History
East Mount Zion Baptist Church was the first African American
church to hold services on Euclid Ave. Known as the "Green Stone
Church," it is a Cleveland landmark. Alexander Roberson, who came
to Cleveland about 1890 from South Carolina, is credited with
organizing the church. Finding no Baptist church in Cleveland's
East End, Roberson organized in-home prayer group services. As
membership grew Deacon Roberson and Rev. C. D. Holly, an associate
minister of Shiloh Baptist Church, organized the Baptist Mission in
1908 at the Wigwam (the East End Republican Club) at the corner of
Cedar Avenue and East 100th Street. While Dr. Rev. Boston Prince,
the pastor of Shiloh, served as the moderator, the mission relied
on visiting ministers to conduct services. The mission secured the
property of Rev. H. D. Wiggins on Frank Avenue and Colonial Court
for the erection of a church edifice, worshipping a large tent on
the grounds until the church building was completed.
Geology
Most of the exterior of the church is green serpentinite
quarried in the West Chester area, Chester County, southeastern
Pennsylvania. The large rock-faced blocks are set as random ashlar.
Serpentinite is a type of rock rich in serpentine minerals; the
chief green mineral in this particular serpentinite is probably
antigorite, a brownish-green serpentine mineral. Most trim is Berea
Sandstone from Northeastern Ohio, but Indiana limestone is also
used around some windows. Since its installation, the Berea
Sandstone, once the lighter-colored of the two rocks, has become
the darker due to natural weathering and pollutants. However, it
has held up extremely well. In contrast, the serpentinite has not
stood up to weathering as well; portions of the exterior of the
green blocks have sloughed off. This weathering is mitigated some,
however, by the thickness of the stone blocks. The serpentinite has
also changed color somewhat. Older weathered surfaces tend to have
a yellower cast than recently exposed surfaces. Use of serpentinite
is highly unusual in the Cleveland area. This serpentinite has been
widely used closer to its origin in Pennsylvania. There is also a
serpentinite church in Columbus, the Broad Street Methodist Church.
The best known serpentinite church in the United States, however,
may be the Pullman "Greenstone" United Methodist Church in Chicago.
Many of the churches made of serpentinite are Romanesque in style.
The revival of the Romanesque style in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries was often accompanied by a taste for
polychromy and thus serpentinite. The limited use of serpentinite
is probably related to changing tastes in architectural fashions as
well as the relative instability of the stone over time. Most of
the serpentinite churches have deterioration problems. The
weathered serpentinite used for the exterior of East Mount Zion
Baptist Church strongly contrasts with the serpentinite (Verde
Antique) used for interior ornamentation in other churches (see,
for example, St. James Church). When polished and kept from the
elements, serpentinite holds a deep green sheen.
Serpentinite, a mineral which, in a massive and impure form,
occurs on a large scale as a rock, and being commonly of variegated
color, is often cut and polished, like marble, for use as a
decorative stone. It is generally held that the name was suggested
by the fancied resemblance of the dark mottled green stone to the
skin of a serpent, but it may possibly refer to some reputed virtue
of the stone as a cure for snake-bite. Serpentine was probably, at
least in part, the XLOos 6cgrns of Dioscorides and the ophites of
Pliny; and this name appears in a latinized form as the serpentaria
of G. Agricola, writing in the 16th century, and as the lapis
serpentinus and marmor serpentinum of other early writers. Italian
sculptors have sometimes termed it ranochia in allusion to its
resemblance to the skin of a frog. The purest kind of serpentine,
known as "noble serpentine," is generally of pale greenish or
yellow color, slightly translucent, and breaking with a rather
bright conchoidal fracture. It occurs chiefly in granular
limestone, and is often accompanied by forsterite, olivine or
chondrodite.
The hardness of serpentine is between 3 and 4, while the
specific gravity varies from 2.5 to 2.65. A green serpentine of the
exceptional hardness of 6, formerly regarded as jade, is known as
bowenite, having been named by J. D. Dana after G. T. Bowen.
Serpentine has the formula (Mg)2–3(Si)2O5(OH)4, is green and
sometimes white, and occurs only in metamorphic rocks
Tasks to log this Earthcache please complete these tasks at the
following waypoints below.
Waypoint 1. N 41.30.200 W 081.37.110
You will see a limestone block in the side wall of the church.
What two years are engraved on this block ?? At the same location
you will see a granite plaque in the side of the wall. What year is
engraved in this plaque ??
Waypoint 2. N 41.30.206 W 081.37.115
Calculate the weight of the stone that is five rows up from
bottom row in this corner. The formula is length x width x height
and divide this number by 26,417. The answer will give you the
weight in tons. To make sure you have the right stone the width of
this stone is 6 inches. All you need to do is come up with the
other two variables.
As an optional task please upload a photo of yourself in front
of the church with gps in hand.
If the required tasks are not completed your log will be deleted
without notice.
I would like to thank the members and management of East Mt.
Zion Baptist Church to allow geocachers to visit this unique
building.