Quarries in Missouri & Quarry Links, Photographs, and Articles
St. Louis – Shores thru Stifel

• St. Louis City, Missouri - Shores Quarry Co. Limestone Quarry 5 miles from Carondelet (Limestone) (from “The Clay, Stone, Lime and Sand Industries of St. Louis City and County,” by G. E. Ladd, Assistant Geologist, in Geological Survey of Missouri, Bulletin No. 3, Supplement, Missouri, December 1890.)

  Location and product.

  “Shores Quarry Co. (54): - This quarry is situated on the Kirkwood Branch railway, five miles fromCarondelet, in the St. Louis Limestone. It was opened March, 1889. The product consists of ‘furnace rock,’ paving, building and dimension stone. the quarry is an open cut in a hill-side.

  “The following section, in descending series, was obtained here: -

  Section.

  1. Soil and residuary clay - 4 feet.
  2. Limestone, decomposing - 2 feet.
  3. Limestone, gray to brown, coarse grained - 3 feet, 9 inches.
  4. Limestone, lavender, lithographic, in three layers, the two lower of which are separated by a thin layer of shale - 3 feet, 2 inches.
  5. Limestone, gray, coarse grained, crystalline - 1 foot, 2 inches.
  6. Limestone, lavender, lithographic, in four layers - 8 feet.
  7. Limestone, gray, fine grained, chert concretions, several layers - 4 feet.
  8. Limestone, brownish, siliceous, chert concretions, several layers - 1 feet. 6 inches.
  9. Limestone, gray, crystalline, almost a solid mass of fossils - 1 foot, 4 inches.
  10. Limestone, brownish to gray, coarse grained - 1 foot, 8 inches.
  11. Limestone, dark lavender, numerous chert concretions - 10 inches.
  12. Limestone, light gray, lithographic, chert concretions - 1 foot, 8 inches.
  13. Limestone, lavender, lithographic, calcite veins - 1 foot, 3 inches.
  14. Limestone, dark gray, rather coarse grained - 1 foot.
  15. Limestone, mottled, vary grained, concretionary - 2 feet, 3 inches.
  16. Limestone, gray, crystalline, fine grained toward bottom - 3 feet, 7 inches.
  17. Limestone, lavender, lithographic, in three layers - 1 foot, 8 inches.
  18. Limestone, yellow, shaly - 1 foot, 6 inches.
  19. Limestone, lavender, lithographic - 1 foot, 1 inch.
  20. Limestone, gray, fine grained, soft - 1 foot, 2 inches.
  21. Limestone, light gray, fine grained, weathers white - 2 feet, 2 inches.
  22. Limestone, drab and pinkish, lithographic - 1 foot, 8 inches.

  Total thickness of rock - 46 feet, 5 inches.”

• St. Louis, Missouri - the Skrainka Limestone Quarry (Limestone) (The following information is from The Quarrying Industry of Missouri, by E. R. Buckley, Director and State Geologist, and H. A. Buehler, Missouri Bureau of Geology and Mines Vol. II, 2nd Series, 1904.)

  “This quarry, which is owned by the Atlantic Real Estate Company and the Terminal Railway Association and operated by the Atlantic Quarry and Construction Co. of 806 Security building, is located just north of the railroad tracks at Scott and Montrose avenues. It has been in continuous operation since 1895, and consists of a rectangular, sunken pit 50 feet by 250 feet. The following is a section of the quarry from top to bottom:

  10-15 ft. - Loess stripping.

  10 ft.- Dark and light gray limestone, used for crushing.

  2 ft. 10 in. - Crystalline, gray limestone, good quality.

  11 ft. - Thinly bedded, fossiliferous, bluish gray limestone.

  2 ft. 8 in. - A solid bed of fine textured, gray limestone.

  1 ft. 6 in. - An irregular bed of dark gray limestone. Has a fine grained matrix, studed with small crystals of calcite.

  2 ft. 6 in. - The upper half of this bed is gray limestone containing small nodules of chert. The lower half is a porous, yellowish colored limestone of poor quality.

  5 ft. - Medium grained, crystalline, dark gray limestone, showing stratification planes from two to eight inches apart, along many of which the stone caps easily. Very good quality of stone.

  4 ft. - Very fine grained, compact, dark gray limestone, having a splintery fracture.

  1 ft. 6 in. - An irregular bed of dark gray limestone. Has a fine grained matrix, studded with small crystals of calcite.

  1 in. - Blue shale.

  2 ft. 8 in. - Very fine grained, compact, light gray limestone, containing small geodes of calcite. Breaks with an irregular fracture.

