Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
found only in
East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, this stone has been used in the construction of numerous notable buildings and monuments throughout the United States and Canada, including the
National Gallery of Art and the
National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, the
Minnesota State Capitol
The Minnesota State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Minnesota, in its capital city of Saint Paul. It houses the Minnesota Senate, Minnesota House of Representatives, the office of the Attorney General and the office ...
, as well as parts of the
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...
in Washington,
[Ann Bennett, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Candoro Marble Works, April 1996.] Grand Central Terminal in New York,
[The Grand Central Self-Guided Tour]
. Retrieved: 24 November 2010. and
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
.
[Union Station - History]
Retrieved: 24 November 2010. Tennessee marble achieved such popularity in the late-19th century that
Knoxville
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...
, the stone's primary finishing and distribution center, became known as "The Marble City."
While Tennessee marble is not true
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
, its crystalline nature lends it a strong resemblance to marble, especially when polished.
The stone occurs in belts of
Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya.
T ...
-period rocks known as the
Holston Formation,
and is quarried primarily in
Knox,
Blount,
Loudon,
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
, and
Hawkins counties.
[Charles Gordon, ''The Marbles of Tennessee'' (State of Tennessee Geological Survey, 1911), pp. 5-33.] While pink is the most well-known Tennessee marble color, the stone also occurs in gray, dark brown ("cedar"), and variegated shades.
The use of Tennessee marble declined after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, when cheaper building materials became widely available. There are currently only six active Tennessee marble quarries, all operated by the Tennessee Marble Company.
The stone has most recently been used in the floor of the United States Capitol Visitor Center, and for the 170-ton "First Amendment" tablet that initially adorned the facade of Washington's
Newseum
The Newseum was an American museum dedicated to news and journalism that promoted free expression and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, while tracing the evolution of communication.
The purpose of the museum, funded by the ...
,
[Blount's Royal Pink Marble Featured in Washington, D.C.]
''The Daily Times'', 6 April 2008. Retrieved: 24 November 2010. and is now installed at the
National Constitution Center
The National Constitution Center is a non-profit institution devoted to the Constitution of the United States. On Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the center is an interactive museum and a national town hall for constitutional dia ...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Geology
Occurrence
Tennessee marble is found in the
Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley Province, a series of alternating elongate ridges and valleys that lie between the
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsy ...
and the
Cumberland Plateau. The Holston Formation, in which Tennessee marble is found, occurs in a series of belts that follow the natural folds and faults of the Ridges-and-Valleys. While these belts can be up to long, they are rarely more than a few miles wide. In 1911, the Tennessee State Geological Survey identified six primary Holston Formation belts containing Tennessee marble: the Luttrell, Black Oak, Concord, Knoxville, Bays Mountain, and French Broad belts. A seventh belt, the Galbraith in Hawkins County, is considered an extension of the Black Oak.
The Luttrell belt, the westernmost of the Holston Formation belts, stretches along Copper Ridge from Beaver Creek in
Fountain City northeast to Galbraith Springs (about west of
Rogersville) in Hawkins County. The Black Oak belt stretches along Black Oak Ridge from
Monroe County to the
Corryton area in north Knox County. The Concord belt, one of the most heavily quarried, stretches from
Sweetwater through Knox County to
Strawberry Plains. The Knoxville belt, also heavily quarried, stretches from southeast of Sweetwater to Ruggles Ferry (east of Knoxville) in Knox. The Bays Mountain belt is found along the southwestern end of
Bays Mountain in south Knox County, and stretches into northern Blount County. The French Broad belt is an u-shaped belt found at the confluence of the
French Broad and
Holston rivers ("Forks-of-the-River").
Lithology
While true marble is
metamorphic
Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...
, Tennessee marble is
sedimentary
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
, and is therefore classified as limestone.
[ Tennessee marble was formed from the accumulation of bryozoan and other primordial marine lifeforms 460 million years ago, during the Ordovician period. Even when polished, Tennessee marble retains a fossiliferous texture, with bryozoan and ]crinoid
Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms are called feather stars or comatulids, which are ...
fossils being among the most commonly found. A noticeable feature of Tennessee marble is the presence of jagged horizontal gray or black lines, or "stylolites." Known as "crowfeet" by quarrymen, these form from residual insoluble materials left over from the natural limestone dissolution processes.
