The Detroit Masonic Temple is the world's largest Masonic Temple. Architect George Mason designed the theatre in the neo-gothic architectural style, and is faced with Indiana limestone. The cornerstone was placed on September 19, 1922, using the same trowel that George Washington had used to set the cornerstone of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.. The building was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, 1926.
According to Wikipedia, Indiana Limestone, also known as Bedford Limestone is a common regional term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana, United States between Bloomington and Bedford.
Bloomington, Indiana has been noted to have the highest quality quarried limestone in the United States. Salem limestone, like all limestone, is a rock primarily formed of calcium carbonate. The limestone was deposited over millions of years as marine fossils decomposed at the bottom of a shallow inland sea which covered most of the present-day Midwestern United States during the Mississippian Period.
Native Americans were the first people to discover limestone in Indiana. Not long after they arrived, American settlers used this rock around their windows and doors and for memorials around the towns. The first quarry was started in 1827, and by 1929 Hoosier quarries yielded 12,000,000 ft3 (340,000 cubic meters) of usable stone. The expansion of the railroads brought great need for limestone to build bridges and tunnels and Indiana was the place to get it.
American architecture of the late 19th and early 20th century included a lot of limestone detail work on buildings, but as architectural styles changed, so did the demand of limestone. Salem limestone was officially designated as the state stone of Indiana by the Indiana General Assembly in 1971. With the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973, the price of alternative building materials skyrocketed so Indiana Limestone reemerged as an energy-efficient building material.
To log this cache, e-mail me the answers to the following questions:
1. Look at the walls along the sides of the stairs leading up to the building. They appear to be made out of limestone as well. Do they show more wear than the limestone on the facade of the building? If so, what kind of wear do you see happening?
2. Can you spot any fossils in the limestone? If so, where?
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