The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-06-05
RICHMOND MANUFACTURES.
Granite Cutting Works-Ordway a. Co.

intrinsic value for that purpose. In all ages
of the world it has held this prominence,
and until the virtue of iron is more fully
tested than it is likely to be in the next ten
centuries of the worlds history, it will
continue to hold this place. Older and
grander than the pyramids of Egypt are
the enduring honors that belong to granite
as the foundation and upbuilding of human
structures. They take us back to pre-his-
toric times, when men were ignorant of the
uses of iron, and when the race had no
means of quarrying large blocks of stone
but with flints, fire, and hardened
copper nor any means of pol
ishing them but by rubbing one stone
against another. And yet we find, even in
those remote periods, that granite was con-
sidered the liking of the primitive rocks"
for building, and other structural purposes.
The ancient but extinct peoples of Mexico
and Peru, Hourishing at time when even
the Phmnician name was unknown to pro-
fame history, and, working only with hints
and hardened copper, reared such struc-
lures in granite as are beheld with the pro-
foundest admiration at the present day, and
such as nearly rival the grandest edifices of
ancient India and Egypt. In fact, in no age
or country, nor among any but uncivlized
peoples, and in the rudest infancy of socie-
ty, has this noble rock failed of the highest
recognition in structural architecture. 1t
was the iavorite material in Greece and
Rome, not only for substructures, but for
the GROWING ornaments of temples, erected
to stand unmoved by physical vicissitudes
and moral revolutions, in humble imitation
of the works of Deity itself.
The process of quarrying granite and re-
ducing it into form fit for architectural
use, is manufacturing one in the strictest
sense of the word. In visiting the quar-
ries Of Messrs. ORDwAY & COMPANY.
and their granite cutting works across the
river, opposite Rockets, we do not travel
outside Of j" Richmond manufactures. -
Westill adhere to our purpose of acquaint-
ing the readers Of the STATE JOURNAL
with the extent, variety, and value of our
home industries. The facts we have gath
cred may be few, but they are of sufficient
interest to attract the attention of the gem
eral reader, and we can hardly do better,
even in these exciting political moments,
than to give the space we do to the enter
prising granite company in question.
The firm of Ordway & Co., are now
filling contract for supplying the gov
eminent with the granite for the new
State Department Wing, in Washington,
the ground dimensions of which are to
be 2sG feet by SO feet, corresponding in
height with the main building, and having
both an east and west end pavilion. The
designs, with ground-plans and elevations,
as well as the determinate dimensions of
each block of granite that is to go into the
building, and the ornamental work expend-
ed thereon, are all furnished by Mr.. a. B.
Mullett, the supervising architect of the
Treasury department and the accuracy
with which this drawing is done is such as
readily to enable General Randall, the gov
eminent superintendent Of the Stone Cut
ting Works, to direct the cutting of each
block, from those weighing but few hun
dred pounds to others weighing twice as
many tons, so that it shall go into the build
ing with as perfect fit, in respect to place,
as the dovetailmg to a lady's escrutoire.
The granite used is taken from the quar-
ries of Messrs. Ordway & Co., some six
miles up the river, and is brought down in
barges to the cutting works, where force
of four hundred and fifty men, consisting
of cutters, blacksmths, tool-makers, pat
tern-makers, laborers, and tool-boys, are
constantly employed, and where their labor
will be required for the full term of five
years to complete the government contract.
About three hundred and twenty men of
this force are stone cutters, mostly from
Scotland, England, Wales, and portions of
Germany, and many of them are among the
best skilled workmen to be found in any
country. The style of decorations used in the
building is known as that of the French
Rennaissance, revived by Raphael in the
pontificate Of Leo X, and much freer than
the antique, though embracing the elements
of the three Grecian orders-the Doric,
Ionic and Corinthian. Of course, the elabo-
ration in the architraves, friezes, cornices,
capitals, window-heads, lintels, etc., is ex-
tensive, to meet the demands of these deco
ratige orders, and on some pieces there is the
labor of one man for a period of four or
five months, steady work. There are pro-
fileas well as reverse patterns for each cut
ter to work by, and everything is done
with the most perfect accuracy of measure
ment that rule, line and pattern will admit.
There are twenty-five hundred lineal feet
of sheds at the Granite Cutting Works,
under which the cutters work, besides
eight blacksmith shops, slate rooted, the
office building, the pattern shop, store
room and out buildings. The company
owns some twenty acres of land where
their works are situated, with fine water
front on the river, which will become ex
ceedingy valuable in time, and which will
no doubt be permanently used as granite
cutfipu Oroun1c H. n....-