Tag: Salem Limestone

Overlooked but not Forgotten

Many people, including me, have written extensively about the famous white limestone from Indiana. In my book Stories in Stone, I call the Salem Limestone, “America’s Building Stone,” and as far as I have been able to discover, it is the only building stone used in all 50 states. Recently, however, I have learned of another white limestone often mistakenly described as Salem. Much to my pleasure, being a native of Kentucky, that other stone hails from quarries in Warren County, Kentucky, in the southwest corner of the state.

The story of the Bowling Green Oolite comes from research by Western Kentucky University geologists Mike May and Ken Kuehn. They found that the oolitic limestone was popular from the 1870s to the 1920s with the quarries shutting down around 1937. During that time it became famous for its pure white color and received a gold medal at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the highest award at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World’s Fair) in 1904. A 1923 Kentucky Geological Survey Publication, written I am sure without any bias, described the Bowling Green rock as “The Aristocrat of all the limestones.”

The publication further noted one unusual aspect of the stone—petroleum “impregnated” the rock. Oil gave the rock a dingy and unpleasant color when first quarried and carved, but soon the evaporation of the occluded petroleum left behind a stone of “great whiteness and remarkable beauty.” And it goes without saying that Bowling Green Oolite had superior strength and durability.

Episcopal Church of Saint Thomas (from St. Thomas web site)

Like the Salem, the Bowling Green Oolite, formally known as the Girkin Limestone, is Mississippian in age. The Girkin is most famous as the stone where the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky formed. The stone crossed state boundaries, with structures such as the U.S. Custom’s House in Nashville, TN and the Hall of Records in Brooklyn, NY; and religious boundaries, going into Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, and Episcopal churches, as well as a synagogue. One of the most famous buildings is the Episcopal Church of Saint Thomas in Manhattan, finished in 1913, during the prime years for usage of white limestone from the Midwest.

I suspect that most buildings that I think of as Salem Limestone are Salem, particularly in areas in the west, but I now know that some may have been mislabeled. I look forward to finding more buildings from my home state.

Our Nation’s Building Stones

So you’re heading out to Washington D.C. to attend the inauguration and wondering what to do in the down time between the Bruce Springsteen concert, primping for the Inaugural Ball, and chatting up your local congressional representative on the importance of  a good geology education.  Well, like that self-professed geogeek, Mr. Obama, (okay I think he just called himself a geek but I am guessing that he secretly likes rocks), one thing to do is to explore our nation’s capital and check out the building stone.  

In a city of stately buildings, stone has long been the premium material.  One of the first was quarried about 40 miles south of Washington along Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia.  Popular between 1790 and 1840, the Lower Cretaceous sandstone is rich in quartz sand and pebbles.  It was also known as ‘Virginia freestone,’ and was used for the White House, Treasury Building, the Old Patent Office, and the older parts of the Capitol.  Unfortunately, the Aquia Creek rock suffered from many flaws and weathered poorly, so that it soon had to be replaced or painted over.  

Gateposts (From USGS Pub. Building Stones of Our Nation’s Capital) 

You can still find it indoors at the Old Patent Office and in rooms next to the Capitol rotunda.  Outdoor examples include the Old Patent Office, the boundary stones of D.C., and three gateposts and one gatehouse, formerly at the Capitol.  They can now be found at 15th St. NW and Constitution Ave. NW. 

The most popular building material, and one that has weathered far better, is the Salem Limestone.  As I have noted before, it is a 330-million-year old rock quarried in and around Bloomington, Indiana.  You cannot travel very far in Washington without running into a building made either all or partly of Salem.  These include the Botanic Gardens, the GSA Building, US Holocaust Museum, Interior, Jefferson Memorial (calcite from the Salem and marble have weathered and made stalactites and stalagmites in the basement), Lincoln Memorial, National Theater, and scores of more.  

Department of Interior (From USGS Pub. Building Stones of Our Nation’s Capital) 

You can also find a brownstone, from quarries located along the Potomac River, near Seneca, Maryland, 20 miles northwest of Washington.  Like the brownstones of Connecticut, the Seneca sandstone formed in massive rift basins that opened 200 million years ago during the breakup of Pangaea.  The Smithsonian Castle completed in 1855, uses this brownstone, which has weathered to dark red from its original lilac gray.  I recently learned from Through the Sandglass of a great Mark Twain quote about said stone.  In a letter published in the March 7, 1868 Territorial Enterprise, he wrote of the “poor, decrepit, bald-headed, played-out, antediluvian Old Red Sandstone formation which they call the Smithsonian Institute.” 

Smithsonian Castle (From USGS Pub. Building Stones of Our Nation’s Capital) 

I will end my short tour with the Washington Monument, the tallest masonry structure in the world.  The lower 152 feet use Texas marble, quarried in Maryland.  Construction on this section ran from 1845 to 1854.  Not until 11 years after the Civil War did building again begin again, now with marble from Lee, Massachusetts.  Only four layers were laid; this marble was too expensive.  Builders returned again to Maryland quarries but this time they got stone from Cockeysville, north of Baltimore. 

If you want to see more or learn more about stone of Washington, D.C., you can consult two excellent publications.  The USGS has put their Building Stones of Our Nation’s Capital on line. 

The second is the Building Stones and Geomorphology of Washington, D.C., written by Jim O’Connor, the late geologist for the District of Columia.  Enthusiastic about making geology accessible to everyone, he wrote and taught extensively about the local geology of the capitol.