The most well-known shades of Tennessee marble are pink, gray, and cedar, but it also is found in blue, yellow, and cream shades. Along with its aesthetic colors, builders preferred the stone for its durability, the ease with which it is polished, and the fact that the stone is virtually impervious to stains. Tennessee marble is also easily converted into lime
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
, and mid-20th century lime companies occasionally erected kilns near defunct quarries for this purpose.[Information obtained from interpretive markers at the Mead's Quarry section of Ijams Nature Center, Knoxville, Tennessee, November 2010.]
History
As early as the late 18th century, Tennessee marble was being harvested for construction purposes, most notably for the Ramsey House on the outskirts of Knoxville and the "Old Stone House" near modern Friendsville. Visitors to East Tennessee were reporting the existence of marble beds in the region as early as the 1810s, and state geologist Gerard Troost provided an extensive description of Tennessee marble deposits in an 1831 report to the Tennessee General Assembly. The Rogersville Marble Company, founded in 1838, produced monuments and furniture from Tennessee marble extracted from a quarry in Hawkins County. Marble Hall, a house built by the company's director, Orville Rice, contained numerous Tennessee marble interior elements, and acted as a showplace for the company.[Carroll Van West and Susan W. Knowles]
Marble Industry of East Tennessee, ca. 1838-1963
National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, 2 December 2013.
In 1850, Governor William Trousdale
William Trousdale (September 23, 1790March 27, 1872) was an American soldier and politician. He served as the 13th governor of Tennessee from 1849 to 1851, and was United States Minister to Brazil from 1853 to 1857. He fought under Andrew Jackso ...
chose the Rogersville Marble Company's marble as the state's representative stone for the construction of the Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and th ...
. During this same period, marble from Hawkins County, either from Rice's quarry or a rival quarry south of Rogersville, was used in U.S. Capitol extension projects (William Dougherty, the construction superintendent for the Washington Monument, was instrumental in obtaining the marble). Transporting the quarried blocks out of the region presented a major challenge for these early companies. Mule teams, often led by local African American entrepreneurs, carried the blocks to the Holston River
The Holston River is a river that flows from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Knoxville, Tennessee. Along with its three major forks (North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork), it comprises a major river system that drains much of northeastern Tennessee, ...
, where they were loaded onto flatboat
A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...
s and transported downstream.
By the early 1850s, at least two marble quarries were in operation in Knox County, one of which supplied marble for parts of the Tennessee State Capitol
The Tennessee State Capitol, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Tennessee. It serves as the home of both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly–the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tenn ...
. The arrival of railroads in the region, namely the predecessor lines of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway
The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad (ETV&G) was a rail transport system that operated in the southeastern United States during the late 19th century. Created with the consolidation of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and th ...
, provided a major boost for the industry, and helped Knox County overtake Hawkins as the region's primary quarrying and production center. The industry was also aided by an infusion of northern capital in the years following the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
.
In 1873, federal architect Alfred B. Mullett used Tennessee marble for Knoxville's Post Office and Customs House, sparking a nationwide curiosity in the stone. Mullett acquired the marble from a quarry at Forks-of-the-River, where the Holston and French Broad rivers join to form the Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other name ...
east of Knoxville. After the building's completion, businessman George Ross and several associates organized the Knoxville Marble Company to assume control of this quarry, and provided marble for the construction of the Mullett-designed Customs House in St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
during the mid-1870s. Following Ross's death, his son, John M. Ross, became president of the company.
By 1882, eleven Tennessee marble quarries were in operation in Knox County alone.[C.P. White, Mary Rothrock (ed.), "Commercial and Industrial Trends Since 1865," ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), p. 223.] This number had doubled within a decade,[John Wooldridge, George Mellen, William Rule (ed.), ''Standard History of Knoxville, Tennessee'' (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1900; reprinted by Kessinger Books, 2010), pp. 204-206.] as the rising popularity of Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...
brought about a rapid increase in demand for marble. Knoxville, the industry's chief financial and production center, became known as "The Marble City" during this period and even included a marble mining derrick on the Knoxville flag. The community of Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
, located west of Knoxville, became a key marble transloading center, where blocks were transferred from boats to rail cars for transport out of the region. By 1885, Concord was home to ten marble-related companies.
