|
|
|
Home > California > Structures and Monuments in Which California Stone was Used
Finished Product from California Stone in California (Continued)
According to the section on the “Benicia Arsenal and Barracks,” the designation of the arsenal occurred in April 1852. “The oldest stone magazine, built in 1857 at a cost of $35,000 has...a vaulted ceiling modified Corinthian pillars, constructed by French artisans recruited by the United States Government...This and other structures of hand-hewn sandstone blocks from the surrounding hills are among the finest examples of the stonecutter’s art in the state....” This section goes on to note that some of the other buildings constructed of local stone include the following: the first hospital built in 1856, the three-story Clock-Tower building, and two stone warehouses later used as camel barns.
According to the section on the “Benicia Arsenal and Barracks,” “The...stone magazine...and other structures (were constructed) of hand-hewn sandstone blocks from the surrounding hills are among the finest examples of the stonecutter’s art in the state....” These two sandstone buildings were first used as warehouses and later used to house U.S. Army camels which were “...brought from the Near East in 1856-57 for the transportation of military supplies across the desert wastes of our Southwest.” The article also notes that a small sandstone guardhouse built during the same time period as the camel barns is located between the two larger buildings.
Benicia, Solano County, California – Benicia Arsenal Buildings located at and near the Camel Barns constructed from sandstone quarried on the Benicia Arsenal grounds. (Photographs taken by Peggy B. Perazzo in July 2009.) Visit the Photographic Tour of the Benicia Arsenal section to view more photographs of the arsenal buildings and quarries located near the camel barns. PAT: PLACE LINK ON "Photographic Tour of the Benicia Arsenal section" ABOVE & LINK TO THAT SECTION.
 Front Benicia Arsenal Camel Barn 9 |
 Benicia Arsenal Camel Barn 9 |
 Camel Barn 7 (on left) & Office (on right) |
Benicia Powder Magazine 10 |
Benicia Powder Magazine 10 |
Guard House |
Detail above Guard House Door |
Guard House Sign |
Landscaping to left of Guard House |
Rock in front of Guard House
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Front of office building on Benicia Arsenal grounds |
Date at base of wall |
(Below is the transcription of the plaque in the photograph above.)
1849 – Benicia Arsenal – 1964
On this historic site for more than a century military history was written. The loyalty, courage and devotion of the military and the civilian who served their country here furnished material for a brilliant page in the saga of the far west. What we see here – will like autumn leaves, soon fall and fade away. What they did here will live forever. As the final curtain falls on the 115th anniversary of the founding Benicia Arsenal, a grateful national salutes you.
Erected by the Historic Landmarks Committee of the Native Sons of the Golden West and the Benicia Parlor of No. 89, Native Sons of the Golden West.
Marker dedicated at Benicia Arsenal, California , March 31, 1964.
California Historical Landmark Registration No. 176.
According to the section the clock-tower was originally a three-story building with two towers. Only one tower and two stories survive today due to damage from an explosion and fire in 1912. The clock-tower was constructed from sandstone quarried from the hills near Benicia.
Benicia, Solano County, California – the Benicia Clock Tower (The following photographs were taken in July 2009 during a trip my husband Pat and I made in order to photograph the Clock Tower and the Benicia Arsenal quarries and buildings. Our guide was Benicia historian James E. Lessenger, a volunteer at the Benicia Arsenal Camel Barn Museum. Unfortunately, I was unable to photograph the front of the Clock Tower due to people setting up for a party. I will add that view after our next visit to Benicia. You can view a photograph of the front of the Clock tower on the California State Military Museum web site at the link below. Peggy B. Perazzo
Photograph of the front of the Benicia Clock Tower is available on the California State Military Museum web site.
Clock Tower, constructed of locally quarried sandstone. (Photographs taken in July 2009. Peggy B. Perazzo)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Benicia, Solano County, California - Cemetery Stones & Retaining Walls for Private Residences in Benicia - Excerpt from the Tenth Annual Report of The State Mineralogist For The Year Ending December 1, 1890, California State Mining Bureau, Sacramento: State Printing Office, pp. 1890, pp. 770.
