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MAY. 1925

"A mount of marble, a hundred spires." —RUSK IN: Lamp oj Power m III TT

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CONTENTS

PAGE LOBBY OF GENERAL MOTORS BUILDING, DETROIT Front isiDiece

THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DETROIT 3

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE FOUNTAINS Q

CHARACTER 17

THE PORTLAND ELKS" TEMPLE 18

THE GENERAL MOTORS BUILDING 23

A HANDBOOK OF MARBLE 30

A LIST OF THE WORLD'S VIARBLES 38

Published Monthly by the NATIONAL ASSOCL^TION OF MARBLE DEALERS GAY AND WATER STREETS, BALTIMORE, MD. Executive Offices: 648 ROCKEFELLER BUILDING. CLEVEI.AND. OHIO. Application for Second-Class Mailing Privilege has been filed at Baltimore. Md. Subscription Price $3.00 per year Single Copies 3 5 cents

Copyright igzj, NATIOMAL ASSOCIATION OF .MARBLE DEALERS A comer of the lobby of the General K4otors Building. Detroit. The main entrance doorways are of Tennessee marble elaboratclv carved, after an old Roman design. A Monthly Magazine devoted to the uses of Marble - its universal adaptability, beauty, permanency and economy

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VOL.3 MAY. 1925 NO. 1

THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DETROIT

A Twenty-five Story Office Building that is the Tallest in Michigan

TAMPED indelibly against Detroit's the community of which it has become so S skyline, there rears a gigantic white important a part. structure of stone and steel that re• Embodying the life effort of men who flects the sun's rays through the city's main have pursued an ideal, and built upon his• arteries as they radiate outward like the toric ground, it is a tribute to men and spokes of a mammoth wheel. This building, motives, architect and artisan, science and the home of the First National Bank, stands success. as a finished monument to the living, enter• The streets of Detroit were originally laid prising spirit of commerce and citizenship in out from the Campus Martius as a hub. Detroit. Along one of these spokes, to the eastward, Years ago Oliver Wendell Holmes, that was left a market place, named Cadillac \ irile writer of the early nineteenth century, Square, in honor of that hardy explorer penned these lines: Count de la Mothe Cadillac, the founder of "Build thee more stately mansions. O my soul. the city. From the day when gun and As the swift seasons roll! arrow fought for supremacy, to the era of Leave thy low-vaulted past! barter between traders and merchants, and Let each new temple, nobler than the last. down to the present time, Cadillac Square Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, has been the commercial heart of Detroit. Till thou at length art free. Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting Upon the half-acre at the corner of Wood• seal" ward -Xvenue and Cadillac Square stood the famous old Russell House, a hostelry that Like the chambered Nautilus, the First entertained the celebrities of the past. About National Bank has outgrown its shell and the time that the motor car industry began has built for itself a home big and fine to spread out the city's boundaries, and enough to enable it to fulfill its obligation to thriving manufacturing plants and increas- THROVGH THE AGES

III

The First National Bank Building is in the heart of business Detroit.

ing population gave a new importance to State Bank of Michigan, in i8b4; the Na• Detroit, a new hotel was erected on the site tional Insurance Bank in iSbg: the Old De• —the Pontchartrain. troit National Bank, in 1914: and finally, With the passing of a decade, this hotel the Central Savings Bank, in 1920, gave an found that the standards of modern inn importance to the institution and an impetus keeping had changed and it was no longer to its resources that have placed it in the possible to continue on a profitable basis. front rank of Michigan financial organiza• Reconstruction was out of the question. The tions. location was sold to the First and Old De• The architect of the new building was troit National Bank, and the present struc• Mr. Albert Kahn. of Detroit. The structure ture was completed in June of 1920. has an exterior of classic lines: the tip of the The First National Bank in Detroit is the parapet on the twenty-fifth floor towers 312 outcome of the amalgamation of several of feet above the street level, with graceful the city's largest banks. The original First Corinthian columns supporting tier upon National opened its doors in 1863 in the tier of stone blocks. It faces 161 feet on Rotunda Building at Griswold and Lamed Woodward and 187 feet on Cadillac Square; Streets. Successive consolidation with the its size, however, is difficult to realize be-

[4 THRQVGH THE AGES cause of the openness of its location. Seen from Three entrances from Woodward Avenue the sidewalk at its base, looking along the open into the main lobby 40 feet in width walls skyward, its huge bulk is more readily and running back 85 feet to the Cadillac appreciated. Those who have gone to the Square entrance on the left. At the far end roof on a clear day and viewed the city and of the lobby, doors lead into the Central country for miles around, have compre• Savings Bank and Foreign Department of hended it even more fully. the First National Bank. At the right is the Reaching down into the earth 84 feet, U-shaped lobby from which a battery of ten 74 bell-shaped concrete shafts, each 5 to 9 passenger elevators operate at a lifting speed feet in diameter, form the rock-like founda• of 700 per minute. tion of this tallest building in Michigan. The From the center of the main entrance, a lowest level of the building proper is 35 feet stately marble stairway leads to the banking underground, there being three floors below chambers of the First National Bank. This street level. stairway is 12 feet wide, of easy rise, with Thousands of tons of steel columns and wainscoting and balustrades of Botticino, beams, fabricated as perfectly as a spider's and the treads and risers of light gray Ten• web, hold rigid the mantle of stone, wood, nessee marble. In the banking room itself, marble, plaster, tile and brick. Botticino Italian marble pillars rise to a

View up the mai the banking auditorium. Tennessee and Botticino marbles formed an effective combination THROVGH THE AGES

'{'here are eight main steel girders supporting the ceil• ing over the main banking auditorium. Each of these girders spans a length of 41 feet 8 inches from column to column. They measure 8 feet 4 inches in height from top to bottom. The weight of one of these beams alone is approximately 64,000 pounds. Each one separ• ately will carry a load of ap- proximately 1,400,000 pounds. In the very center of this huge auditorium, an oval- shaped railing with marble spindles forms an island in which the operating officers are conveniently located to meet the bank's clients. At the east end, other officers have their desks on an ele• vation, to either side of which are the private offices of the president and senior vice-president. The floor of the banking The entrance from the elevators to the lobby of the main banking room. room is of Tennessee marble —some 64,000 square feet height of 36 feet, supporting a handsome of it. The wainscoting of the walls, the pan• frieze blending in with the ceiling, which is elling under the tellers' cages, as well as the artistically decorated in rich colors pat• columns, are of buff Botticino marble, of terned into a Renaissance design. selected slabs. A bronze grill fashioned into the same The new business, advertising, legal,credit period design and mounted on a marble base and service departments are located on the forms the tellers' cages which flank the mezzanine floor, which is to the south of the spacious room on three sides. main banking chambers. Here is also the Mammoth windows, extending the entire bank library where reference may be made height of the chamber, form the back wall of to the many volumes of books, magazines this lane. Flooded with daylight, the re• and literature pertaining to business subjects. ception and disbursement of funds are thus The second mezzanine or fourth floor is carried on easily and efficiently. given over to the women of the affiliated THROVGH THE AGES companies and provides a rest room, locker On the same floor is the officers' private room, wash room and infirmary. Every• dining-room; also a special dining-room, and thing in the way of complete and sanitary two rooms which may be used as conference equipment as well as comfortable furnish• rooms by customers who may wish to hold ings makes this section a complement to the meetings requiring such facilities. On the organization. sixth floor are the offices of the building The fifth floor is the "workshop" of the superintendent. bank; here is provided an ideal spot for Up on the eighth floor are the offices of the hundreds of people and machines to handle First National Company of Detroit, which almost noiselessly the records of this great in every detail are in keeping with the financial institution. All the mail is sorted, executive quarters of the First National books kept, statements prepared, audits Bank. made, checks handled and the bank's clear• Special elevators and two separate stair• ing house operated from this department. ways are part of the provisions for rapid On the southeast corner of the sixth floor communication with the respective institu• is located the directors' room. American tions and their departments. walnut paneling, a beautiful marble fireplace There are eight vaults throughout the and distinctive chandeliers make this one of bank. In addition to the safe deposit and the most beautiful rooms in the bank. currency vaults, there are a late-deposit

Officers' island in the banking auditorium as seen from the mezzanine floor. The walls, floor and balusters are marble.