Ross eventually sold the Forks-of-the-River quarry to the Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
-based W.H. Evans Company, which had opened a large marble finishing mill in Knoxville. Ross then purchased a quarry in the Island Home
Island Home is a historical house in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, in or near Gardner. It was built around 1850 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
It is off Louisiana Highway 21 and is reached by a bridge across Bayo ...
area of South Knoxville. In 1898, he sold this quarry (later known as the "Mead Quarry") to the Republic Marble Company, which had been operating quarries near Concord and Luttrell throughout the previous decade. Republic had been founded by Knoxville Iron Company
The Knoxville Iron Company was an iron production and coal mining company that operated primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, and its vicinity, in the late 19th and 20th centuries.J. S. Rabun, National Register of Historic Places Regis ...
executive William S. Mead (1833–1908), and at the time was managed by his son, Frank S. Mead (1864–1936). Though Republic purchased Ross's business interests and was subsequently known as "Ross-Republic," John M. Ross continued operating independently, opening a quarry (the "Ross Quarry") on land adjacent to the Mead Quarry. The Ross Quarry supplied marble for the J.P. Morgan Library in New York in the early 1900s.
Knoxville banker John J. Craig (1820–1892) began buying up quarry properties in the 1870s, and had established his own marble company, John J. Craig and Company, in 1878.[Alice Howell, Lucile Deaderick (ed.), ''Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976), pp. 510-512.] Following his death, his son, John J. Craig, Jr. (1860–1904), took control of the company, and helped establish the Tennessee Producers Marble Company, which operated a finishing mill that serviced quarries in Knox, Blount, and Hawkins counties. John J. Craig III (1885–1944), who became president of the company after his father's death, established a large finishing mill, the Candoro Marble Works, in South Knoxville in 1914. James B. Jones, a former Craig company employee, established the Gray-Knox Marble Company, which would build a large mill on Sutherland Avenue in Knoxville.
By 1908, Tennessee ranked third in the nation in marble production, behind only Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
and Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. While eighty percent of marble quarried in the state was used in furniture and interior decoration, it was best known as a monumental building material. Monuments and buildings constructed of Tennessee marble during the early 20th century include the St. Paul Public Library in Minnesota, the Richard C. Lee U.S. Courthouse in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
, and the Firemen's Memorial in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
The rise of modern architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...
and a preference for the use of concrete, coupled with the onset of the Great Depression, led to a decline in the Tennessee marble industry by the end of the 1920s. The stone experienced a brief resurgence in the 1930s as New Deal federal construction projects encouraged the use of locally quarried building materials. Buildings completed during this period include the National Gallery of Art (West Building), the Knoxville Post Office, and the Tennessee Supreme Court Building in Nashville.
By the 1950s, only five Tennessee marble companies remained in operation. Some companies had turned to secondary products such as lime
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
, which was often produced in kilns located near the quarries. The rise in foreign competition and changes in demand for building materials led to further decline, and most Tennessee marble companies had closed by the mid-1980s. The stone was still produced on a smaller scale, however. It was used in the Edward Larrabee Barnes
Edward Larrabee Barnes (April 22, 1915 – September 22, 2004) was an American architect. His work was characterized by the "fusing fModernism with vernacular architecture and understated design." Barnes was best known for his adherence to st ...
-designed Knoxville Museum of Art
The Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA), is an art museum in Knoxville, Tennessee. It specializes in historical and contemporary art pieces from the East Tennessee region. According to its mission statement, the museum "celebrates the art and artists ...
,[About the Knoxville Museum of Art]
" Knoxville Museum of Art official website. Retrieved: 30 October 2014. completed in 1990, and the BarberMcMurry-designed Gay Street addition of Knoxville's East Tennessee History Center, completed in 2005.[Excellence Awards 2005: East Tennessee History Center]
" Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission website, 2005. Retrieved: 9 November 2014. The Tennessee Marble Company, founded in 1993, is currently the only major producer of Tennessee marble. The company was operating six quarries as of 2007.[Tennessee Marble Co. Acquires Tennessee Valley Marble]
''Stoneworld.com'', 7 May 2007. Retrieved: 24 November 2010.
Notable Tennessee marble producers
*Rogersville Marble Company, the first Tennessee marble company, founded in 1838 under the directorship of S.D. Mitchell and Orville Rice. The company obtained its marble from a quarry in Hawkins County (possibly located along Caney Creek west of Rogersville), and offered interior furnishings such as floors, doors and mantelpieces. By 1850, Rice was operating a "marble factory" near Rogersville that used water-powered machinery to produce monuments and tombstones.
