Last of the Jewel Boxes, Part 2: Getting Down to Geologic Essentials | Farmers & Merchants Union Bank, Columbus, Wisconsin, USA (1919)

Still facing southwestward, and still looking at the bank's facade (northeastern elevation). But we have now crossed the street, having first carefully looked both ways, as the grown-ups taught us.

I'll let Sullivan's ornamental designs, both botanical and beastly, speak for themselves in this post. But I am going to repeat some building-material geology cited in Part 1 of this series, primarily because those materials are more visible in this image.

- The variably red stuff is Crawfordsville Brick, fabricated in Crawfordsville, Indiana from Mississippian-subperiod (Lower Carboniferous) shale or siltstone of the Borden Group.

There are additional ways to describe it. The main wall sections are set as Running (or Stretcher) Bond, while the arches are laid in all headers. And though my eyes may be deceiving me, it seems to be Roman Brick, longer and squatter than the typical American size. Both Sullivan and F. L. You-Know-Who were especially fond of this type.

- The pale-green-and-spotted terra-cotta is the typically magnificent work of the American Terra Cotta Company, based in what is now Crystal Lake, Illinois. The basic bisque clay came from Lemont Formation glacial till, of late-Pleistocene age, mined on site. And the glazing contains English ball clays, probably from Cornwall.

- Were I an architectural historian I would refer to the third material as the pièce de résistance or as the thematic sine qua non. But as a techniqueless Midwestern science writer wending my humble way beneath the academic elite's horizon of contempt, I artlessly call it the screamer element instead. In the literature, it has also been described as a decorative panel or a lintel (mark that: it's not a lentil, as I once wrote mistakenly, probably when I was hungry).

Well, this whatever-it-is happens to be made of an especially highfalutin kind of stone referred to, in trade parlance, as "green marble" or "verde antique." Actually, it's either serpentinite or its brecciated form, ophicalcite. These are metamorphosed forms of dunite, a variety of ultramafic peridotite that originated in the uppermost mantle at oceanic spreading centers and subduction zones. Despite their exotic origin, they are found and have been quarried in all sorts of places in the US and Europe.

So far I have found no source for the stone here. It actually consists of four panels that, interestingly, were not mounted as a book match to form a symmetrical, Rorschach-style pattern. But I really like the fact that the architect got his name included in the legend. I think that says a lot about the bank management and the people of Columbus. They knew that guy was worth something, even if much of the rest of the world had forgotten him.

To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my Last of the Jewel Boxes album.

Taken in: United States / Wisconsin / Columbus / Columbus (show map)

Taken on: August 8, 2005

Tags:

architectural_geology

architecture

geology

masonry

rocks

rock

stone

stonework

Wisconsin

Columbus, Wisconsin

Farmers & Merchants Union Bank

Crawfordsville Brick

American Terra Cotta Company

terra-cotta

serpentinite

ophicalcite

Louis Sullivan

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Sets appears in: • Architectural Geology: Southeastern Wisconsin Exclusive of Milwaukee • The Beauty of Building Materials more » • Grab Bag of All Things Brick • Grab Bag of All Things Terra-Cotta • Last of the Jewel Boxes • Natural History: Wisconsin • Sullivanimania « less

Groups appears in: • Wisconsin • Rocks and Geology more » • Geology Rockers • Bricks • Midwest • GeoTagging Flickr • Geotagged • Rocks • Geology • Terra Cotta • Stone Work • Architecture | Nature • Architecture Photography • Building with Stone • Old Buildings & More..... • Rocks and Stones • Brickwork • Geologists • STONE & BRICK WALLS • USA - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA • Architecture of Days Gone By • The World of Architecture • Stonemasonry • Geology for all • Geology/EarthScience • Architectural Photography Group • American Photography • Rocks-Fossils-Minerals • stones n rocks • WE LOVE BRICK • Wisconsin Downtowns • I Love Rocks! • Historic Wisconsin Buildings • Brick and stone works • Geotagged: Wisconsin • Geology Flickrs • Historic Masonry • World Of Architecture • Brick Fanatics • Photography with a Story • Geology / Geologie • We love Nature and Geology • AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER • Landscapes Buildings Waters | Landschaften Bauwerke Gewässer « less

Camera: Sony CD MAVICA, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony CD MAVICA
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White Balance:	Auto
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