[7] THROVGH THE AGES vault, an auditor's vault, a bookkeeping that the moment it is tampered with or vault, a securities vault, an abstract vault broken by anyone seeking access through and a bond department vault, all located the wall, an extensive system of gongs is set conveniently for the use of those depart• ringing throughout the building and at police headquarters. ments. These vaults are the first in the West to be Washed air and a complete ventilating built in accordance with the findings of the system make the basement floors as habit• Federal Reserve Board after months of ex• able as those above the street level. perimental research and study resulting in Approximately 225,000 square feet of the selection of the best type of construc• rentable area for general office purposes oc• tion. They are built of reinforced concrete cupies the portion from the eighth to the and lined with armor plate. Seven miles of twenty-fifth floors. fine copper wire with a lead coating are It is conservatively estimated that some woven throughout the side walls, ceiling and 12,000 people enter and leave the First floor of the vaults. National Bank Building every week day— This wire is charged with electricity so truly a sizable city in itself.

Detail showing tellers" cages in the First National Bank of Detroit. The floor is Tennessee; the panelling and wainscoting are of Botticino marble.

[8 THRQVGH THE AGES

Fountain in the Villa d'Este. at Tivoli. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE FOUNTAINS IT has become fashionable of late years to site of the modern Frascati was Tusculum. be familiar with the old gardens and a popular summer resort of classic times, fountains of Italy, and there have ap- Pliny and Mummius possessed villas of size peared several elaborate volumes illustrating and importance, and there were many others and describing them in detail. The architect of an early date. can delve with profit into this phase of With the coming of the Dark and Medi- Italian art, for there is more to be learned aeval Ages, there was developed the habit of by a careful study of the subject than is fortifying the country house against enemies apparent at first sight. and this state of affairs was naturally re- The Romans built villas long before the fleeted in the waning of the garden cult. The sixteenth century. There was erected, for maintenance of a small vegetable patch was instance, more than loo years before Christ, about all that was ever attempted and even the Villa Adriana at Tivoli; almost on the this was a precarious matter. The massive Illustrations courtesy of Thomas Machen, architect, Baltimore. Maryland. r 1 THROVGH THE AGES

Fountain dclle Terme, Rome. A Naiad.

Fountain dci Fiumi in the Piazza Na- vona. Rome.

lO THRQVGH THE AGES IgiMI^

Fountain dclle Tartarughe, Rome, by Landini.

Fountain della Rocca, by Vignola, at Vitcrbo.

ill

11] THROVGH THE AGES

Fountain in the Villa Torlonia. at Frascati. basements of the later Frascati villas, which the main entrance to the grounds through were constantly subject to the raids of the the center of the house and beyond, and a hill bandits of the vicinage, were the out• formal treatment is adopted. But the whole come of such conditions. triumph of this Italian garden design lies in The custom of erecting villas on the hills its adaptation of nature to a conventional surrounding Rome was the logical resul t of the treatment, for... . the object of the Italians malarial conditions that prevailed in Rome was not to create nature but to adorn it." during the summer months—and still per• The architect led one by gentle stages sist to some extent in spite of the precau• from the saloons of the house to a formal tions of later day science. Since the disease terrace, adorned with statues and balus• is associated with low lying and marshy trades, and thence through a formal ilex- tracts, the villas were always built on the hedged walk to a rustic wilderness of woods lofty slopes close by or on the more distant beyond. As we have remarked in a previous heights of Frascati. article, the brilliant Italian sun was respon• The position on the site was usually sible for an almost complete absence of handled with considerable skill. "An axial flowers. In their place were demanded two line," says Briggs. "is usually taken from things in the garden—shade and running THROVGH THE AGES 1^:^ water. The first was not a difficult matter to wary spectators, so that one can hardl\- provide, but the services of a hydraulic en• walk a step without wetting to the skin. " gineer was as much a necessity as the work Montaigne tells us of organs played by of an architect. water, the appearance of chirping birds and The assignment of the water engineer was owls, and of many scientific tricks. Else• more than to supply water for the cascades where we read of a house party, watching a and fountains of every kind, though these sunset on a collapsible island near Isola were prominent features in all the gardens; Bella, which almost came to a tragic end in many cases he was called upon to orig• when the whole group began sinking be• inate quaint conceits for the amusement and neath the waters of the lake and drowning surprise of the delighted guests, oftimes re• was imminent. sulting in generous dousings to the more un• The many villas of Frascati form the best suspicious. These wettings were taken with• group in Italy and exhibit a variety of de• out resentment, in keeping with the broad sign. The Villa Aldobrandini we have al• humor and slap-stick comedy of the day. ready mentioned; others of importance are Evelyn's diary at Tivoli some years later the Villa Torlonia, with its beautiful reser• speaks of the "many devices to wet the un• voir surrounded by balustrades, supplying a

Cascade in the Villa Lante, at Bagnaia; usually attributed to Vignola.

13 Cascade in the Royal Gardens at Caserta. The figures are all of white marble from the quarries at Carrara. cascade that descends in curious ramps; the endeavored to surpass his predecessor in the Villas Falconieri, Mondragone, Lancellotti size and magnificence of the aqueduct he and Mufti show excellent garden architec• brought into the city. The huge Aqua Paola ture. In all of them may be seen much that on the Janiculum is the largest of these; it does not reflect glory on the Baroque archi• was designed by Domenicus T'ontana and tects, vulgarities and eccentricities that are finished by Maderna in 1612. inexcusable. We must bear in mind, how• The Fontana di Trevi, the work of Ferdi• ever, that Italian Garden craft evolved nand Fuga. is so fine and so much bolder in about the time that the Baroque influence its style than suggested by its date (1735-62) began. that it is sometimes attributed to Bernini. It The same thing may be said of the num• is built of Travertine stone and when first berless fountains that are scattered so pro• planned, permission was actually- secured to fusely about Italy and especially along the use the stone contained in the tomb of sun-scorched streets of Rome. No city Cecilia Metella, which had already had a anywhere has more of them and no city narrow escape, and which was only saved needs them more. Credit for most of these now by violent resistance on the part of the must be given to the seventeenth century people of Rome. Popes and their architects. Each new pontiff Bernini was the author of several foun-

•4l THRQVGH THE AGES

tains that are objects of interest to the other kind. Water was introduced in front tourist. The principal ones are the Fontana of a wall surface and a different principle dei Fiumi in the Piazza Navona, the .^cqua was involved. The famous Pitti Palace in .^citosa, the group known as "'La Barca " in f'lorence had, for instance, in the Boboli the Piazzo di Spagna and the Fontana del Gardens connected with it. many fountains, Triton in the Piazzo Barberini. Symbolical the designs of Buontalenti and II Tribolo, figures arranged with a great deal of vigor who prepared the garden scheme jointly in and executed by different sculptors dis• 1549. The fountain by .Xmmannati, illus• tinguish the first of these. trated on another page, is at one end of the Similar to the Fontana del Tritone are the [Diano terreno of the palace itself, and is of the fountains by Giacomo della Porta, the Paola same school as Vignola's works. in the Piazzo della Verita, and the Tar- About twenty miles north of Naples is the tarughe. These are more sculptural than vast royal Palace of Caserta, bearing a architectural and represent very graceful similar relation to its larger neighbor as treatments for isolated fountains in open Versailles does to Paris. In 1752 Luigi squares. Vanvitelli began his grandiose scheme that Many of the private palaces had in their developed into the elegant architectural dis• courtyards and gardens treatments of an• play that is now in existence. The palace

.Another view of the Cascade at Caserta. about twenty miles from Naples, Luigi Vanvitelli (1700-73) was the architect.