*Knoxville Marble Company, founded in 1873 to assume control of the quarry near Forks-of-the-River in east Knox County where the marble for the Knoxville Customs House had been obtained; William Patrick was the first president, George W. Ross was secretary-treasurer. Ross's son, John M. Ross, became president of the company in January 1886. The company eventually sold its Forks quarry to the W.H. Evans Company.
*John J. Craig Company, founded by John J. Craig (1820–1892) in 1878, reorganized as the Great Southern Marble Company in 1884, and joined with Evans to form the Tennessee Producers Marble Company in 1889. In 1896, the company left the Tennessee Producers partnership, and once again operated as the John J. Craig Company. Craig's son, John J. Craig, Jr. (1860–1904), and grandson, John J. Craig III (1885–1944), would eventually serve as presidents of the company. John J. Craig III and several business partners established the Candoro Marble Works in South Knoxville in 1914. The company operated quarries near Friendsville and Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
, and was the foremost producer of pink Tennessee marble in the early 1900s. The company's now-abandoned Friendsville quarry and the Candoro Marble Works have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
.
*Ross-Republic Marble Company, established in the late 1890s by the merger of the Republic Marble Company and the interests of Knoxville Marble president John M. Ross. After the sale of the Forks-of-the-River quarry to Evans, Ross established a quarrying operation (now known as the Mead Quarry) across the river in South Knoxville. He sold the quarry to Republic in 1898. Republic, led by president Frank S. Mead, had been operating quarries in the Concord area. John M. Ross subsequently purchased a quarry (now known as the "Ross Quarry") on property adjacent to the Mead Quarry, and would operate as an independent dealer in the early 1900s. Both the Mead and Ross quarries are now managed by Knoxville's Ijams Nature Center, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
*W.H. Evans Marble Company, established in Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
in 1867, and was overseeing an operation in Hawkins County by 1880; later operated quarries near Friendsville and the former Knoxville Marble quarry at Forks-of-the-River. In 1886, this company built its massive mill near Lonsdale in Knoxville, which by 1911 employed twenty-six gang saws, nine rubbing beds, and over 100 workers to produce over of finished marble per year. The company also operated two mills in Baltimore, and produced products using both Tennessee and imported marble.
*J.F. Woods and Company, established by Concord quarry operator James Farmer Woods in the late 19th century. Woods was extracting marble from Callaway Ridge near Concord by the 1890s, and opened a marble cutting mill around 1900.
*Appalachian Marble Company, established in the late 19th century by Harmon Kreis and Thomas Deane. Kreis, a former Knoxville Marble Company timekeeper, had developed the Gray Knox, American Marble, and Gray Eagle quarries.
*Tennessee Producers Marble Company, founded in 1889 by John J. Craig and W.H. Evans to market their respective quarrying companies' output; while these two companies left the partnership within a few years, this company persisted under the direction of W.B. McMullen and bought its own quarries.[Tony VanWinkle, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Candoro Marble Works Showroom and Garage, 13 July 2004.] In 1911, it was operating the Bond Quarry near Concord, the McMillan Quarry northeast of Knoxville, and the Dunlap Quarry near Friendsville. The company also operated a large mill on University Avenue in downtown Knoxville that employed over twenty-five gang saws to produce over of finished marble per year.
*Gray Eagle Marble Company, founded in 1902 by former Craig Company employee John Barksdale Jones; supplied "gray, gray-pink, eagle-pink and argent-gray" shades of marble. Jones's descendants continued operating this company into the mid-20th century. Its mill and office complex still stand on Sutherland Avenue in Knoxville (most recently home to Southeast Precast Concrete).
*Tennessee Marble Company, founded in 1993. This company currently operates six quarries and two production factories in East Tennessee.[About Tennessee Marble Company]
. Retrieved: 19 November 2010. After acquiring the assets of Tennessee Valley Marble in 2007, the Tennessee Marble Company became the primary producer of Tennessee marble.
Tennessee marble in art
Sculptor Jack Rich described Tennessee marble as an "excellent sculptural stone," though difficult to work with due to its hardness
In materials science, hardness (antonym: softness) is a measure of the resistance to localized plastic deformation induced by either mechanical indentation or abrasion. In general, different materials differ in their hardness; for example hard ...