  3 ft. 8 in. - Compact, light gray limestone. Breaks with an irregular fracture.

  “The stone from the lower beds of this quarry is used mainly for the manufacture of crushed stone. The dense compact texture, combined with the sharp fracture, makes it well suited for this purpose. From the upper beds very good rubble stone can be obtained.

  “The quarry is equipped with a No. 3 Gates crusher and accessories, a steam hoist, steam drills, steam pump, boiler and engine. The stone is loaded on cars having movable boxes which are hoisted by derricks to the surface. Here the stone is dumped into cars in which it is carried to the crusher. An average of forty men are employed at this quarry, which is operated the entire year.

  “This stone has been used in many of the St. Louis buildings, among which may be mentioned the National Bank of Commerce, Broadway and Olive streets; Brown building, 12 th and Washington avenue; Goldman-Lesser building, 12 th and Washington avenue; Bridge piers and abutments on Union street in St. Louis and in East St. Louis.”

  • St. Louis, Missouri - the St. Louis Marble and Tile Company (from Throvgh The Ages Magazine, January 1926, Vol. 3, No. 9, pp. 71. The same information was presented in the following issues of Throvgh The Ages Magazine: May 1923, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 43; June 1923, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 42; August 1923, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 42; September 1923, Vol. 1, No. 5, pp. 43; October 1923, Vol. 1, No. 6, pp. 43; November 1923, Vol. 1, No. 7, pp. 43; December 1923, Vol. 1, N o. 8, pp. 43; January 1924, Vol. 1, No. 9, pp. 43; February 1924, Vol. 1, No. 10, pp. 43; April 1924, Vol. 1, No. 12, pp. 43; May 1924, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 43; June 1924, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 43; July 1924, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 43; August 1924, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 43; September 1924, Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 43; July 1925, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 71; December 1925, Vol. 3, No. 8, pp. 71; and September 1928, Vol. 6, No. 5, pp. 57.)

    (pp. 71) The St. Louis Marble and Tile company is listed in the “List of Quarries and Marble Manufacturers Represented in the Membership of the National Association of Marble Dealers” section of this issue. R. C. McDonald is listed as their representative.

  • St. Louis, Missouri - the St. Louis Marble and Tile Company (from Throvgh The Ages Magazine, April 1927, Vol. 4, No. 12, pp. 67.)

    The St. Louis Marble and Tile Co., St. Louis, Mo., is listed in the “List of Quarries and Marble Manufacturers represented in the membership of the National Association of Marble Dealers.” O. H. Moeller is listed as the company representative.

• St. Louis, St. Louis County, Missouri - the Philip F. Steifel Quarry (Limestone) (from Report on The Building Stones of The United States, and Statistics of the Quarry Industry for 1880, by George W. Hawes, Curator of the Department of Mineralogy and Lithology at the National Museum, and by F. W. Sperr and Thomas C. Kelly, Joint production of the Census Office and the National Museum, 1883)

  The following information was taken from the table entitled, “Table IV. Tables indicating the Amount and Kinds of Rock in the Different States”: The Philip F. Steifel Quarry, City of St. Louis, Saint Louis County, Limestone/Dolomite, color: drab; quarry opened in 1873.

  “...The quarry of Mr. Philip Steifel has become somewhat noted for its fine mineral specimens, including calcite, pearl-spar, dog-tooth spar, millerite, and fluor-spar. The fluor-spar is of a yellow color; the calcite is white, or colored on the outside with millerite. In some places the limestone has a greenish tint from the presence of nickel-sulphide. The millerite has bunches of stray hair-like crystals of a bronze color, and each crystal is a delicate hair-like mineral. It has been found penetrating the calcite and extending from side to side in the limestone. It is also frequently found associated with the pearl-spar.”

• St. Louis, Missouri – the St. Louis Crushed Granite Company (Law Suit) (from Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, December 1896, Vol. XIV, No. 1, pp. 100 and 102)

  “St. Louis Mo. – The St. Louis Crushed Granite Company wants $60,000 damages from the Schneider Granite Company for alleged breach of contract. The petition says that through an arrangement entered into on March 5, 1891, the defendant agreed to deliver to the plaintiff all its output for five years at $2 per ton. In October, 1891, the defendant declined to live up to its agreement, according to the plaintiff’s statement, and the latter claims it is damaged from the amount of the suit.”

