In a message dated 10/22/2008 12:39:45 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
from a
practicing stone mason's perspective.
Limestone. It seems to first appear in NYC in the 1890s, often
rock-faced (sometimes called split-face, erroneously I believe), although I
don't know why quarries in Kentucky and Indiana would open then and not
earlier.
I am curious about the difference between the limestone of the 1920s (e.g.
the base of large apartment houses) and now (e.g. Bob Stern's 15
CPW et al.) Ken has told me (or perhaps just speculated) that
requirements for thinner slabs of limestone have made limestone, as delivered,
"less figured" than that of the 1920s - fewer whorls of shells, traces of eddys,
dead worms, etc. - because the more flaws, the weaker the
slab. And the fewer flaws, the more dependable the bed.
I am curious if others have observations on the differences, if any,
between contemporary and vintage limestone, as set in New York.
Christopher