. Two of the best known Tennessee marble sculptures, E.C. Potter's lions, "Patience" and "Fortitude," stand outside the entrance of the New York Public Library Main Branch
The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, commonly known as the Main Branch, 42nd Street Library or the New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. ...
.[The Library Lions]
" New York Public Library website. Retrieved: 7 November 2014. The Piccirilli Brothers also worked with the stone, most notably creating the entrance tripod
A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads ...
s at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington,[Donald Pfanz, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Lincoln Memorial, 24 March 1981, p. 2.] and several statues at the base of the USS Maine National Monument
The USS ''Maine'' National Monument is an outdoor monument located at the Merchants' Gate entrance to Central Park, at Columbus Circle, in Manhattan, New York City. It was cast on September 1, 1912 and dedicated on May 30, 1913 to the men kill ...
in New York.[U.S.S. Maine National Monument]
" NYC Parks website. Accessed 24 October 2014. The Italian-born sculptor Albert Milani (1892–1977), who worked at the Candoro Marble Works in Knoxville, created numerous works using Tennessee marble, including the four eagles atop the Knoxville Post Office and the "History of the World" relief at the Pennsylvania State Capitol
The Pennsylvania State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Pennsylvania located in downtown Harrisburg which was designed by architect Joseph Miller Huston in 1902 and completed in 1906 in a Beaux-Arts style with decorative ...
. Other notable Tennessee marble works include Frances Rich
Frances Rich (born Irene Frances Lither Deffenbaugh; January 8, 1910 – October 14, 2007) was an American actress, artist, and sculptor. She was the daughter of actress Irene Rich.
Early life
Frances Rich was born January 8, 1910, in ...
's nurses' memorial ("Spirit of Nursing") at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
; Bruno Louis Zimm's Slocum Memorial Fountain in New York's Tompkins Square Park
Tompkins Square Park is a public park in the Alphabet City portion of East Village, Manhattan, New York City. The square-shaped park, bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on ...
; Joseph Emile Renier's ''Pomona'' at Brookgreen Gardens
Brookgreen Gardens is a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve, located just south of Murrells Inlet, in South Carolina. The property includes several themed gardens featuring American figurative sculptures, the Lowcountry Zoo, and trails throu ...
in South Carolina; and Cliff Fragua
Cliff Fragua (born 1955) is a Jemez Pueblo sculptor and stone carver. He is the only Native American sculptor to have a work installed in Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol; it is the second of works representing New Mexico and the 100t ...
's statue of the Pueblo leader Po'pay in the National Statuary Hall
The National Statuary Hall is a chamber in the United States Capitol devoted to sculptures of prominent Americans. The hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is a large, two-story, semicircular room with a second story gallery along th ...
.
One of the best-known paintings by Knoxville artist Lloyd Branson
Enoch Lloyd Branson (1853–1925) was an American artist best known for his portraits of Southern politicians and depictions of early East Tennessee history.
One of the most influential figures in Knoxville's early art circles, Branson rec ...
, ''Hauling Marble'', was inspired by the Tennessee marble industry.[Angela Wibking,]
Painters' Progress
" ''Nashville Scene'', 1 August 2002. Retrieved: 18 November 2014.
Tennessee marble structures
Structures with Tennessee marble exteriors
Structures containing Tennessee marble
Further reading
*Knowles, Susan W.
Of Structure and Society: Tennessee Marble in Civic Architecture
" Ph.D. dissertation, Middle Tennessee State University, 2011.
See also
*List of types of limestone
This is a list of types of limestone arranged according to location. It includes both formal stratigraphic unit names and less formal designations.
Africa Egypt
* Tura limestone, used for the Great Pyramid casing stones
* Mokattam limestone; ...
*List of types of marble
The following is a list of various types of marble according to location.
(NB: Marble-like stone which is not true marble according to geologists is included, but is indicated by ''italics'' with geologic classification given as footnote.
Afri ...
* Sydney sandstone
*Jerusalem stone
Jerusalem stone (Hebrew: אבן ירושלמית; Arabic: حجر القدس) is a name applied to various types of pale limestone, dolomite and
dolomitic limestone, common in and around Jerusalem that have been used in building since ancient tim ...
References
External links
{{Commons category, Tennessee marble
Tennessee Marble Company
Building stone
Economy of Tennessee
Geology of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Limestone