• St. Louis, Missouri - the St. Louis Glue Manufacturing Co. (Advertisement) (from Monumental News: Granite, Marble, Stone, Bronze Sculpture, December 1923, Vol. XXXV, No. 12, pp. 788. The same advertisement was published in the following issue of Monumental New: August 1926, Vol. XXXVII, No. 8, pp. 556; September 1927, Vol. 39, No. 9, pp. 535; August 1929, Vol. XLI, No. 8, pp. 407; and October 1929, Vol. LXI, No. 10, pp. 519.)

  

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  • St. Louis, Missouri - the St. Louis Glue Manufacturing Co. (Advertisement) (from American Stone Trade Magazine, Vol. XXVIII, No. 3, October 1927, Chicago, Illinois, pp. 55)

    

    Do You Want To Develop the Finest Sand-Blast Carving? DOPE is What Decides The Results

    You cannot buy any composition that will work the same in cold and in hot weather, the preparation of the material has to be changed for that reason, and two kinds - Hot Weather dope to be used during the mid-summer months and regular dope for the balance of the year. With this knowledge you have control of the situation at all times.

    White or Dark Color As Preferred

    Order Hot Weather Dope now that will not stain the stone, or drag under the knife. In this way you can overcome all of the so-called “Dope Troubles.” We make the exactly correct article that will let you produce the finest carving and lettering by using it with reasonable application on the work in hand.

    Many Customers Cheerfully Say: “It is most satisfactory.” You will say the same thing when you use our compositions.

    St. Louis Glue Manufacturing Co., Twenty-Second and Division Streets, St. Louis, Mo.

  • St. Louis Glue Manufacturing Co. (Advertisement) (from American Stone Trade, June, 1929, pp. 24.) (The same advertisement ran in the following issues of American Stone Magazine: July, 1931, Vol. XXXI, No. 12, pp. 44; November, 1931, Vol. XXXII, No. 4, pp. 33; December, 1931, Vol. XXXII, No. 5, pp. 33; January, 1932, Vol. XXXII, No. 6, pp. 20; February, 1932, Vol. XXXII, No. 7, pp. 40; April, 1932, Vol. XXXII, No. 9, pp. 26. A similar advertisement ran in the following issue of American Stone Trade: August, 1932, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, pp. 38; pp. October, 1932, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3, pp. 31; February, 1933, Vol. XXXIII, No. 7, pp. 27; April, 1933, XXXIII, No. 9, pp. 14; and June, 1933, XXXIII, No. 11, pp. 14.)

    DOPE

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    You need a “STAWARM” Electric Glue Pot for uniformly even results in the finest work. We sell “STAWARM.”

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    St. Louis Glue Manufacturing Co., Twenty-second and Division Sts., St. Louis, Mo.

• St. Louis, Missouri - the St. Louis Machine Tool Co. (Advertisement) (from Monumental News: Granite, Marble, Stone, Bronze Sculpture, June 1922, Vol. XXXIV, No. 6, pp. 391)

  

  St. Louis Belted Motor Drive Grinder

  The companying cut illustrates the “Saint Louis” Belted Motor Drive Grinder with two abrasive wheels and two sets of Magic discs. These discs are made in any thickness necessary to cut the various tooth chisels, rippers, bush hammers, etc.

  It is amazing how rapidly they will cut. An ordinary tooth chisel can be cut in less than a minute without heating.

  One customer writes: “What interests us greatly in the machine is the little space it takes up and its simple and rapid operation and is far the best we have ever seen for grinding and tool sharpening in a monument works and feel that as soon as the monument people learn about your machine it will be in great demand.

  Again thanking you for your careful attention in getting out this great machine so promptly, I beg to remain.

  Send for full information today.

  St. Louis Machine Tool Co., 900 Loughborough Ave., St. Louis, MO.

• St. Louis, Missouri - the St. Louis Monumental Co. (Advertisement) (from American Stone Trade, October, 1927, Vol. XXVIII, No. 3, pp. 54.) (This same advertisement was published in the June, 1929, issue of American Stone Trade, pp. 52.)

  

  St. Louis Monumental Co., Hume Hill, Proprietors

  Wholesale Manufacturers

  4419 Clayton Avenue, St. Louis, Mo.

  Missouri Red and Barre Granites - American Gray Bases

  Send Sketches for Estimates - Service and Quality

• St. Louis, Missouri – the St. Louis Novaculite Company (from Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, April 1897, Vol. XIV, No. 5, “Notes from Quarry and Shop” section, pp. 530)

  “St. Louis, Mo. – The St. Louis Novaculite Company; capital stock, $3,600; Walter S. Townsend, J. H. August Meyer and Wm. E. Fisse. The corporation will do a street paving business and handle building materials.”

