• BJEI Bl£] Era ElE] EJB ElEl • EJa ElE] EJEJ E13 EJa Bia • THROVGH THE AGES • Bia EJEl BlEI EJa BlEl EJa • ElE Era ElEl EJE3 BlEI BIZl • JANUARY. 1924 In ancient days the builder knew To stay the hand of ruthless time- He monumental structures built Of ageless marble, rock sublime. J. s. H. m EJZl ET£1 EJa CM Bra Eia D Era GlE] EJEl BJZl Eia [31 H i Bia Era EiE] Era Era D Eia Era E13 Era ra£] EJ^ [^] VOL.1 JANUARY. 1924 NO. 9 CONTENTS PAGE THE CAPITOL OF WISCONSIN Frontispiece CREATING "ATMOSPHERE " WITH MARBLE 3 THE MARS HILL OF BALTIMORE 7 SAFETY SIGNS IN THE MARBLE QUARRIES q GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE 13 MARBLE FOR DECORATIVE PURPOSES 20 THE WISCONSIN CAPITOL 27 LIST OF THE WORLD'S MARBLES 37 MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY 4^ Published Monthly by thi NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MARBLE DEALERS GAY AND WATER STREETS. BALTIMORE, MD. Executive Offices: 242 ROCKEFELLER BUILDING. CLEVELAND. OHIO Application for Second-Class Mailing Privilege has been filed at Baltimore. Md. Subscription Price $3.00 per year Single Copies 35 cents Copyright. 1924. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION; OF MARBLE Df;ALERS I C^JH: • SIS I mmmuw View of the Capitol at Madison. Wisconsin, one of the most magnificent public buildings in the world. The city itself is in the midst of such unusual scenic beauty that Longfellow was inspired to write of the surrounding lakes: "Four limpid lakes, four naiades. Or sylvan deities arc these. In flowing robes of azure dressed. t Four lovely handmaids that uphold Their shining mirrors, rimmed in gold To the fair city of the West." A Monthly Magazine devoted to the uses of Marble - its universal adaptability, beauty, permanency and economy VOL. 1 JANUARY, 1924 NO. Q CREATING "ATMOSPHERE" WITH MARBLE How a Famous Hotel in the "Nation's Playground" Secured Unusual Interior Effects. OME time after the sinking of the material. Stone is the primeval material S Lusilania. the Roycroft Press brought that formed the world. Old Job calls it the out a little booklet by Elbert Hubbard, foundation of the earth."' the leader of the Roycrofters, whose life had This view of Hubbard's is far from being been sacrificed in that great disaster. It the vision of an idealist. It is being sub• bore the title of "Art and Architecture of stantiated daily by the men of business, the World's Love of Stone. " From cover to those builders who look first to commercial cover it is a plea for the best in building con• success, and never allow their good judg• struction. One of its apt comparisons is ment to be undermined by artistic theories. set forth in the following paragraph: Thirty or more years ago. a certain Ameri• 'There is fashion in building as well as can architect prophesied that the next fashion in raiment. Some have a sentiment twenty-five years would be an "age of mar• in favor of imitation stone or concrete. And ble." As it looks now he might safely have in some instances such material serves the said the "next fifty years." Certainly the purpose. Barns, poultry-houses, sewers, popularity of marble for the purposes of culverts, roadways, factories and tenements decorative architecture was never greater have been made of artificial stone. As a cheap than it is today. And there is every pros• substitute and a convenient building mater• pect that the future will add materially to ial artificial stone has its distinct use. But the prestige already acquired. he who has in mind the memories of the This appealing power of marble is made glory that was Greece and the grandeur up of many factors, but among them all that was Rome can never be satisfied with there is none more irresistible than the in• imitations. Just as in the world of morals imitable naturalness of its color effects. there are a few things for which there are no The value of this quality has been recog• substitutes, so in the realm of materials no nized by no less an authority than John substitute has ever been found, or can be Ruskin. found, for stone. It is God's own building "It is notable," he says, "that the best m THROVGH THE AGES Part of Main Lobby of the Hotel Traymore at Atlantic City. N.J. .All the standing marble is Verde Antique. tints are always those of natural stones. made to adapt the colors to the building, These can hardly be wrong; I think I never that it may have the needful environment yet saw an offensive introduction of the nat• for the work it has to do. This is well illus• ural colors of marble and precious stones, trated by the marble that has been