15 THROVGH THE AGES forms a rectangle boo feet b\- 800 feet, built effect achieved at Versailles by Andre. around four quadrangles. On the south is a The plans of most of the Baroque gardens colonnade containing extensive stables; on and fountains of Italy are worthy of high the north are the gardens and a great cas• praise, but in many cases the details are too cade that extend the line of the axis upward complicated, and the ornamentation either for about two miles to the peak of the ad• too trivial or too cumbersome. There is of- jacent hills. The palace building is far less times a want of harmony between the land• Baroque in character than the gardens, with scape and the treatment of the gardens, and its cascade containing numerous white mar• the fountains seem tawdry when compared ble figures. This statuary lacks the interest to the works of the great cinque-cento archi• of connected architectural treatment and tects. Too many of the details are almost consequently suffers a loss in artistic \ alues. puerile—as in the case of the Villa dEste, Even so, the haphazard placing of these with its toy model of an ancient cit\, figures in natural poses in the formal pools thought to be Rome—but even the most of running water forms a scene of magnifi• tawdry of these treatments have a certain cent grandeur that is comparable even to the charm.

Fountain in the cortile of the Palazzo Vcchio.

lb THROVGH THE AGES

Character

^~T-VH E greatness of a statue or a building does J. not depend on what it has in common with other statues or buildings, but on what it has peculiar to itself. "We move too much in pla• toons; we march by sections," said Chapin, criticizing the lack of individuality prevalent in his day. The architect who plans a structure of char• acter and distinction almost invariably chooses marble as the medium for his expression.

17 !^^| THROVGH THE AGES

aH

THE PORTLAND ELKS' TEMPLE

ORTLAND, Oregon, has often been a number of handsome homes, too, but for called America's most beautiful city and beauty of design and sheer elegance of in• Pits inhabitants are as certain it deserves terior treatment, none of these can surpass this as fully as it does its other title of the the Elks' Temple recently completed. For '•Rose City." With a population already of that matter, few club buildings anywhere in something over a quarter of a million, and a this country are superior to this fine struc• location that is favorable for manufacturing ture, and it is easily the finest Elks' Temple and farming industries, it is not to be in the United States. wondered at that Portland should be rapidly The building stands at the corner of taking its place as one of the most thriving Eleventh and Alder Streets. Construction municipalities of the West. was begun by lifting the first spadeful of Many new business buildings have been earth for the foundation at 11 P..M., Decem• constructed in the past few years, and quite ber 31, 1921. Nearly a year later, September THROVGH THE AGES

2 1, 1922, the cornerstone was laid, and the width and thirteen on the length of each of work was practically completed at the end the upper floors. of 1923. Oregon firms provided all the Through the large doorway described equipment and materials, wherever possible, above, one enters immediately into the main and the design and construction were the lobby, with its creamy coloring and its col• work of local talent. The architects were umned treatment. From this lobby, ele• Houghtaling and Dugan, of Portland. vators and stairways lead to the rest of the Six stories in height, the exterior style is building, which is devoted exclusively to the Italian Renaissance of the earlier period. varied activities of the Elks, except for the The ground and mezzanine floors, of ample store spaces on the ground floor. One is im• ceiling height, are given over to shops, ex• mediately struck by the generous propor• cept for the main entrance on the long tions of the rooms, and the warmth of dimension. This entrance is impressive; it is atmosphere that has been achieved in spite featured by two fluted columns that divide of these large dimensions. The Italian in• the vestibule into three parts, each of which fluence manifest upon the exterior is readily has its individual doorway. The side portals perceived in the interior: and the size of the are arched, and above each is a circular panel in relief. Be• tween these and over the cen• tral door there is a larger rec• tangular panel to conform to the shape of the central portal. A frieze extends around the building at the mezzanine floor, with a balcony just above it. The windows of the first upper story are square headed, with heavy cornices; the next two floors have alternate arched and pedimented dormer cornices, with the top floor showing al• most square windows complete• ly surrounded by heavy mould• ings, with a touch of decoration at each side. Above is a frieze course of inscriptions, above which in turn is the main cor• nice, heavily projecting. The building is finished off by a pseudo-attic story. The whole facade depends mainly for its effect upon the distribution and adornment of the openings, of which there are seven on the Detail of Main Entrance Doorway. THROVGH THE AGES

well, but has the advantage of not showing the dirt, which is bound to accumu• late at inter\-als, even though the building is kept particu• larly clean at all times. Over 6,500 square feet of this marble were used, not only in the stairs just mentioned, but in the lavatories and the office room. A long hallway on the second floor leads through a succession of high archways to the club quarters. The floor is tiled, and has a base The Elevator Lobby on the main floor, with its floor of Champ\ illc of Tavernelle Fleuri marble. marble bordered with Blue Belgian. The inserts are Black and Gold marble. The library offers an in• teresting deviation from chambers is apparently less than in fact, so the usual Renaissance treatment. It is fin• snug and comfortable do they seem. There ished in tall walnut-brown panelling of Tennessee gumwood, and running around is, however, considerable variation in the the upper portion of the wall is a bronze individual rooms, and this deviation from frieze that symbolizes the initiation cere• the usual monotony enhances the effect of monies of the Elks. A Black and Gold each part of the structure. The floor of the first floor lobby is of Champville marble, with borders of Blue Belgian, inserts of Black and Gold mar• ble and a base of Tranniville. Elaborate frescoes increase the general impression of richness. From the basement two stair• ways lead up to the fourth floor; the treads, risers and wainscot• ing of the stair hall are of Colonial Gray marble from .Missouri. Until one sees this material in place, one would be inclined to think that such a dark gray stone would not be in harmony with the color scheme of the rest of the building. On The Buffet on the second floor has counters and the contrary, it not only looks shelves of Blue Beige marble.

20 THROVGH THE AGES~|^ mm.

1

The beautiful Dining-Room. a symphony in brown and gold. Yellow Siena and Black and Gold marbles are used here. marble base and a yellow Siena mantel add of Blue Beige marble. Check rooms and to the effect. Near at hand is the billiard ladies' rooms are convenient to this same room, with its bright green-topped tables floor, the latter rooms appropriately done in contrasting with the dark wall decorations, white, with rose hangings and background relieved by a medly of conventionalized accentuating slender columns of Grecian de• lions, tigers, parrots and other exotic crea• sign—the whole most gracefully feminine. tures done in splashes of color. The third-story lobby has floors of Italian The Card Room adopts the Chinese for Blue Beige, with Black and Gold and yellow its motif, and every detail has been carefully Siena, the design copied from the Pompeiian. worked out. The old palaces of the mandar• This lobby leads to the Banquet Hall, one of ins are suggested by the overhanging ceiling, the most luxuriant rooms in the entire and the frieze shows the unsuccessful but temple. The Dining-Room will seat about never-ending pursuit of the Goddess of 135 people and the furniture is upholstered Chance, remindful of one of the dominant in imported mohair tapestry. The hangings traits of the Oriental character. are brown and gold, and a color harmony is The Buffet is across the hall, and has all obtained by the use of yellow Siena marble the charm of the ancient wine cellar, with for the wainscoting and pilaster facings, with modern appurtenances. The counters and bases of Black and Gold. The ceiling is hand shelves of this important compartment are painted in oil and suspended from it are

[11] ^^PfHROVGH THE AGES several elaborate crystal chandeliers. ation that can be varied at will from a soft Across the lobby is the Ballroom, with its radiance to a brilliant glare. base of Tavernelle Pleuri to carr\- out the To care for the bachelor members of the buff tone that prevails throughout the lodge, there are fifty-two suites of rooms chamber—a tint that is almost the same as located on the mezzanine floor between the the exterior of the building. Prominently fourth and fifth floors and on the fifth floor displayed in the frieze and ceiling are figures itself. All these are sumptuously furnished emblematic of the various phases of the with metal that stimulates wood finish; terpsichorean art. Large crystal chandeliers forty-one of these suites are equipped with afford ample illumination. The fourth floor shower baths of Italian marble. Besides these is given over to the Lodge Room, its ante• private showers there is a swimming pool rooms and the necessary quarters for the some 60 feet long, and 9 feet deep at one candidates and various committees. The end. lodge room has a wainscoting of Champville The general equipment of the building is and the same material appears in the plat• very complete, from kitchen to heating form floor and the steps leading to it. On plant. The air of the entire building changes the two main walls are illuminated tablets completely every eight minutes, the new in honor of the deceased members, and supply undergoing washing, filtering and enumerating the principles upon which the heating. A refrigerating system with a lodge is founded. Walnut colored furnish• capacity of 500 pounds a day manufactures ings and light-toned hangings contrast all the ice used. Hand-ball courts and an vividly with the cream-colored pillared walls exercise room add to the athletic entertain• and this is intensified by a system of illumin• ment of the members.