• St. Louis City, Missouri - St. Louis Stone Masons Limestone Quarry located at Carr Lane Avenue & Hickory street (Limestone) (from “The Clay, Stone, Lime and Sand Industries of St. Louis City and County,” by G. E. Ladd, Assistant Geologist, in Geological Survey of Missouri, Bulletin No. 3, Supplement, Missouri, December 1890.)

  Location.

  “St. Louis Stone Masons Quarry (I, 13): - This is a small quarry situated on the north-east corner of Carr Lane avenue and Hickory street.

  “The following section, in descending series, was obtained here: -

  Section.

  1. Loess - 3 feet.
  2. Limestone, thin weathered layers - 12 inches.
  3. Shale - 1 foot.
  4. Limestone, gray, compact - 7 feet.
  5. Limestone, light gray, compact, in two twelve inch layers - 2 feet.
  6. Limestone, light gray, crystalline - 5 feet.
  7. Limestone, thin shaly layers - 8 feet.

  Total thickness of rock - 35 feet, 0 inches.”

• St. Louis, Missouri - Fred C. Stegmann, Toolsmith (Advertisement) (from American Stone Trade Magazine, Vol. XXVIII, No. 3, October 1927, Chicago, Illinois, pp. 63)

  

  Fred C. Stegmann Toolsmith for Stone Cutters and Quarries with Modern Equipment

  4207 Natural Bridge Ave., St. Louis, MO.

• St. Louis City, Missouri - Stiefel and Ruckert - First Quarry located between Cora & Marcus Avenues (Limestone) (from “The Clay, Stone, Lime and Sand Industries of St. Louis City and County,” by G. E. Ladd, Assistant Geologist, in Geological Survey of Missouri, Bulletin No. 3, Supplement, Missouri, December 1890.)

  Location.

  “Stiefel and Ruckert, First Quarry (G, 6): - This quarry is situated between Cora and Marcus avenues, on the north side of the Natural Bridge road. Stone for all common purposes is quarried. It was opened in 1888. It is three hundred feet long, sixty-four feet wide, and exposes the following columnar section, in descending series: -

  Section.

  1. Loess - 14 feet.
  2. Residuary clay mixed with the gravel of the drift - 1 foot.
  3. Limestone, partially decomposed - 1 foot.
  4. Limestone, brown, coarse grained - 2 feet.
  5. Limestone, drab, fine grained, compact, hard and brittle - 9 inches.
  6. Limestone, gray, coarse grain - 3 inches.
  7. Limestone, light drab, fine and coarse grained, lithographic in places - 6 feet.
  8. Limestone, bluish, fine grained - 2 feet, 6 inches.
  9. Shale, bluish and green, hard, merges into number 8 - 2-7 inches.
  10. Limestone, dark brown to drab, contains numerous crystals of pyrites - 8 inches.
  11. Shale, bluish green, in layers, with thin layers of limestone - 1 foot.
  12. Limestone, very dark gray, coarse grained, quite large masses of pyrites - 11 inches.
  13. Limestone, dark gray, fine grained, suture joints, fossiliferous, pyrites especially near top - 5 feet.
  14. Limestone, light gray, fine grained - 3 feet, 8 inches.
  15. Limestone, gray, coarse grained - 2 feet.

  Total thickness of rock - 26 feet, 2 inches.”

• St. Louis City, Missouri - Stiefel and Ruckert - Second Quarry located at the foot of Barton Street (Limestone) (from “The Clay, Stone, Lime and Sand Industries of St. Louis City and County,” by G. E. Ladd, Assistant Geologist, in Geological Survey of Missouri, Bulletin No. 3, Supplement, Missouri, December 1890.)

  Location - Plant.

  “Stiefel and Ruckert, Second Quarry (M, 15): - This quarry is situated in the city at the foot of Barton street, on the north side of the Iron Mountain and Southern Railway. It is one of the largest quarries in the city, being very deep and having a large rock face to be worked. Its shape is somewhat oval. A view of the south end of the quarry is illustrated opposite page 42 (below). It was opened in 1863. At present its chief product is macadam. Two Rand drills and a No. 4 Gates’ crusher are in use.

  Stiefel and Ruckerts Quarry - Looking South. Illustrating a large and deep sunken quarry in distinction to a bluff quarry.

  “The following section,* in descending series, shows the character of the beds: -

  Section.