SolanoCounty, by W. A. Goodyear, Geologist & Assistant in the Field.
“...A similar sandstone (to the sandstone quarried on government land at Benicia), which has been used to some extent for retaining walls about private residences and for tombstones in the cemetery, was quarried in the northern part of the town of Benicia.”
 |
 |
The following excerpt was taken from a sign inside the capital building,
which is open for the public to tour. The hills behind Benicia today are mostly covered with houses. See the photographs above and below.
State Capitol, Benicia
"...thousands of bricks for the building were made from Benicia's local clay. In the rush to complete the building, the bricks were not kept in the kiln long enough and they came out with theirdistinctive color. The sandstone for the windows, sills and foundation was quarried in the hills just behind Benicia. (The building was constructed in 1852.)"
Berkeley (?), Alameda County, California - “Deaf and Dumb and Blind Asylum” Buildings circa the 1860s (The following excerpt is from The Natural Wealth of California Comprising Early History; Geography, Topography, and Scenery; Climate; Agriculture and Commercial products; Geology, Zoology, and Botany; Mineralogy, Mines, and Mining Processes; Manufactures; Steamship Lines, Railroads, and Commerce; Immigration, Population and Society; Educational Institution, Population and Society; Educational Institutions and Literature; Together with a detailed description of each county, its topography, Scenery, Cities and Towns, Agricultural Advantages, Mineral Resources, and Varied Productions, By Titus Fey Cronise, San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft & Company, 1868, pp. 153. The book is available on Google Book Search for reading or downloading to your computer in PDF format.)
“Alameda county contains large quarries of granite, limestone and sandstone, suitable for building purposes. The quarry from which the stone used in erecting the Deaf and Dumb and Blind Asylum* was obtained, is situated on Pryal’s ranch, about four miles from Oakland. The supply of this stone in exhaustless. A quarry of close-grained, grayish sandstone, has recently been opened about four miles from Hayward’s. Nearly all the brown sandstone used in San Francisco, is obtained from quarries in this vicinity.”
(* Correct name: California State Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind?)
"Two of the most extensive and recent building programs using stone were at the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University at Palo Alto. The University of California used gray granite from Raymond, Madera County. Stanford University used a local, light-brown sandstone from the Graystone quarries south of San Jose in Santa Clara County." (The names of the buildings are not specified.)
| Photo No. 123. Hearst Mining Building. University of California. Berkeley. Raymond Granite (1903). |  |
Hearst Memorial Mining Building
Hearst Memorial Mining Building - September 2002 Photograph
| Photo No. 125. Sather Campanile, University of California, Berkeley. Stone from Raymond Granite Company, Madera County, California. |  |
| Photograph of Campanile Building taken about 2003. |  |
| Photo No. 126. University Library, University of California, Berkeley. Raymond granite (1912). |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Photographs of University Library taken about 2003. | |
Volcanic tuff taken from a quarry 6 miles from "...Laws, on the Carson and Colorado Railroad," was used for building purposes in Bishop and Independence."
If you visit the link above, by will be able to view sculptures created from California taupe soapstone (talc) by Gary D. Grossman, sculptor.
The light-yellowish trachyte taken from the Pickett Quarry, located about 1 ¼ miles east of Calistoga, was used as building stone in Calistoga.
The trachyte taken from the Brown Quarry, southeast of Calistoga, was used for building purposes locally.
Calaveras County, California - Marble Tombstones Used in Calaveras County, California, circa 1959. (Newspaper article transcribed by Dee Sardoc and presented on the Norcal email list July 25, 2006.)
The San Andreas Independent, San Andreas, Calaveras County, CA, Saturday, May 7, 1859.
