By Jodi Paper
All photos courtesy of Virginia Tech

	Burruss Hall administrative building on the drill field with biomarker commemorating Julian Ashby Burruss, Virginia Tech's past president, 1919-1945.

Virginia Tech is built on a 100-year-old tradition that comes out of the same earth as the Appalachian Mountains that rest nearby. That tradition is Hokie Stone, a dolomite limestone that is quarried locally, just miles from campus. For more than a hundred years, Hokie Stone has been the main ingredient in the buildings that make up the Blacksburg campus of Virginia Tech.

Hokie Stone is named as such because of the key role the word "hokie" has played in the traditions of the school. Virginia Tech was founded in 1872, and was originally known as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, and then Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute. Because the name was such a mouthful, people started referring to the school as VPI. Following the change in moniker was a proposed change of the VPI official spirit. A contest was held — the prize for the best song was five dollars — and the winner was "Old Hokie," written by O.M. Stull, class of 1896. Stull made up the nonsensical word to be used in the cheer. And the rest, as they say, is history.

But what is in a name? Hokie Stone is not exclusive to Virginia. The stone can be found in Tennessee and Alabama as well. "Dolomite limestone," explained Mark Helms, director of Grounds at Virginia Tech, "can be found virtually anywhere in the world. Ours is just unique because the sediment is particularly rich in manganese and iron ore, which give the stone its color."

Hokie Stone quarry

A rainbow of colors is more like it. Each cut stone is different, but all contain some combination of shades of yellow, salmon, gray and black. "And sometimes you can see a reddish, rusty color," said Clara Cox, who is director of University Publications. "Sometimes, during certain times of the day, when the sun is low in the sky and hitting the buildings ... though they are all constructed of Hokie Stone, they each appear to be a different color. It's absolutely beautiful."

Actually, when Hokie Stone is first quarried and fresh from its excavation, it appears to be only one color. "Everything comes out grey," Helms said. "Once it becomes weathered — with the rain and the sun and oxidation — that's when it changes color."

Birth of a Hokie Stone
There are two quarries, both of which are owned and operated by Virginia Tech, where the Hokie Stone is removed. The main quarry is 40 acres and it is worked everyday. Eighty percent of the Hokie Stone used on campus comes from this quarry. The other 20 percent comes from the smaller quarry, which is located on a local farm and typically operated once a year.

Although the main quarry is located in a residential neighborhood, disturbance to the area — the amount of noise and dust — is limited. "We use black powder [as an explosive to remove the stone] because it's relatively quiet," Helms explained. The powder also keeps breakage of the stone more controlled. "We want to crack the stone, not make gravel," he said. "We want to get the largest pieces as possible."

From there, the stone goes through a process of drilling and splitting to break it into a more manageable size. Generally they use a 1-3/4 drill and a concrete splitter, which gets the stone small enough to fit through a hydraulic press, or a 3/4-inch drill with additional use of shims, wedges and sledgehammers. "Hokie Stone splits a lot like firewood," Helms said.

The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center entrance

Then the stones are squared the old-fashioned way — by hand — using a hammer and chisel. This allows the masons to shape and size the material so it will fit together in blocks. Every piece comes out different and is eventually laid in a random-ashlar pattern for the buildings.

Generally, there are about 25 to 30 people working the quarry at any given time, though this number increases or decreases depending on the season; in summer there are more, winter less. Everyone that works at the quarry is a Virginia Tech employee. "One person can produce one ton of finished product per day," Helms said, which adds up to about 55 tons per week or 2,600 tons per year. One ton covers about 35 square feet of construction. "A typical campus building will use around 1,500 tons of stone."

Helms sees the school's undertaking of all aspects of the quarrying and production of Hokie Stone as one of the qualities that makes Virginia Tech so unique. "There are lots of gorgeous stone quarries in the world," Helms said. "But I don't know of any university, besides Virginia Tech, that does it all themselves."

Torgersen Bridge, named for Past President Paul E. Torgersen, connecting Torgersen Hall and Newman Library

The Turning Point
Hokie Stone was first used in the construction of a YMCA, built in 1901. In 1917, the construction of McBryde Hall introduced what was to become the official style of campus buildings.

"McBryde Hall is the first significant structure that brought Hokie Stone and the neo-Gothic style of architecture together," said Scott Hurst, the university architect. "When this campus started in 1872, it was being built with a look that grew out of the downtown area of Blacksburg, which consisted of plain, simple brick structures."

But this look was unsatisfactory to Joseph Eggleston, who was president of the school from 1913 to 1919. "Early on, Eggleston had as his image for the appearance of the school a change of direction. It was important to him to have buildings that were durable and that spoke to a certain timelessness. [His outlook] became a major turning point for campus."

In the '60s and '70s, Virginia Tech made a brief foray into a more modernist style of architecture, dabbling in concrete and — once again — brick. But this abandonment of Hokie Stone and neo-Gothicism didn't last. In 1990, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors made a formal decree that a certain amount of Hokie Stone be incorporated into the construction of every new building on campus.

Beyond the buildings, Hokie Stone is used minimally in only a few other capacities. Currently it is used in the structure of biomarkers, which Cox described as "biographical sketches about the people campus buildings are named after." The sketches are cast on bronze plaques, which are mounted on Hokie Stone pedestals. In certain places, bio-markers are sometimes accompanied by Hokie Stone sitting walls that are topped with concrete. "Occasionally we might carve out a piece of Hokie Stone and polish it for a gift to present to someone, but this is rare," Cox said.

New Holtzman Alumni Center and clock tower with The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center

A Lasting Tradition
"We have some strong traditions here," Hurst said. "Hokie Stone is an important hallmark that really defines this campus." He noted the fact that the popular material is local and durable, which makes it so sustainable. "The idea of a campus to be able to look beyond the design of a single building ... it is the collection of buildings that makes this campus greater than the sum of its parts."

Hurst finds a great deal of inspiration in the school's tradition of incorporating Hokie Stone into every building on campus. "It wasn't until after 1974, when I became a student [at Virginia Tech] that I came to fully understand how critical stone is to the history and beauty of a place."

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