Ancient Bluestone walls are a common landmark in the fields of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Photo copyright Emily F. Prokop.

by M.W. Penn

400 million years ago in the region of the Appalachian and Catskill Mountains of Pennsylvania and New York, a number of distinct river systems flowed into an ancient sea. As the rivers neared the end of their journey the systems combined to form a delta, a vast area of tidal flats that separated the dry land from the sea. The Appalachian-Catskill Delta was a transition zone, an area where swiftly moving, shallow waters dropped sediment, and an area that brimmed with simple life forms such as ferns and clams. With the passing of time the landscape changed; the oceans receded and the riverbeds shifted. The abundant animal and plant life of the delta was trapped in the silty deposits of their wake, left there to fossilize and compress into sedimentary sandstone, stone composed of sand bound together by a mineral, often quartz. Today that stone is known as Bluestone.

Feldspar was responsible for a deep blue color of the stone quarried in Veteran, NY, as early as 1832; for that reason in the mid-nineteenth century the stone became known as Bluestone, and the name remains. But the word Bluestone is, for the most part, a misnomer. With the passing of eons, as sediments in the Appalachian-Catskill Delta fossilized into rock, minerals carried through the rock deposits by groundwater created other colors. The stone is sometimes blue to blue-gray, but varies from quarry to quarry. In fact it is also green, brown, lavender, purple, or yellow, and may even host a variety of these colors in the same specimen.

The Bluestone walls of the 'Castle' in Hawley, Pennsylvania. Constructed as a silk mill in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, the Castle is one of the largest Bluestone buildings in the world. Photos copyright Emily F. Prokop.

A strong, stable stone that resists cracking and won't discolor, one outstanding monument to the strength and durability of Bluestone is the Starrucca Viaduct in Lanesboro, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. The viaduct is one thousand feet long with seventeen arches rising between 90 and 100 feet high to support the span. Completed by the Erie Railroad in 1848, the viaduct is now a National Civil Engineering Landmark. William S. Young, author of The Bridge of Stone, writes that "... the builders were delighted to find an abundant quantity of such a suitable stone in the area." Quarrying became a local industry after the viaduct was built. In the mid-1800's at least six quarries in the neighborhood of the viaduct were cutting Bluestone, using the railroad to ship stone across the northeast. The Starrucca Viaduct is still used by the Norfolk-Southern Railroad.

Tough, weather-resistant stone, Bluestone is easy to use and is available in both dimensional and irregular sizes of varying thicknesses. It is often quarried as well-laminated, horizontally bedded sandstone, and that is one of its key traits. One of the flattest of all natural stones, Bluestone's tight dimensional tolerances work especially well in outdoor walkways and patios. Upper levels of deposits of Bluestone are well stratified and can be easily separated into slabs. Sawn from the quarry using concrete saws, blocks of the stratified stone are set on edge to dry in the sun. This drying process exposes the natural seams in the stone, which is then split into pattern Bluestone. Bluestone tile can also be cut from this horizontally bedded upper layer.

An outstanding monument to the strength and durability of Pennsylvania Bluestone, the Starrucca Viaduct in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania, was completed in 1848. The viaduct is one thousand feet long with seventeen supporting arches rising between 90 and 100 feet high. It is still used by the Norfolk-Southern Railroad. Photos copyright Emily F. Prokop.

Below the horizontal beds the stone developed a more solid structure. At this level, big blocks of stone can be removed from the earth by plug and feather. Cubes of the stone, which weigh five to ten tons, are taken to saws to be fabricated into slabs in the same way that granite is fabricated. Common sizes for slabs used for hearths, mantles and stair treads are one-and-one-half and two inches. The stone can be treated thermally, sanded and rubbed, or honed. Honed Bluestone is an excellent material for counter tops.

	Highly prized for adding architectural details, Alcove Bluestone is used in interior decorating for fireplaces, flooring, medallions, murals, and other architectural details. Photo courtesy of Adam Ross Cut Stone Company, Inc.

Bluestone is sometimes confused with slate but is actually a grittier and far less brittle material. Slate is smooth, metamorphosed shale formed from fine-grained silt and is found in great quantities in the same regions of New York and Pennsylvania. Slate for flooring and flagging is often used as a substitute for Bluestone, which is five to six times the cost; but due to its structure most slate will delaminate more readily than Bluestone, making it problematic in patios or walkways, especially in areas surrounding pools. Slate is used most successfully as a roofing material.

The permanence of Pennsylvania Bluestone as a building material can be found in one of the largest Bluestone structures ever built, the Castle, in Hawley, Pennsylvania. Constructed as a silk mill in the early days of the industrial revolution in the mid-nineteenth century, the Castle builders took advantage of local stone so abundant in this northeastern corner of Pennsylvania. Before the advent of bulldozers, teams of horses cleared off the overburden of rock and soil to open the quarries. Then, to separate the blocks of stone into manageable sizes, quarrymen used the plug and feather method similar to the method still in use today. They drilled holes along a line on top of the stone slab and pounded sets of wedges into the holes, driving a second set of flat wedges between the first set. They used stone axes with two and a half inch square blades and rows of teeth set about a quarter inch apart to smooth the edges of the stones. Now a large retail supply center of European antiques and reproduction metal work, the 'Castle' still dominates the cliffs above the small Victorian town.

