant mineral with a quartz cement.

One of the best single sources on the history and geology of bluestone is a report by James Albanese and William Kelly. It was published for the New York State Geological Association meeting in 1991 and contains most of the pertinent details about the rock that I used. (It can be found in the NY Geo Assn Guidebook, vol. 63, pages 191-203.)

Although the hey-day of bluestone sidewalks passed long ago, many still recognize the beauty of the stone. For example, Marbletown, a community in the Hudson Valley, recently received $3 million in federal stimulus money to build a 3/4-mile bluestone sidewalk. Now, who says that the government does not spend our money wisely?

StoneFest: The Stone Masters

As someone seriously interested in rocks for the past 25 years or so and building stone for the past dozen, I am embarrassingly bereft in my practical knowledge of pounding rock. Yes, I have whacked rock on many an outcrop (and, of course, played numerous rounds of rock hammer golf), but never had I hammered rock with the goal of creating a shape, such as a letter or block, or even watched someone else hammer rock, until StoneFest. As I stated in my previous post, it was a revelation.

Stone and hammer: some of life’s simpler pleasures.

The master stonemasons were a joy to watch. Each time their hammer or mallet struck the chisel, it was done with confidence. The confidence manifest itself in three ways. First, was in having the right tool. Second, was in locating the chisel at the right point to take off the precise piece they needed, and third, was to hit with the right amount of pressure. They were the masters of the rock. But they also knew that stone could be capricious and they did make errors.

Keith Phillips showing the various textures one could apply to stone with a hammer and chisel.

I especially enjoyed watching Keith Phillips, who is the master stone cutter at the Tenino Sandstone quarry, 20 miles or so south of Olympia, Washington; and Nathan Blackwell, 87 years old and still making his own tools and cutting stone. They helped one of the students cut an S-shaped curve called an ogee. Nathan was particularly impressive, getting into a hitting rhythm as he trimmed along the curve, took off surface rock, and began to cut out the shape. It was if the tools were extensions of his hands. Within minutes the block had metamorphosed from a rock to an arch.

Nathan Blackwell at work. An exemplary gentleman who always wears a tie when cutting stone.

Robinson Jeffers once compared stone cutters to poets. Each works precisely, deliberately, and considerably to fashion their particular work of art. He wrote in his poem To the Stone-Cutters:

“Yet stones have stood for a thousand years, and pained thoughts
found
The honey of peace in old poems.”

The final product: an ogee arch cut with a hammer and chisel, the marks of which give the arch its texture.

Keith Phillips said “Oh, some people say, it’s just stone but we are trained to be accurate, to build a building that will last 100 years.” Keith’s comments gets to the heart of the passion I felt at StoneFest. These were people dedicated to making high quality and often beautiful products that would endure. In our modern age of prefabrication and machine made items often put together half way around the world, it was a treat to watch these people work with tools that had basically remained unchanged for centuries. I know that I forget the amazing items that talented people can produce. It was both a revelation and a reaffirmation of the human spirit.