Ballroom entrance, Elks' Temple, Portland, Oregon. I" THROVGH THE AGES

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I in liM ilU" "III! I ! Hiiiii'' U m

THE GENERAL MOTORS BUILDING Its Thirty Acres of Floor Area Contain Over Four and a Half Miles of Marble Corridors

ERECTED as the result of the good block 500 feet long and 325 feet deep. With ' will created by superior workmanship, its thirty acres of floor space it is one of the E the General Motors Building stands as largest office buildings in the world, and if a monument to the permanence and sta• it were devoted entirely to office purposes, bility of the motor industry. Primarily a it would house 11,000 tenants. For the business structure, it possesses in its mass, maintenance of the huge structure, there is proportion, silhouette and detail, all the art required a force of 460 men and women, and beauty of a public edifice. It looms working incessantly. superbly on one of Detroit's principal boule• In design and execution the building pre• vards, covering the entire city block bounded sents many interesting points. The struc• by West Grand Boulevard, Cass Avenue, ture is fifteen stories high, made up of the Second Avenue and Milwaukee Avenue; a ground floor arcade, a plain shaft consisting

^3 ^ THROVGH THE AGES

The entrance lobby has a marble floor in two tones of Gray Tennessee; the walls up to the ceiling are of Tavernelle. of a series of piers and uniform windows, industrial city with factories widely scat• and an attic above the shaft formed of a tered, determined the locality in an acces• colonnade of the Corinthian order, all sible and geographically central spot. For• crowned by an ample cornice. tunately, at this location land was com• When it was originally decided to erect paratively inexpensive and instead of high the building there arose the immediate values compressing such a building into a problem of securing the required amount of gigantic tower with a minimum of light land in the most suitable locality. Conges• courts, we have an office building in its tion of the downtown streets and lack of normal free development with light courts proper parking facilities, particularly in an 69 feet wide; a building surrounded by wide

[14] streets and tree-lined boulevards, providing It can readily be seen from the accom• the necessary conditions for making work panying illustrations that the first floor is both efficient and pleasant. Owing to the devoted largely to showrooms; the balance ingenious plan on which the building was of its fifteen stories consists mostly of of• conceived, every office is an outside room fices. The arcaded show windows around and has the advantage of unobstructed day• three sides of the first floor of the building light. invite attention to its ample size and to the The chief architectural interest of the showrooms which run straight through to building lies in the masterly handling of its the interior corridors. separate large units, and the application of A feature of the design and ornamenta• classic detail to a modern commercial struc• tion is the main entrance on West Grand ture. This building in its beauty, its cheer• Boulevard. This consists of a loggia of three fulness, its unity and its repose, is but a arches carried on warmly colored and pol• direct and normal development of the neces• ished columns with Ionic capitals. The sity which gave it birth. Its simple, straight• vaulting of the loggia is ot stone elaborately forward lines and the noble material out of carved. The main entrance doorways in the which it was constructed, lend dignity to rear of the loggia are of Tennessee marble the structure. beautifully carved from a design suggested

East-and-west corridor, ground floor, looking east. [^5 THROVGH THE AGES

Typical upper floor east-and-west corridor. This is a view looking west from elevator lobby, thirteenth flcwr. by an old Roman doorway. These portals in color, but with sufficient variety in vein- establish the tone of the entire building. ing and texture to give interest to the sur• They are amply proportioned and. at the face. same time, not too large. They infuse into The care with which small details have the tenants who daily pass through them, been handled is shown in the character of a feeling of importance in being housed in so the lighting fixtures, directory boards, store magnificent a structure. fronts and corridor doorways. The deli• Over the main entrance is a monumental cately modeled bronze store fronts, finished clock flanked by two symbolic female to a light statuary bronze color, are re• figures representing Chemistry and Me• lieved by the base of Verde Antique marble. chanics. The main lobby, as well as the The coffered plaster ceilings of the main elevator lobby, and the imposing corridors corridor are richly decorated in colors and leading both east and west, have floors fin• old gold in the style of the Italian Rennais- ished with light gray and dark gray Tennes• sance. Carved oaken doors lead from the see marble worked into a simple yet pleasing center of the main floor elevator lobby into pattern. The walls are finished to ceiling the ballroom and an auditorium capable of height with Tavernelle marble, monotone seating some 1,300 people. The auditorium

[261 THROVGH THE AGES has ample corridors, foyers, gentlemen's offices thoroughly lighted. No space is more and ladies' retiring rooms, check room, etc. than 20 feet from an outside window. On The main staircase is formed of lij^ht the fifteenth floor an area of 30,000 square veined gray Tennessee marble treads and feet is set apart for a cafeteria, dining-room, risers, with wainscoting and base of Taver- kitchen, bake-shop, etc., probably the most nelle marble. All the corridors above the extensive establishment of its kind in this main floor have wainscoting 7 feet high of part of the country. Every attempt has Alabama marble—a total of about 90,000 been made to provide the most modern and square feet. As in the case of the main floor efficient equipment for this cafeteria. The corridor, the floors of the upper corridors large, airy kitchen is fitted with various are finished with light gray and dark gray mechanical aids for the rapid preparation Tennessee. There are. all told, about 4>2 and serving of food. The cafeteria has a miles of marble corridors from the second to capacity of 1,250 seats. The dining-rooms the fifteenth floors. All the toilet rooms are so arranged that a banquet of any size throughout the building are finished with up to 1,000 guests can be expeditiously Alabama marble. handled. In addition to the main dining- The upper floors, from the second to the room there are four large sized private fourteenth inclusive, are all divided into dining-rooms for public use. Verde .Antique

Fa?ade of the Laboratories Building.

[27] THROVGH THEAGES marble is used as a base both for the dining- feet per minute. They are all equipped rooms and for the Board Room on the floor with a micro self-levelling device which below. automatically levels the elevators at the All resources of modern knowledge relat- floors, thus combining high speed efficiency ing to the construction of office buildings with safety. The elevators are arranged in were brought into play in designing and two banks of twelve each, facing each other creating this business home of the General on opposite sides of the corridor. These Motors Corporation. It is difficult to con- elevators are placed as near as possible to ceive of the many complex mechanical prob- the main entrance, so that they afford the lems which presented themselves in its de- quickest means of entering and leaving the sign. A high type motor car involves many building without confusion, complicated mechanical problems: but the A large power house two blocks away modern office building is. in its way. an from the main building provides all the even more complicated piece of machinery, necessary heat, light and power required. It is designed to effect certain definite re- An underground brick lined tunnel 8 feet suits, and to house a special group of people, high and i i feet wide is constructed between The plans are more complicated than those the power house and the sub-basement of for an automobile because they cover a the main building. Through this tunnel are much wider range of service. It requires, laid all the service mains, including steam therefore, more imagination, ingenuity and lines with a sufficient capacity to furnish mechanical skill to design such an elaborate heat to a cit>' of 25.000 inhabitants. The and huge creation, than to plan the most power house itself is a model of efficiency, powerful automobile ever built. There are four enormous boilers of 500 H.P. The four essentials in modern shelter, each. In the equipment of the boiler house namely, water, light, heat and ventilation, all possible labor-saving devices were in- have in this building been provided for in stalled. Automatic conveyors transport the an efficient and pernianent manner. The coal directly from the railway cars to the bodily comfort of the tenants of the build- overhead coal bunkers and similar con• ing is carefully looked after. Drinking veyors carry the ashes from the basement to fountains on each floor throughout the an overhead hopper which, by means of building provide specially filtered, ozonated, gravity, discharges the ashes back into the sterilized and sparkling water. The arti- railway cars. As a result of all these im- ficial lighting is laid out on scientific prin- provements it requires only three men to ciples to provide, in the different portions of run the entire power plant, the building, the proper intensity of light The main building, with space and ser\'- for the purpose to which the space is put. ice for 6,000 people, enough to populate a A well-regulated temperature is maintained thriving village, is equipped in such a com- throughout the building by means of 5,000 plete manner that it becomes a self-con- steam radiators. The windows and tran- tained and independent community. Here soms are ample in size and number for ef- the citizen finds all that he needs for com- ficient ventilation. fort and convenience. The shops in the The building contains 24 passenger and lobbies include a cigar store, haberdashery, 2 freight elevators. The passenger elevators drug store and soda fountain, cafeteria, are big and roomy, having a speed of 600 flower shop, barber shop, news stand, postal

