Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-08-09

| Before the Cathedral stands complete
II mas been estimated that from 1000 to
| loo,0O0 tons Of granite will have been
put IN place on the Heights. The mere
| TASK OF supplying this material is a big
undertaking in itself for never before
Ill TINS country have architects and
| builders had to conduct their opera
| IONS on such a colossal scale.
FOR the choir and it's surroundings
seme-circle of chapels alone-the only
| parts of the great structure on which
any work has yet been done-about
| do,oo0 tons of stone will be required. To
transport this mass 22,222 big trucks
would be necessary or a freight train
OF 200 ordinary fat cars, and this is but
traction of the total amount of gran
| lite which will be needed to construct
the vast structure in its entirety.
10 clothe with stone the portion of
| the Cathedral now erecting, 100, 900
cubic feet of exterior granite will suf-
lice but to encase the whole building
100000 cubic feet or $4,000 tons will be
required. With all this the great
piers and arches which the visitor to
ST. Johns now sees towering above him
nave nothing to do. for they are merely
| the supporting framework. Into them
! have already been put some 300, 900
cubic feet of masonry and with another
200,UO0 feet the skeleton of the choir
Will be complete. The chapels have no
| such internal framework, being built
entirely of the granite which will form
the walls of the rest of the Cathedral
st. SaviOurs, the largest of the seven
Chapels Of the Tongues and the one for
| which August Belmont gave 100000 in
memory of his mother, is now almost
completed. Into it have gone 10000
cubic feet Of stone or nearly 900 tons.
Where to obtain in such enormous
quantities stone of uniform appearance
and quality that would meet all the
| many requirements demanded by a
| building that is to stand untouched for
| centuries, was one of the momentOuS
! problems the trustees were called upon
| to decide in the earlier stages of the
| work. Specimens from many states
| and many countries were submitted,
| each with strong arguments in its
| favor. The choice for the interior work
| finally fell on a granite Quarried at
Frontenac, Wisconsin. and cut in the
yards on Morningside Heights. At the
same time it was decided to obtain
from Maine the eight huge monolithts,
| which form such a striking feature of
| the interior OF the choir. For the ex-
| terror stone which is to enclose the Ca
| thcdral however. the trustees had to
go no further than Lake Mohegan, five
! miles from Peekskill.
There, surrounded by tho large coun-
| try places so characteristic of the Hui
| son Valley, is n hill about Il mile long
and composed, experts say, of solid
granite enough TO build a hundred
cathedrals. 'Yhe three great clefts in
| the hillside, from which Tie stone is be-
| ing quarried, glitter in the sunshine
| with the tint,t best described as gold
en-white," which makes the stone so
| dc sirable for st. Johns, and which. in
| fact. led to the discovery Of the hidden
treasure. When the new CrotOn ReSer-
voir Dam was being built some years
ago, Z. p. Roberts. then engaged as Il
consulting engineer i'm it's construction.
noticed in the course of the frequent
| drives he Wis compelled to take
through the country forming the Gro
ton watershed, peculiar ricces of stone
| in the stone walls of the surrounding
| farms. They were granite tiecked with
reddish brown of IL kind he had never
ceen before. Finally 4 fence containing
unusually large pieces of this stone so
| excited his curiosity that he made in
Quiries about it al the neighbOring
farmhouse. He learned that the boul-
ders in question had been dragged by
| the father of the present OCCUPANT from
the side of q brook flowing past the
l l,:1
| enough for Mr.. Roberts, and before he
left town that night he had the quarry
rights to the hill in his pocket. Orisi-
nally he had intended to use the stone in
the construction of the CiOton Dam.
but further consideration persuaded
him that to waste golden granite on
such utilitarian work was folly. The
| dam was built from excellent granite
| of 4 more ordinary color. obtained only
Ia quarter of mile from the new
quarry and the product of the golden
hill was reserved for the Cathedral OF
st. John the Divine. ara Il few other
buildings such as those in the Bronx
Botanical Gardens and the gorgeous
palace which Charles Nj. SChwah built
for himself on Fifth Avenue.
Six large derricks, 4 tcn-tOn travelling
crane, a fully equipped blacksmith
shop, cutting shed, a polishing plant
| and Il little railway are all employed at
| the hill in getting out the 800 cubic
feet OF stone. when is the quarries'
| daily capacity with a full working force
| of 500 men. The process of getting out
| the stone would be q much more rapiI
| one were it not for the necessity of ex-
| ercisng great care in order to avoid
| waste and injury IL the valuable
| granite slabs. Thanking on either side
the wide veins or lodges In which the
stone is always found is n brittle
| irregular formation of little commercial
value, Known as GneisS rock. When
this is cleared away the granite is seen
| lying i'm beds one above the other,
which are removed one at time.
showed piece by piece from their foun-
1 dations by light repeated blasts. SO
true is the granite grain that two
charges of powder, fired simultaneously
in two blast holes drilled about four
inches apart along the line of the de-