Just came across a wonderful posting about building stone in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is written by Gerard Middleton, a retired sedimentologist, who taught at McMaster University in Hamilton for 41 years. Since retiring he has devoted himself to the history of geology and in particular to knitting together the stories of stone in Hamilton. He got his start when approached by the people developing “Ruthven,” an old stone mansion on the banks of the Grand River, near Cayuga in southern Ontario. They wanted help identifying the source of the stone. This proved so interesting that he began to investigate all of the stone in buildings within a day’s drive from Hamilton.
Since then Gerard has given talks about his work and started to publish his findings. This includes cowriting a guidebook, Niagara Rocks, Building Stone, History and Wine, and helping Nina Perksins Chapple on her A Heritage in Stone: Buildings of the Niagara Peninsula, Fergus and Elora, Guelph, Region of Waterloo, Cambridge, Paris, Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough, Hamilton and St. Mary’s. In all of his work, he does a fine job of describing the history and geology, making each accessible to non-specialists.
I look forward to more of Gerard’s splendid studies of building stone.