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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.
 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
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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.
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)
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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.”
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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.)"
“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?)
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.