28 THROVGH THE AGES

and telegraph service, public telephones, a the world's largest maker of standard railroad ticket office and a branch bank. automobiles. United Motors Service, Inc., Even a branch of the stock exchange is another subsidiary of General Motors, is a found in the building. In other parts of the tenant of three bays on the eleventh floor. building are to be found a swimming pool of In different parts of the building are dis• the regulation size, bowling and billiard par• play rooms for the products of all the sub• lors containing nineteen bowling alleys and sidiary corporations. Such well-known twenty billiard tables, a miniature golf makes as the Oakland, the Chevrolet, the course, hard tennis courts and a gymnasium. Buick. the Cadillac and the Olds are repre• Luxurious living quarters are provided for sented by first floor show spaces. GMC the various out-of-town officers of the Gen• trucks and Dayton Wright aeroplanes are eral Motors Corp. also shown. Other parts of the main floor The Laboratories Building, in the rear of are devoted to the display of products of the main building and running the full subsidiary- companies like Frigidaire re• length of the parent structure, has a special frigerators, the ignition equipment made by exterior treatment. Between the windows the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., of the second, third and fourth stories are and the farm lighting and power plants of panels of Levanto marble from Italy, as the Del CO Light Company. shown by the illustration on page 27. The General Motors Corporation were Besides housing the general executive of• fortunate in the selection of their architect, fices of the Corporation, the General Motors .Albert Kahn, of Detroit, who has had so ex• Building contains many important organi• tensive an experience in industrial and zations connected with the parent company. commercial architecture. In the design of We here find located the general executive this structure his work speaks for itself offices of the Fisher Body Corp., the largest showing, as it does, a comprehensive under• builders of automobile bodies in the world; standing of the practical as well as archi• and the offices of the Chevrolet Motor Co., tectural requirements of an office building.

WE ARE NOW READY TO SEND YOU YOUR COPY OF BOUND VOLUME NO. 2! (See {Dage 6Q of this issue)

The second bound volume of THROVGH THE .AGES is now off the press. The full text contents of the twelve issues of this magazine from May 1Q24 to April 1Q25, inclusive, have been gathered under one cover, elaborately bound in de luxe form. No architect can afford to be without this collection of authentic facts about the use of that finest of building material—MARBLE. The edition is limited. For your convenience we are attaching an order blank on page 69 of this issue. SEND IT IN BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE THROVGH THE AGES

A HANDBOOK OF MARBLE

/t is the purpose of the National Association of Marble Dealers, to publish as soon as possible, a handbook on marble. The mis• ter ial contained in this book will be contributed by those best qualified to speak in an authoritative manner on the various matteis treated. This is the twelfth iruitallment and contains part of the fourth chapter, written by John Stephen Sewell. President of the Alabama Marble Company. These extracts will probably undergo some slight changes before appearing later in book form.

CHAPTER IV—Finishing Marble

It is convenient to divide this subject into diminish this thickness by an amount which two sections: varies from ig inch to yi inch—the former being more nearly an average value for the (1) Thin Stock—2 inches or less diminution in thickness. in thickness. .Marble partitions, standing alone, as in (2) Cubic Stock—more than 2 toilet rooms, are made of slabs which are inches thick. from I inch to i >2 inches thick as they come The first classification includes most of from the saws. Counter tops, table tops, the so-called "plain work," i.e., pieces or seats, floor slabs, stair treads and platforms slabs which are nearly always rectangular are made of slabs from i inch up in thick• and hone-finished or polished on one or ness, depending upon circumstances. Slabs more faces and sometimes on one or more I inch thick and thicker are also used for edges. door and window trim, stiles and rails in The second classification includes most of panelled wainscoting, for light moldings, the work which is cut. molded, carved, or pilasters, etc. turned and then usually hone-finished or Probably the principal reason for drawing polished. the line between thin stock and cubic stock at Some light moldings are made of stock the 2-inch thickness is that, before the dia• less than 2 inches thick, and some pieces mond saw and carborundum wheel were of thin stock require a certain amount of available, stock up to 2 inches in thickness cutting; on the other hand, some pieces was cut or "coped" to size by hand, while which are more than 2 inches thick do not if it was thicker than 2 inches, it was sawed differ in any other respect from ordinary a second, and sometimes a third time, in the plain work. So the two classifications over• gangs. There is still a good reason for con• lap somewhat; but, in the main, they are tinuing the practice based on the cost of quite distinct, as will appear. sawing. It costs appreciably more to saw a block into thin slabs than into thick ones; THIN STOCK the determining factor is. of course, the Standard thicknesses of thin stock are number of blades in the gang. While the law ^ inch, I inch, inches, inches, 1^4 that connects the number of cuts with the inches, inches and 2 inches. By far the rate of sawing is not accurately known, ex• greater portion of the plain wainscoting perience indicates very clearly that the di• used in the interior of buildings is made rect cost of sawing thin stock, is. in general, from slabs which are J-^-inch thick as they about 20 per cent greater than the cost of came form the saws. The finishing processes one sawing for cubic stock, and that, in es-

30 THROVGH THE AGES

1

A carborundum coping machine used for cutting slabs to exact size. This machine is also known as a gang-coper, because extra wheels can be inserted and many strips cut at once. timating costs, to make the change at the almost a perfect straight line—others are 2-inch thickness fits the facts accurately. quite erratic. In the case of marbles like Tennessee and COPING TO SIZE the ordinary grades of white Italian where "Coping" is the term used in the marble there is no question of matching or other• trade to describe the process of securing wise specially considering the distribution of pieces of the desired size from "full size" veining and clouding, and where the blocks slabs of thin stock as it comes from the saws. are of advantageous size, the waste in coping Formerly, it was done by laying out the is a minimum; it may be as little as lo per sizes required on the full size slab, scoring cent. In extreme cases, where the "color," the lines with a chisel, then breaking the as the veining and clouding are known, oc• marble along the scored lines. Of course, curs in a large scale pattern, the waste may this resulted in more or less ragged edges, be 50 per cent or more. which were, and are, subsequently trued up Since the introduction of carborundum, it on the rubbing bed, or otherwise. From is possible to put a slab on a carborundum ^ inch to ^^ inch has to be allowed for this, machine and cut it accurately to size, with depending upon the nature of the marble, in edges finished, and with a cut not more than each case. Some marbles can be broken to '4 inch wide. From one to six or more

31 ^^^jfTrHROVGH THE AGES wheels can be used at one time on some ma• cost of maintaining a place for him to work. chines, and where the marble can be simply He can change the directions of his cuts cut to size like sheets of metal, a great with almost no loss of time. So the carbor• saving can be effected by finishing the full undum machine has, by no means, elim• size slabs, then cutting them to the sizes de• inated him from the trade. sired on a carborundum machine. But where The operation of coping is extremely im• the color must be matched or otherwise con• portant; if skillfully done, the waste is sidered, and where slabs have cracks run• reduced to a minimum consistent with the ning irregularly, but far enough apart to best results. Of course, it is relatively simple yield sound pieces of the desired size, it is in the case of marbles like Tennessee and still often more economical to cope by hand, ordinary white Italian. But where veining in the old-fashioned way. In such cases, all and clouding occur in any but a very small the cuts may be oblique to the edges of the scale pattern, the use of the material to at• slab, and some of them may be oblique to tain the best results is a real art. each other. Changing the slab for cuts of If veins or clouds of color run through the varying directions on the carborundum ma• block at a sharp oblique angle with the saw chine may cost so much as to more than cuts—a condition which is often inevitable counterbalance the savings in other ways. —the pattern will be offset from slab to It costs from $2.50 to $3.50 per hour to slab, owing to the removal of the marble in operate a carborundum machine; it is, there• the saw cut. The coper then has to shift the fore, important to keep it cutting all the slabs accordingly to match the pattern. This time. Idle time while running is very expen• leads to cutting off a strip from one end of sive. A hand coper's time is worth perhaps one slab and from the opposite end of the $1.00 per hour, counting his wages and the other, to reduce two adjacent slabs to the

A combination coper, having a cross-cut head.