installed unless in small mosaics, and in one or two in some of our more recent hotels. glaring instances of the resolute determina• The hotel has become an important fac• tion to produce something ugly at any cost." tor in modem life. It serves as the tran• The color harmony of marble is at its sient or permanent home for vast numbers best in the field of interior decoration. And of our people, thus giving an opportunity it is in that field that the departure from the for the creation of wonderful effects in level of monotony has been most pro• architecture and craftsmanship. That the nounced. This is the altogether logical out• desired ends are being attained, is due in come of the development of many varied large measure to the quality and product• types of American marble. iveness of the marble quarries. For it is un• Nor has this study of the subject been deniably true that both architects and limited merely to the \\ork.ing out of color• 0"WTiers of hotels are turning more and more ful combinations. .A -v^orthv effort has been to marble for the pleasing and satisfying 4l THROVGH THE AGES effect, for the desired note of aristocracy. tique is arranged in plain massive fashion, Take as an example the Hotel Traymore, lightened to the required degree by panels erected a few years ago at Atlantic City. of Special Sylvestre. By this means, and by The architects. Price &i McLanahan. of the judicious use of plants and shrubbery, Philadelphia, realized that this structure is the interior endowed with the deeply rich was to stand in what has rightly been and cool feeling which is a part of the at• termed the Nation's Playground, the great• mosphere of this famous hotel. est hotel resort in the world. They knew In that word "atmosphere" lies the ke\- that in order to take the place it was ex• to the success of the Traymore as a building pected to fill, this hotel must have individ• project. The plan and purpose back of the uality and distinctiveness, and so it came interior is not simply the idea of a hotel; it about that marble was used extensively in is the conception of a hotel for a certain the construction of this great hostelry. place and with a special mission. Nothing All the marble was provided at the Ver• was allowed to obscure the picture. This mont quarries. In the floors the field is of holds true especially in the case of the mar• Venoso, a sharply veined marble, and the ble. It was chosen to meet the requirements tiles are laid with the veining at right an• of a specialized type of hotel, and only those gles, producing a warm tone which at the who have seen the place can know how well same time is full of life. The effect is quite it has adjusted itself to the inner life of the unique. For the walls. Vermont Verde An• structure. Another view of the Lobby of Hotel Traymore. .Atlantic City, [5 R:^rTHROVGH THE AGES II An old view of Mount Vernon Place. Baltimore, looking north. The Peabody In.stitute is shown in the right center: the Mount Vernon Place Methodist Church in the center to the right of Washington Monument. THROVGH THE AGES THE MARS HILL OF BALTIMORE Mount Vernon Place, in the Monumental City, is the site of many fine marble structures N February of 17Q5 there was bom at of a hill that slopes sharply up from Center I Danvers. Massachusetts, a boy who was Street, its position at the southeast comer destined to become the foremost philos• of Charles and Monument Streets makes it opher of his time—one of whom it was after• the dominant structure of the beautiful wards said that ""in the greatness of his be• buildings that surround the marble shaft nevolence, George Peabody stands alone." erected in the center of what is known as At an early age he settled in Baltimore, Mount Vernon Place. The immediate neigh• where he engaged in business. Later, mov• borhood is the finest residential section of ing to England, he prospered exceedingly, the city—an oasis of fashionable homes be• and became one of the richest men in the longing to the elite of Baltimore and set world. In 1857 he bestowed a gift of money do>vTi in the very heart of the downtown that in the end aggregated $1,400,000 for area, between the shopping section and the the founding of the Peabody Institute in automobile district farther north. Baltimore. During his life he gave away The Peabody was opened in October, from eight to nine millions of dollars. /\mong i8b6. The architect, Edward G. Lind, of his gifts, besides that of the Peabody Insti• Baltimore, followed the Roman style, but tute, were the Institute at Danvers in Mass• with many modifications.