  1. Loess, the stripping of this quarry - 4 feet.
  2. Limestone, much jointed and weathered - 20 feet.
  3. Limestone, (Analysis No. 1), light gray, coarse grained, stylolites at bottom - 2 feet, 5 inches.
  4. Limestone, (Analysis No. 2), gray and drab, finer grained, splits into layers, lower third lithographic in character, fossiliferous - 3 feet, 11 inches.
  5. Limestone, (Analysis No. 3), gray, fine grained, highly fossiliferous - 3 feet, 10 inches.
  6. Limestone, (Analysis No. 4), gray, much jointed, granular, 1 foot, 4 inches.
  7. Limestone, (Analysis No. 5), soft drab, lithographic, brittle, conchoidal fracture - 1 foot, 3 inches.
  8. Limestone, (Analysis No. 6), gray to brownish, coarse, granular, stylolites - 4 feet, 7 inches.
  9. Limestone, (Analysis No. 7), same as No. 8, but variable in grain, few fossils - 2 feet, 3 inches.
  10. Limestone, (Analysis No. 8), soft drab to brownish, irregularly bedded, brittle, conchoidal fracture - 3 feet, 2 inches.
  11. Clay shale, soft greenish - 3 inches.
  12. Limestone, (Analysis No. 9), almost white, fine grained, conchoidal fracture, decomposes readily - 10 inches.
  13. Limestone, (Analysis No. 10), soft drab and brownish, irregularly bedded, fine grained, conchoidal fracture - 4 feet, 3 inches.
  14. Limestone, (Analysis No. 11), soft drab and brownish, fine grained, conchoidal fracture - 4 feet, 6 inches.
  15. Limestone, (Analysis No. 12, almost white, irregularly bedded, brittle, conchoidal fracture, stylolites - 1 foot, 8 inches.
  16. Limestone, (Analysis No. 13), like number 15, but slightly darker - 3 feet, 3 inches.
  17. Clay shale, greenish - 2 inches.
  18. Limestone, (Analysis No. 14), gray to drab, fine wavy bedding lines, fine grained, stylolites - 10 inches.
  19. Limestone, (Analysis No. 15), light drab, brittle, conchoidal fracture - 1 foot, 10 inches.
  20. Limestone, (Analysis No. 16), light brown, many bedded, lithographic, cross bedded in places - 4 feet, 5 inches.
  21. Limestone, (Analysis No. 17), drab, coarse grained, granular stylolites - 2 feet, 9 inches.
  22. Limestone, (Analysis No. 18), same as No. 21, but finer grained - 1 foot, 10 inches.
  23. Limestone, (Analysis No. 19), two or more beds, dark gray easily dressed - 6 feet.

  Total thickness of rock - 75 feet, 5 inches.”

  Stiefel & Ruckert’s quarry, St. Louis Limestone.

• St. Louis, Missouri - the Stifel Limestone Quarries (Limestone) (The following information is from The Quarrying Industry of Missouri, by E. R. Buckley, Director and State Geologist, and H. A. Buehler, Missouri Bureau of Geology and Mines Vol. II, 2 nd Series, 1904.)

  “Mr. Phillip Stifel owns and operates two quarries located respectively at the corner of Barton and 2 nd streets and north of the Natural Bridge road at Marcus avenue. The office of the company is located at the first mentioned quarry.

  “The Barton street quarry was opened in 1863 and at present consists of a sunken triangular pit, having a 400-foot face, north and south and a 250-foot east and west face. At present, work is being carried on in the lower heavy beds of gray limestone.

  “The quarry is equipped with a crushing plant, consisting of No. 1 and No. 3 Gates crushers and accessories. The No. 1 crusher is used for crushing granite, which is shipped in from the southern part of the State. An average of eight men are employed. The output is mainly rubble and crushed stone.

  “The quarry north of the Natural Bridge road at Marcus avenue consists of a rectangular sunken pit 400 by 200 feet. The following is a description of the beds from top to bottom:

  0-18 ft. - Loess stripping.

  6 ft. - Hard, gray limestone. Works well.

  8 ft. - Gray limestone. Crushed for macadam.

  8 ft. - Light gray limestone, contains short tight seams.

  1 ½ -3 ft. - Soft, yellowish brown limestone, having a sandy texture.

  3 ft. - Gray limestone in thin layers.

  1 ½-2 ½ ft. - Hard limestone, known as ‘nigger ledge.’ Difficult to work. Used for crushed stone.

  4 ft. - Two two foot beds of finely crystalline, light, gray limestone.

  8 in. - Finely crystalline, light gray limestone used for curbing.

  2 ft. - Dark colored limestone.

  15 ft. - Fine grained, gray limestone, in beds from two to four inches in thickness.”

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