[32 THROVGH THE AG^I^^

same size, with the color pattern matched. in any one group of adjacent slabs or pieces Such strips are often a total waste. present the appearance that would have re• Where more has to be cut from each slab sulted if the group of pieces had all been one than is required by the above condition, the piece to begin with, and had been simply cut coper may do much to make the best possi• up into smaller sizes for convenience in ble job, by using those parts of the slabs handling or to conform to a scheme of joint• which make the most beautiful pattern. The ing. When an architect who has been used coper's task may be greatly facilitated, es• to matched slabs is first confronted with pecially in the case of expensive and richly marbles now under discussion, the irregular decorative marbles, if the block is sawed, to distribution of the color is often the first begin with, for certain pieces, considering thing that strikes him, and he usually ob• in this connection their relative positions in jects to it. But if the work is well done in the the building and the distribution of color in manner just described, the uniformity of the the block. Tilting the block slightly in the background soon asserts itself and becomes gang and sawing it in a direction slightly the dominant characteristic; in such cases, oblique to its own principal dimensions may the material makes its own way into favor. help the coper very materially; where thin It is perhaps a good thing that the nature of stock and heavy pieces are in close juxta• the marbles available compels us to use position in the final job, it is often necessary sometimes the one scheme, sometimes the to saw a block in a very expensive and com• other. Both are good—both have their plicated fashion, in order to get adjacent spheres of usefulness—and each really gains pieces in the job out of the same part of the in value from the existence of the other. original block. Unless this is done, violent The next operation after coping to size, is contrasts are often unavoidable. The best rubbing. This is done on rubbing beds, use of richly decorative marbles is really consisting of large circular cast-iron plates almost one of the fine arts—and the neces• revolving about a vertical axis. A thin sary skill comes only from long experience. stream of sand and water is fed onto the bed In all such cases, the job is made or at the center and distributes itself by centrif• marred, to begin with, in the sawing and ugal force over the face of the plate. Pieces coping. Subsequent processes can maintain of marble to be rubbed are laid, face down, a high standard already attained in sawing on the bed, and the face is ground smooth and coping—or they can greatly lower it. and true by the sand. Of course, the cast- But no matter how well they may be carried iron plate wears away also. A plate 4>^ out, they cannot make up for lack of skill inches thick will last about 9,000 hours. At in so sawing and coping the material as to present prices, this item represents a cost of bring out its greatest possibilities. about ten cents per hour. Some marbles—especially white marbles If slabs have been coped by hand, the —are characterized by clouding which is not edges must be rubbed also. Usually, it is regularly distributed, nor of uniform amount possible to have one slab edging and one and depth of color. In such cases, the coper facing at the same time. There must be should select neighboring pieces, first, with a across the bed one or more "head blocks"— view to a uniform background; this often usually heavy timbers—under which the bed requires using slabs from different blocks; revolves. As these have to clear the vertical second, with a view to having the clouding axis, on one side or the other, the bed is

[J3] THROVGH THE AGES

A rubbing bed. fitted with one principal head-block (seen just behind the vertical shaft) and one subordinate head-block, seen in foreground. On the right is a slab of waste marble, braced against the head-block, to equalize wear on the plate. On the left, just to the right of the slab being edged, is a piece of casting, used for the same purpose. divided into two unequal parts when one are more generally useful. head block is used, which is the usual case. Where a large number of narrow strips or When one block is used, two men can work small pieces are required, it has become cus• on the same bed at the same time, but one tomary to finish full size slabs and then cope of them can handle larger pieces than the them on a carborundum machine. This, other, as he has a greater area of the bed within certain limits, is a great gain—not so available. much because of the reduction in direct The function of the head block is to en• cost, but because of the greater output from able the work to be held in one position a given equipment, thus reducing indirect while the plate revolves under it. Where a and overhead and increasing the rate of large number of small pieces are to be turnover of the invested capital, which, at handled, more than one head block may be the best, is rather slow in the interior marble used, dividing the bed into three or four business. If all these small pieces are first sections, and enabling more than two men coped and then finished, one side of the to work at once. rubbing beds is usually occupied with them; Rubbing bed plates are usually 12 or 14 feet the other custom enables the beds to be in diameter. In large plants, it is well to filled on both sides with pieces as large as have some of each size. Beds as small as 10 they will take. The output is thus consider• feet in diameter are used, but the other sizes ably increased. Of course, many small

[34] THROVGH THE AGES Ij^^ pieces must be handled in the old way, in It is necessary to keep the beds true; with spite of all that can be done—as when a lot pieces of varying sizes and shapes, which of base or border is obtained from strips cut will naturally be kept on the part of the bed from larger slabs in previous work, or when where they are most convenient to handle, such strips—or tiles—are obtained from the upper surfaces of the plates would soon cracked or unsound slabs which, because of be worn unevenly, if the matter were not the cracks, cannot be handled as a whole. constantly attended to. Pieces of scrap mar• The rubbing bed, like the gang, looks like ble and rectangular blocks of cast iron are a rather crude tool; but a good "bed-rubber," kept on the beds in positions where they will as the workman is called, can easily work to not interfere with the work, and so adjusted a tolerance of one sixty-fourth of an inch— that they tend to equalize the wear. Of and probably to one-hundredth, if there course, a good workman will so manage his were any need for it. He can square up work as to make the wear as uniform as pieces of marble so that they test perfectly possible; if he is a thoroughly skilled me• with a steel square—and he can rub them chanic, his work will not often have to be with equal accuracy to any oblique angle, if interrupted in order to true up the bed. But he is furnished with a proper template. with inexperienced workmen, this is a fruit-

A large gritting machine, used for buffing only.

[35] ^^^rrHROVGH THE AGES

A battery of buffing and polishing machines. ful source of delay and expense. the subject of costs; mere statements of Rubbing beds make a very disagreeable average costs for the various operations in rumbling noise unless they are driven by finishing marble are misleading unless ac• gears with wooden teeth; with wooden gear companied with detailed explanations, teeth, if the beds are properly lined up, the therefore this subject will be deferred to a beds are almost noiseless, except for the proper time and place. grinding of the work. They should produce In the case of rubbing beds, as indeed of no vibration at all. The best drive is an in• all marble working machinery, adequate pro• duction motor which ought to be mounted vision must be made to carry off and get rid overhead at the same general level as the of the slush. Quite an elaborate system of driving gears at the top of the shaft of the underflow drainage is necessary; the fall bed. A 12-foot or 14-foot bed may require must be rapid enough to keep the solid ma• nearly 25 horsepower to run it under some terial moving, and it is well to have the conditions of loading; the power required at drains large enough for a man to crawl starting may, for a few seconds, reach 35 through them so that in case of stoppage, horsepower. It is not a bad plan to drive they can be certainly and completely opened two beds with one 50-horsepower motor, up without tearing up the floor. In one shop, and, in starting up, bring one up to speed, 24-inch terra-cotta pipe was used, with a empty, before starting the other. Both rapid fall. Of course, its capacity as a drain should be brought up to speed before any is greatly in excess of any actual require• work is put on them. The proper speed is ments; but it has been a good investment, from 38 to 45 revolutions per minute. nevertheless, because of the ease with which It has been decided to incorporate in this it is kept clean. It carries the drainage from series of articles, and in the handbook which all the machines in one of the half-dozen will be the final result, a separate chapter on largest shops in the country devoted to inte-

