CHAPTER IV.
BUILDING       MATERIAL.
BY T. C. CHAMBERLIN.
The older portions of the State are already entering upon the
second stage of their architectural history, that in which the pioneer
structures are replaced by the more ample and enduring ones that
mark the attainment of an assured prosperity. It may not be
altogether unfortunate that so many of the buildings constructed
under the stress and limitations of early settlement are of perishable
materials, and that they so readily and necessarily give place to a
better class of structures. But as the era of larger and more ex-
pensive buildings, public and private, is entered upon, and ampler
means are at command, it is important that attention should bee
turned toward the employment of more imperishable and non-
combustible material.
The native architectural material which falls within the geological
purview may be grouped under three heads: 1st, material formed
and solidified by nature, as building and ornamental stone; 2d, mate-
rial adapted to artificial solidification, as brick and ceramic clays;
3d, material adapted to the preparation of cements, as common and
hydraulic limes.
I. BUILDING STONE.
Among the leading desirable qualities of building stone are en-
durance, agreeable color, ease of working, and adaptability to re-
quired dimensions. Prominent among these is endurance. Our
climate is not of the least trying character. Not only are the
extremes of heat and cold measurably great, but the transitions of
temperature are somewhat frequent and sudden. Experience in
northern Europe has shown the instability of several classes of
otherwise desirable rocks, when submitted to the test of centuries.
The entire classes of limestones and sandstones are placed under ban.
This is doubtless an extreme view of endurance, which, as the
people of a new and rapidly evolving state, we are not yet prepared
to fully accept as a working basis, and in these reports the term en-
during has been used in a somewhat more limited sense. But in