The Glory of Regional Silurian Dolostone, Part 1: University Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA (1869)
Looking southeastward at the building's facade and western elevation.
This lovely Victorian Gothic edifice on NU's lakeshore campus is one of many surviving examples of the use of Lemont-Joliet Dolostone. In the days of its production as building stone, this version of the region's Silurian bedrock was the most widely marketed and commonly employed type in northeastern Illinois. It was quarried in impressive quantites along and near the Illinois & Michigan Canal—a fact that facilitated its distribution and kept it competitively priced.
The building's regular-coursed ashlar is finished in rock-faced form. This imparts a picturesque and naturalistic effect much in vogue in the nineteenth century.
The other photos and descriptions in this series can be found at Glory of Silurian Dolostone album. And for more on this historic architectural stone, see my book Chicago in Stone and Clay, described at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765063/chicago-i... and at raymondwiggers.com/publications-of-raymond-wiggers/.
The Glory of Regional Silurian Dolostone, Part 1: University Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA (1869)
Looking southeastward at the building's facade and western elevation.
This lovely Victorian Gothic edifice on NU's lakeshore campus is one of many surviving examples of the use of Lemont-Joliet Dolostone. In the days of its production as building stone, this version of the region's Silurian bedrock was the most widely marketed and commonly employed type in northeastern Illinois. It was quarried in impressive quantites along and near the Illinois & Michigan Canal—a fact that facilitated its distribution and kept it competitively priced.
The building's regular-coursed ashlar is finished in rock-faced form. This imparts a picturesque and naturalistic effect much in vogue in the nineteenth century.
The other photos and descriptions in this series can be found at Glory of Silurian Dolostone album. And for more on this historic architectural stone, see my book Chicago in Stone and Clay, described at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765063/chicago-i... and at raymondwiggers.com/publications-of-raymond-wiggers/.