The great horned owl that decorates this staircase of Alcove Bluestone was carved by David Ross from a tracing by noted wildlife artist Wayne Trim. The opened stair begins in a downstairs family room and extends to the third story. Photo courtesy of Adam Ross Cut Stone Company, Inc.

The strength and durability of Bluestone is complemented by it beauty. Artists find the natural beauty of the stone a powerful creative force. Sculptor Boaz Vaadia: "I work with nature as an equal partner ... That's still the strongest thing I deal with today, that primal connection of man to earth. It's in the materials I use, the environments I make and the way I work." Vaadia believes that man's understanding of the sedimentary nature of Bluestone, respected in the way fabricators split the stone into natural layers, provides a deep connection between nature and his Bluestone creations.

Installed in front of the glass and steel Time Warner Center in New York City, Vaadia's Asaf and Yo'ah introduces the beauty of a dramatic piece of art to the streetscape and provides a natural connector between the modern architecture of the building and the street traffic. This composition, and most of Vaadia's work, uses multiple layers of Johnston and Rhodes Bluestone from New York State. The striation of color within the piece is produced from the layers of Bluestone, and presents a vivid display of the natural variation of color within the stone. David and Yonatan, on permanent display at the Ravinia Sculpture Park in Chicago, Illinois, is another of Vaadia's works using the basic human form to communicate with all people; it provides a further example of the connection between the natural beauty of Bluestone and man's inherent respect for the material.

Installed in front of the 58th Street entrance to the glass and steel Time Warner Center in New York City, Boaz Vaadia's Asaf and Yo'ah provides a natural connector between the modern architecture of the building and the street traffic. The striation of color within the piece is produced from multiple layers of Bluestone. The small stones at the bottom of the work are the Bluestone chips that resulted from the carving of the stone. Photo courtesy of Boaz Vaadia.

David and Yonatan, by Boaz Vaadia, on permanent display at the Ravinia Sculpture Park in Chicago, Illinois, provides an example of the connection between the natural beauty of Bluestone and man's inherent respect for the sedimentary nature of the material. Photo courtesy of Boaz Vaadia.

Johnston and Rhodes of East Branch, NY, is a fourth generation, family owned company that has been in business since 1900. A major supplier of Bluestone for building and paving, their stone is currently being used by the architectural firm of Cesar Pelli, the most recent recipient of the James Daniel Bybee Prize of the Building Stone Institute. Pelli's firm is using flamed Johnston and Rhodes Bluestone for the walls at the base of a new building in Battery Park City, an ecologically designed neighborhood of 9,000 people on the west side of Lower Manhattan.

David Hess, project manager for the 23 story building in Battery Park City, said Bluestone was chosen to compliment the Bluestone used in Teardrop Park, a two-acre children's park built on landfill neighboring the new apartment tower. The name Teardrop is descriptive of the park's shape. Designed by visual artist Ann Hamilton, the two-acre park makes dramatic use of Bluestone obtained from New York Hudson Valley towns, including Alcove, New Paltz, Delni, and Champlain; within the parks boundaries, massive Bluestone elements and woodland ecology evoke the geology of the Hudson River Valley landscape. Pelli's firm continued the use of Bluestone in their design for the project currently under construction.

Alcove Bluestone veneer from New York in a bar and block pattern was used on this cozy colonial home. Photo courtesy of Adam Ross Cut Stone Company, Inc.

Johnston and Rhodes also supplied the Bluestone used in the terraces for the recent renovation of the Cleveland Museum of Art. A very important 1916 structure in Cleveland, Ohio, the neoclassical building has a facade of Georgia White marble on a base of Georgia Cherokee marble. Georgia Cherokee was also used to define over 11,500 square feet of surrounding terraces, which include places for people to walk and sit while enjoying sculptures from the collection. Elk Brook Bluestone was chosen to replace the original gravel paths because it was compatible with ADA standards and was similar to the gravel that had been used originally. It is beautiful and soothing, and blends well with the marble. Elk Brook Bluestone has a consistent blue-gray color and offers a good tread surface for walking with good slip-resistance. It is also durable, an important consideration in the weather and environmental conditions of Cleveland.

South of Albany, New York, Adam Ross Cut Stone fabricates dark blue stone with rust veining called Alcove Bluestone. Highly prized as a building material and for adding architectural details, the stone is also used in interior decorating for fireplaces, countertops, flooring, medallions, murals, and other architectural details. The stone, combining the traits of all Bluestone, is beautiful, durable and versatile, fitting into both contemporary and traditional designs.

References
Young, William S.; The Bridge of Stone; available from: Susquehanna County Historical Society.

Titus, Professor Robert; Ulster Blues - Bluestone Industry in Ulster County, New York; The Catskill Geologist, Summer 1995

Janoski, Elizabeth; "Pennsylvania Bluestone: Past, Present and Future." (3 Part series) Susquehanna County Independent. June, 1988

Special thanks to:
Rafael Pelli, David Hess and Nancy Kleppel; Cesar Pelli Associates, 322 8th Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, New York 10001, (212) 417-9496

J. Kevan Busik, Delaware Quarries, 6603 Rt. 202, New Hope, Pennsylvania 19838 for quarry and fabricating data and for edits. (215) 862-1670 ext.124

June Ross, Adam Ross Cut Stone Company, Inc., 1003 Broadway, Albany, NY 12204, (518) 463-6674

Pete Johnston, Jr., Johnston & Rhodes Bluestone. Phone: 607-363-7595

Boaz Vaadia, View more of Vaadia's work at www.vaadia.com

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