“MARBLE TOMBSTONES -- It is perhaps not generally known that the marble from which tombstones are cut in this part of the world is nearly all obtained from quarries in Vermont. Such is the fact; and yet we have just as good marble within 10 or 15 miles of most of our mountain towns. Our attention was called to this matter on Wednesday last, whilst examining the lettering cut upon a tombstone by our townsman, Mr. James FINNIE, who has done an extensive business in this line and informs us that most of the marble for such purposes is imported.”
"Three miles north of Valley Springs, which is on Highway 8 west of San Andreas, is Campo Seco. The most interesting buildings in this town are the two story buildings of the Adams Express Company and the smaller buildings adjacent to it (Fig. 82). The fronts of each of these structures is made of carefully dressed blocks of tufaceous sandstone, the sides and rear walls of rough hewn fieldstones of meta-andesitic agglomerate. Just west of this row of buildings the brick oven of an old baker can be seen (Fig. 83)."
| Fig. 82. Adams Express Co. building, Campo Seco DMBS Cal-H19. |  |
| Fig. 83. Brick and stone oven, Campo Seco DMBS Cal-H20. |  |
The monument was built in 1933-34, and an effort was made to try and use as much of the materials from Catalina Island as possible. Stone was quarried from Catalina Island and used in the foundation of the monument. Blue flagstone rock for the ramps and terraces originated from Little Harbor, Catalina Island. Marble quarried in Georgia was used inside the tower.
Brownstone (sandstone) from the Sespen Cañon Brownstone Quarry (located from 5 to 6 miles from Brownstone, a station on the Southern Pacific Railroad) was used in the construction of Chico High School.
“Near Clear Lake Park, sec. 16, T. 13 N., R. 7 W., W. D., is a colored vesicular lava that has been used for the foundations of buildings at Clear Lake Highlands. The color is various shades of red and brown caused by hematite. A few truck-loads of this stone have been shipped to the San Francisco area. No quarry has been opened; the stone used thus far has been loose chunks from the surface. The deposit is on the ranch known as the Mott place assessed to Charles N. Reid and others, Clear Lake Park. Similar rock is found on the shore of Clear Lake on land owned by W. Henderson of Kelseyville, in sec. 5 T. 13 N., R. 8 W. This occurrence is accessible only by boat; small amounts of the rock has been used.”
"...Two buildings built about 1860 and now (about 1948) owned by the State Division of Parks, have iron doors, river cobblestone walls and dressed rhyolite tuff facing blocks (Fig. 134)."
Fig. 134. Cobblestone building with rhyolite tuff facing, Coloma, DMBS Eld-H17.
"...A number of the old buildings still stand. Among the more interesting is the old jail of the early 'fifties whose three foot thick walls of dressed granite have been partly removed (Fig. 133).
Fig. 133. Granite jail, Coloma, DMBS Eld-H16.
"...On the back streets may be seen fences of piled rhyolite tuff blocks which came from an old winery operating in the 'sixties...."
"...Almost all of (Columbia's) permanent buildings are made of brick, a reflection of the excellent brick-making lateritic clays available locally. Two brickyards (in operation in 1854) were located on the old Dambacher Ranch in Matelot Gulch, two miles north of Columbia. The extensive, marble-like, limestone outcrops seen in this region seem not to have been exploited for local building material although marble was quarried here and shipped to San Francisco as early as 1854."
The library opened in 1906. One of the building materials used was locally quarried Sites sandstone for the veneer and parapet.
Many fine buildings are attributed to the McGilvray sandstone quarry located at Sites, Colusa County, California, including the Carnegie Library building in Colusa.
"Five miles north of Baileys near the site of Cool are some old lime kilns which operated in the 'sixties. The two kilns on the right side of the road have straight faces and curved sides. They are constructed of dressed limestone blocks and lined with quarried meta-andesite which was more heat resistant (Fig. 140). The ruins of several building foundations made of the same limestone which was burned in the kilns are nearby, and the quarry pit may be clearly seen. Just beyond is the modern (circa 1948) Cragco Company quarry."
Commercial use of material within this site is strictly prohibited. It is not to be captured, reworked, and placed inside another web site. © . All rights reserved. Peggy B. and George (Pat) Perazzo.
