Vermont Stone Industry in 1883 and 1884
Excerpts from
Mineral Resources of the United States - Calendar Years 1883
and 1884
Department of the Interior, United States Geological
Survey
Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1885.
Building stone - Present Status:
"Brick in a general way, pressed brick, and brick and terra cotta work combined, especially on the Atlantic seaboard, have superseded stone to about the extent indicated above, and the change may be attributed in part to economical measures. Many architects and builders still give decided preference to stone where it can be used within the limits of proposed expenditure, the sandstones for dwellings, especially on fronts of rows of city houses, and the granite for large and imposing edifices. Marble as a building stone appears to have entirely gone out of fashion in the neighborhood of New York City, and large quarries in the adjacent county of Westchester are for the present practically abandoned. Similar conditions prevail in other portions of the country, though Vermont marbles, dressing to a harder, smoother, and durable surface, retain a good market for trimmings, monumental work, etc. The bluestone of Ulster county, New York, has extensive use for building purposes in the way of steps, platforms, sills, lintels, in addition to a liberal consumption for flagging, and is distributed over all parts of the adjoining states.
"The building stones of the eastern States have been minutely described in Volume X. of the census reports. On page 453 et seq. of "Mineral Resources of the United States, 1882," will be found a notice of the stones of the Rocky Mountain region, to which nothing need now be added.."
Building stone on the Pacific coast:
"The quarrying of granite was commenced in California as early as 1853, large quantities from that time on being required for both public and private buildings.A few buildings were also at the same time, or a later time, constructed in that city, of marble brought from Vermont, none of these, so far as the stone is concerned, being any the worse from the lapse of time."
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