36 THROVGH THE AGES rior marble work exclusively, and as mere in• finished," this is the last finishing operation; surance against interruptions, it is worth in that case, the honing is carried to the more than its relatively small excess of cost limit, and somewhat farther than is neces• over any other system that would work. sary, if the marble is to be buffed or polished. GRITTING AND BUFFING It follows from this that there is no material These are the final operations in finishing difference in cost between hone-finished interior marble, and, in the case of plain marble and polished marble. work, they follow immediately after the The buffing or polishing is done on a grit• rubbing. ting machine, fitted, for this purpose, with A gritting machine consists of a vertical a revolving felt head. The stream of water shaft, belt or gear driven at the top, carrying is cut off, the polishing material is scattered a revolving head at the end of a horizontal on the face of the work, with enough water jointed arm which is of such a length that it to keep the slab wet, but not enough to run can cover the whole of any slab of ordinary off and carry away the polishing material. dimensions. The slab is laid, face up, on top The polishing material most commonly of a bench—or "banker," as it is called in used is "putty powder," the essential in• the marble trade—which hcis a number of gredient of which is dioxide of tin (stannic parallel strips of wood close together—i.e., oxide, SnOz); it has the same chemical com• two or three inches apart—upon which the position as cassiterite, the only important slab rests. ore of tin, but, for use in the arts, it is arti• The revolving head is fitted with plates of ficially prepared. It is a rather interesting gritting materials; it is brought into contact substance, because of its resistance to acids, with the work and moved so as to cover, in and its great hardness, nearly equal to that succession, all parts of the surface to be of quartz. It is never used by itself in polish• finished. A stream of water is fed onto the ing marble, but is usually mixed with some work under the head, to avoid "burning" other powder (usually oxide of lead), as a the marble. The gritting materials formerly carrier; the operation of buffing is usually used were natural sandstones of varying facilitated by using a little oxalic acid along texture, from coarse to fine, followed by the with the putty powder. The action of the application of a head fitted with pieces of acid seems to be to render the superficial hone. Some shops still use some of these crystals slightly pasty, so that they readily natural grits, but most of them use heads spread out and fill up any microscopic made of artificial abrasives of suitable fine• spaces between adjacent crystals, and also ness made up into the proper shape by some yield more readily to the polishing action of sort of bond. Some shops make up their the putty powder. It used to be customary own gritting heads—others buy the abra• to specify that marble should be polished sives already made up into proper shape. with putty powder alone, in the best work— The object of gritting is to reduce the sur• the idea being that the polish would be more face of the marble to a finer texture than is lasting. But if the slab or other piece of possible on the rubbing bed. The last part work is thoroughly cleansed after polishing, of the gritting process — the "honing"— there is reason to believe not only that the leaves the marble as smooth to the touch polish is just as permanent when a little as if it were polished, and there is usually a oxalic acid is used, but also that the polished dull gloss on it. When marble is to be "hone surface is impervious to the highest degree.

(37 1 THROVGH THE AGES

A LIST OF THE WORLD'S MARBLES

By J. J. MCCLYMONT

No/e—In a past issue. Mr. McClymonC proposed, for the sake of convenience, to divide the different marbles into four groups. These arbitrary groupings were as follows:

GROUP B — Any marble or GROUP C — Any marble or GROUP D—All marble, stone GROUP A — Any marble or and so-called serpentine mar• stone sold to the trade in fair- stone sold to the trade in slabs stone that cannot be sold as bles, and Onyx, which, by sized slabs or blocks of com- or blocks of fair or medium sound but contains a mini• their peculiar formation are mercialsize. rectangularshapc size, generally rectangular mum amount of natural de• known to be fragile, such as and guaranteed by the seller shap)e. guaranteed to be sound fects, such as dry seams, old Breccias and nearly all highly to be sound, free from natural and free from natural defects, fractures, partially or com• colored marbles and serpen• defects, that can be finished the finishing of which, be- pletely healed surface voids, tines, and that are sold to the at a minimum cost, and sold cau.se of texture, the size of etc., to be treated by the trade in irregular shaped to the consumer as sound slabs, the shape and size of manufacturer in the most ap• blocks or slabs without a marble. blocks, is somewhat more ex- proved manner, reinforced p)cnsi ve than those in Group A. where necessary by liners on guarantee as to their sound• back or metal inlays and sold ness, treated by the manu• to the consumer as semi- facturer in the most approved sound marble. manner, reinforced where nec• essary bv liners on back or metal inlays and sold to the consumer as unsound marble.

Limestone Limonite 'The name limestone as commonly used This is a hydrous oxide of iron, a hy- is made to include a large and widely drated hematite, which when scratched varying group of rocks, differing from or powdered gives a brownish-rust color. one another in color, texture, structure, and origin, with but one property in LI mproneta common of consisting essentially of car• Quarried at L'hnproneta, near Florence, bonate of lime. A pure limestone should Italy. consist only of carbonate of lime. In Variegated clear green olive green and point of fact, however, none of our nat• brown. (Blagrove.) ural stones are chemically pure, but all contain a greater or less amount of for• Lindewiese iSchwarz) eign material either chemically combined Nieder Lindewiese Quarries, Silesia, Aus• or as admixed minerals." (George P. Mer• tria. rill—Stone for Building and Decoration.) Very dark gray (almost black) with oc• Most limestones were formed by the casional small light gray patches. (Wat• deposition of sediment on the bed of the son.) sea, consisting of vegetable matter, gravel, Takes medium polish. sand, mud, shells, and remains of animals.

Limestone River Linghon Quarried in Omeo Township, Benambra Quarried near Ambleteuse, Pas-de-Calais, County, Victoria, Australia. France. Brilliantly red mottled ground mass, in Gray with red veins. (Blagrove.) which are patches of white calcite. Liniato di Arno Takes good polish. (Watson.) See Giallo Liniato di Arno.

[38] THROVGH THE AGES~lg^^^___!k^(a{

Liniato di Arno Listellalo—See Bardiglio Listellato. Quarried near the banks of the Arno, lloly Lithoslrolion Olive tint marked with lines of darker ^^"^^ ^'^''^^^ '^'"'^ ''^^^''^ ^^^"^ ''^ shade and reddish brown spots. (Bla- ™i*t)le. g^o^^ ) Little Bettor (Pink) or Little Beltor marble. Liniato diPratoUno Quarried at Ipplcpen, Devonshire, Eng- Quarried near Pratolino Tuscany, Italy. " Grayish-green with bands and veins. ^'"^ g^^>' '^^^"'^^ ^'^"^^^ (Blagrove.) markings.

Lion Roc/i-See Cornish Serpentine from Little Beltor (Yellow) Good Castol Quarries. Quarried at Ipplepen, Devonshire, Eng- land. Lios das Lameiras Mottled yellow, pink and gray with Lameiras Quarries, Pero Pinheiro, Estre- white veins of calcite. (Watson.) madura, Portugal. Light fawn color, containing many fossils. ^'^'^^ ^stand-Same as Victoria Red. (^^^^"•) Livernon Lisbon—See Borba Red and Borba White. Quarried at Livernon, Lot, France. Reddish-pink. Lisbon Red—Same as Empress Red. Livido Marble—Group B. Li^eron—See Rose Liseron. Vermont Marble Company's Quarries, Lissourghter or Lissoughter Hill-See Con- ^Vest Rutland Vermont. nemara from Lissoughter Quarries. Blu.sh-gray of a not very dark shade with numerous veins and spots of much darker Listato shade. Banded or veined. Takes medium polish.

Listato Alabaster—Same as Alabastro Lis- Lizard Promontory tato. On this promontory in Cornwall, Eng- , . A Y ,, » T \an6, are located the quarries that pro- Listato Marble-Same as Bigio Antico Lis- ^^^^ Cornish Serpentine, tado.

Listator.,,wr- Veraiccio. AlabasterAf, —bamec as AlaAt - Lizard Promontory ^ Serbentiner- —See Cornish bastro Listato Verdiccio. Serpentine. , . ^ Lizzie Clay and Pulp Company's Quarry— Listavena—Group B. c \ ' r>. ., T 1 ,1 . . r> . , SeeJersevUreen. oimilar to Jackman and Light Smith. Quarried at West Rutland, Vermont. Llanfechell Serpentine Veins of green or olive alternating with Quarried at Llanfechell, .^nglesea. bands of white or pinkish white. Greenish serpentine, sometimes reddish- Takes medium polish, green. (Blagrove.)

[3Q] THROVGH THE AGES B

L. M. Italian Lower California Onyx—Same as Pedrara Trade-mark for No. 2 White Italian. Onyx.

Loch Kilchrist Lucullan Marble (Ancient) To the south and southeast of this lake According to Pliny this marble takes its in the Island of Skye, the Skye marbles name from Lepidos L. Lucullus, and was are found. quarried on the Island of Melos (Modern Milo) in the JEgean Sea. Loch Leven—See Ballachulish which takes Other authorities claim that this is but its name from the town of Ballachulish, another name for Nero Antico from Cape on the south shore of Loch Leven. Matapan, southern Greece. The color is given by Miss Porter as Lompnes or Lompines. blackish-gray, and by Pliny as entirely Quarried in France. black. Dirty buff color with rust spots. Takes medium polish. Lucon Marble Lonsdaleia DujDlicala Quarried in Vendee, France. Red with spots of deeper red, black and A Madreporarian coral fossil found in pale gray. (Blagrove.) many marbles.

Lor rain Lucon Marbles Quarried at St. Catherine, near Nancy, Quarried at Gochenee, Namur, Belgium. France. Lucon Cailloute has a background of dark Variegated white, gray, yellow, red and gray spotted with pale gray, white and black. red. Lucon Chocolate has a background of Takes a good polish. (Blagrove.) chocolate mingled with red and occasion• al large gray veins and spots. (Blagrove.) Loubie Quarried at Loubie, Eastern Alps. Lues (Granite) White with occasional gray veins. (Bla• Quarried near Lues, Vandee, France. Loughgrove. Dunlewy) —See Dunlewy. Various shades of gray, blue and red, with some fossils. (Blagrove.) Lourdes—See Lumachelle de Lourdes, St. Florent and Vielle-Violet. Luinachella—See Encrinital. Italian name for marbles containing en- Louverne—Same as Oris Louvernc. crinitals.

Louvie-Juzon Quarries—See Oris Tendre de Lumacato—See Bigio Antico Lumacato. Louvie. This name as applied to marble means the same as Lumchella or Shell marble. Louvie-Soubiron—See Bleu Fleuri de Louvie.

Lower Austrian Marbles—See Engelsberger Lumacato Chiaro—See Bigio Antico Luma• and Marbacher. cato Chiaro.

40 THROVGH THE AGES

Lumachella Lumachelle Champenoise From Lumaca (snail), generally spelled Quarried near Rheims, Marne, France. Lumachelle. Yellowish-gray with numerous fossils. (Blagrove.) LumacheLlato—See Bigio Antico Lumachel- lato. Lumachelle Degli Abruzzi (Ancient) Lumachellato Piccolo—See Bigio Antico Lu- Light buff gray, crowded with tiny shells machellato Piccolo. of the same hue and larger ones of slate blue. (Pullen.) Lumachelle Antico (probably modern). Earthy gray, with large snails. (Pullen.) Lumachelle de Lourdes—^Group C. Quarried near Lourdes, Hautes, Pyren• Lumachelle Bigia (Ancient) ees, France. Light brown, densely crowded with very Reddish-fawn color, crowded with fos• small fragments of black and trans• sils. (Watson.) parent grayish-white. (Pullen) Or gray, veined with brown and full of Lumachelle des Argonne or Pierre Chaline or brown shells. (Pullen.) Racine de Buis. Name given to marbles quarried in the Lumachelle Bigia Bruna (Ancient) Forest of Argonne at Avocourt, Bro- Black peppered with gray and crowded court, Parois, Rampont, Rubreville and with large white snails, faint flush of rose. Verdun, Meuse, France. (Pullen.) Consists mostly of blackish and bluish- Lumachelle Bigia di Egitto gray backgrounds. Some are tinged with Densely crowded gray snails with few yellow and reddish hues and all have a yellowish-white, flush of pinkish-brown, tendency to turn yellow from exposure. or gray, with white and blue snails and a (Blagrove.) little gold, or bluish-gray with yellowish- Lumachelle des Bossus white snails. (Pullen.) Quarried at Fontenelle, Aisne, France. Lumachelle Bigia Gialastra Bluish-gray with white cloudy veins and Gray tinged with yellow. (Pullen.) whitish translucent fossils. (Blagrove.)

Lumachelle Bigia Orienale Lumachelle di Calabria Bluish-gray, with numerous white snails. Quarried near Pallizzi, Calabria, Italy. (Pullen.) Buff, peppered brownish-gray, with blu• ish snails and fragments of white round Lumachelle Bigia Rossastra shells. Gray flushed with pink. (Pullen.) Lumachelle di Egito (An ancient stone.) Lumachelle Bigio (probably modern) Golden yellow, with snails of bright yel• Large gray snails and small white shells. low and bluish-gray.

Lumachelle Bruna Rossastra Lumachelle Gialla (Ancient) Brownish gray, flushed with pink. (Pullen.) Large yellow snails with gray chips.

41 THROVGH THE AGES

LumachelieGiallaBigiastraMinula (Ancient) Lumachelle Rosea (Ancient) Close-grained light brown, with gray and Pale chalky rose and yellow, crowded yellowish snails. w ith small narrow slugs. (Pullen.)

Lumachelle Gialla Pavonazza (Ancient) Lumachelle Rossa (Ancient) Dark brown, with orange shells and Uniform crimson and semi-transparent snails, yellow chips and circlets having white. (Pullen.) brown centers. Or red with grayish-white madrepores.

Lumachelle Lionala (Ancient) Lumachelle Violetla (Ancient) Reddish-brown, blotched with pink, sus• Violet, tinged with blood red, snails, white picion of white and yellow. (PuUen.) or gray, touched with gold.

Lumachelle Marble or Lumachella or Lu- Luna Marble or Luni Marble machello. Ancient name for marbles from the vicin• ity of Carrara, Italy. Is a fossiliferous limestone in which the shells still retain their nacre, or pearly The name Carrara is said to be derived lining, and which when polished gives off from the Latin quareria which is some• in spots a brilliant iridescent lustre with times spelled cariera. rainbow tints; the finer varieties being Lunel seemingly set with opals. Quarried in the Valley of Heureuse, near It is a beautiful stone for inlaid work and Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. elaborate ornamentation, but is usually Brownish-gray monotone. found in small slabs. (Merrill.) Takes medium polish. Lumachelle Minula (Ancient) Lunel Fleuri Red with tiny fragments. (Pullen.) Quarried in the Valley of Heureuse, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Luniachelle Nera (Ancient) Brownish-gray with flowered markings of Bronze, with tiny streaks of yellowish- darker shade. brown. (Pullen.) Takes medium polish. Lumachelle Nera Minula (Ancient) Lunense Anlico—Group A. Jet black, with numerous small curly Fantiscritti Quarries, at Carrara. Italy. white snails. (Pullen.) Pure ivory white statuary, no crystals, texture soapy, inclining to that of china. Lumachelle Pavonazzo (Ancient) Purple peppered with tiny white frag• Lunense Macchialo—Group A. ments and a few rosy fiints. (Pullen.) Originally from the Fantiscritti Quarries, Lumachelle Pavonazzo Disjalta at Carrara, but now quarried in abund• Very much broken. (Pullen.) ance at Crestola, Zampona, Bettolia and Ravaccione. Lumachelle Persichina (Ancient) White with bluish tinge, and streaks of Lilac. (Pullen.) black or black metallic spots.

42 THROVGH THE AGES

ETAILS of the Stairway. Drinking D Fountain and Bench in the Fore• man National Bank, in Chicago. Charles S. Frost, the architect, se• lected Galena Siena marble in combi- nationwith Belgian Black. The treads and risers are of Pink Tennessee; the floor is of the same material, with borders of Belgian Black. These marbles were installed by the Mc- Clymont Marble Company.

McCLYMONT MARBLE CO.

TWENTY-SEVENTH AND CANAL STS. MILWAUKEE - WISCONSIN

[43l THROVGH THE AG^

ELEVATOR LOBBY OF THE MID-CONTINENTAL BUILDING TULSA, OKLA.

A f-rench marble know n as Jaune Nile Fleuri was chosen for this dis• tinctive treatment.

Arcluiects Atkinson & Olston. Tulsa. Okla.

ARNOSTI MARBLE COMPANY CARTHAGE :: TULSA : "• OKLAHOMA

The old reliable

CARRARA STATUARY VEIN

unexcelled for texture, decorative qualities and soundness.

MAIN STAIRWAY OF CAPITOL THEATRE. NEW YORK CITY

PISANI BROTHERS, INC. 815 VERNON AVENUE Marble Importers LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y.

44