(I am traveling for the next six weeks, so limited time for research. I am going to sprinkle in some of my favorite photos. These are photos that grabbed me instantly when I saw them.) –Roger
This one is by Robert Rodriguez who has documented the Morton Era stoneyard for more than a decade, and is an Artist-In-Residence. I don’t know who the banker mason was, but it would have just been finished. It is still in the cutter’s area and hasn’t joined the stacks of stone out there next to the Cathedral. I imagine he or she is standing to the side, quite pleased to be adding this one to the tower.
It strikes me as a noble photograph of a noble stone that conveys the feeling that beautiful work from the hands of an artisan is a theme that carried the stoneyard forward every day. No matter that the stone might be 200 feet in the air, each one deserved the very best.
This “My Favorite Photos” by Robert F. Rodriguez is courtesy of Pamela Morton
In early 1979, they put up the stoneyard building. It was on an open area on the north side of the Cathedral. Master Builder James Bambridge designed the building and the work stations. He laid out each step in the process of converting the multi-ton limestone blocks to building units. Then, the apprentices began their training under Master Mason Chris Hannaway including operating the saws and planer. These machines would engage with the stone first, before they got to the banker area. Master Builder Bambridge’s stoneyard layout created an efficient process of turning out finished stone.
Cutaway Drawing of Stoneyard
As time progressed, more men and women joined the apprentice ranks. Some of these apprentices would become stone sawyers who would prepare the cuboid shaped stones from the massive blocks. Some would work as banker masons carving those stones into intricate geometric patterns. Zinc templates were created in the setting out shop to guide the cutting. This setting out shop was in the basement of the Nave. Later, when Nicholas Fairplay was recruited, a dedicated stone carving area was created. Some would become carvers and adorn the stones with artistic forms such as figures and other ornamentation. Many of them would eventually work as fixer masons. They would use lifting tackle and mortar to place these stones on the building. All of this began with Master Builder Bambridge’s stoneyard.
Chris Hannaway in background watching and training the sawing operation
Bambridge’s Stoneyard Produces
The output of this operation was a compelling amount of finished stone. Each stone in each layer of the Tower drawing became a job ticket. As well, a zinc template was prepared. The small crew of apprentices were producing beautiful limestone building units. All of this was based on the 1929 design of Architect Ralph Adams Cram.
The first apprentices began to work on cutting and finishing ashlar shaped stones, these being generally rectangular cuboids. In order to complete these stones, they had to cut joggle joints. The hand cutting of these was taught to them by Chris Hannaway very early on. They had to cut the joint into the correct end so that they would match up with the next stone when set in place on the South Tower. It would be five years before these stones would go up on the Tower. By then there would be approximately 8,000 stones waiting in the stoneyard.
Apprentice Manny Alvarez cutting a joggle joint.
Apprentice Jose Tapia cutting joggle joint. Photo by Deborah Doerflein
How Joggle Joints Were Used In Erecting The Tower
This type of joint is used when a stone is mortared to an adjacent stone with corresponding grooves keying the stones together when the mortar sets up. According to Master Mason Steve Boyle, this was common practice in load bearing masonry along with “frogging” of the joints. “Frogging” is where the joint is roughed up with a point or chisel. Sometimes small pebbles were dropped into the joint to further lock the stones together.
“On the Tower, the method we used for mortaring the vertical joints was to initially point up the joints front and back and after the initial set, pour them full with grout.“
– Stephen Boyle
Stones aligned with joggle opening shown. Also visible is the centered hole for lifting the stone using a split-pin lewis. Photo Courtesy Timothy Smith
Boyle goes on to indicate additional setting techniques for other shaped stones. He says, when setting trade work, e.g. the gablets, where the bed joints for many of the stones were not horizontal, it was not practical to spread the bedding mortar in the way that ashlars and quoins would be bedded. These stones were dry set on packings. The front and back of the joints were packed with oakum and subsequently poured with grout. Similar grooves were field cut into the joints of the stones prior to setting that were specifically to help the grout flow freely and reach all surfaces of the bed or joint. The oakum was removed after the initial set of the grout and the joints pointed with mortar.
Special thanks to Steve Boyle and Timothy Smith for the information in this post.
The First 10 Ton Block of Limestone Arrives From the Quarry in Bedford, Indiana. James Bambridge is at the controls of the overhead crane. - Photo Courtesy of Pamela Morton
On a summer day in 1979, the first multi-ton block of Indiana limestone arrives in the unfinished stone shed. Master builder James Bambridge is at the controls of the overhead gantry crane. Apprentice Timothy Smith is in the background. The arrival of the first stone in the stoneyard signifies the beginning of the Dean Morton era of stonework.
The stone along with several smaller ones came from the Indiana Limestone Company in Bedford, Indiana. Once on the ground in the stone shed, the stone received the blessing of the Diocesan Bishop Paul Moore Jr.
Bishop Paul Moore Jr. blessing the first multi-ton block. Photo Courtesy of Pamela Morton
The arrival of the first stone was accompanied by some smaller stones. Master Mason Chris Hannaway used the smaller stones to begin teaching the newly hired apprentices. The first skill involved handling the mallet and a broad chisel. Hannaway taught the apprentices the chosen finish for the exposed front side of the stone. Boasting is the name for that finish.
Chris Hannaway teaching “boasting”. – Photo Courtesy Timothy Smith.
A boasted or droved finish is a very common type dressing of stone. The surface of the stone is covered with parallel marks that may run in any direction. A boaster, which is actually a wide edged chisel, is used for this purpose.
Jose Tapia boasting a stone – Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez
Fast Forward From The Arrival Of The First Stone
One sunny afternoon, years later, stoneyard manager Eddie Pizarro, who grew up in Spanish Harlem, picked his way through a side yard littered with limestone blocks. Those blocks were waiting to be hoisted 200 feet up the South Tower. He ticked off the names of the men who had worked on each piece.
“I can tell from the boasting marks, he explained, noting that the lines the chisel leaves are different for each person. “I can even tell you what kind of mood the carver was in the day he did it. When you work on a stone, you put your heart and soul into it. The stones here will tell stories for centuries to come.”
– Eddie Pizarro
Special thanks to Pamela Morton and Tim Smith for providing photos
The plan to move services from the Crypt to the Crossing caused several changes. Temporarily abandoned was the erection of the Lantern and Spire. Enclosing the openings to the future North and South Transepts was also necessary. Work began on a temporary dome over the Crossing, America’s largest dome.
The Guastavino Company was pioneering the erection of domes and vaulted ceilings of thin terra cotta tiles. They had been involved with the Cathedral since 1900 starting with the ceiling in the crypt. They also had put a barrel vault in the choir and the chancel.
Roof over choir – 1908
The dome, begun in 1909, is one of the largest masonry domes in the world. It is about 135 feet in diameter, measured across the lower part of the spherical surface. The crown is 200 feet above the floor of the building. It took 3 months and 16 days to complete the job. The dome consists entirely of burnt clay slabs 6 x 15 x 1 inch. Portland cement bonded the clay pieces. This therefore created a monolithic dome shell of unprecedented thinness. The dome construction didn’t involve any scaffolding or falsework.
The Process
The workers laid up the thin terra-cotta slabs in successive circular layers. The joints broke vertically and laterally and formed a hemispherical dome which surmounts the four great arches. The novel method of construction saved great expense by avoiding the erection and removal of heavy scaffolding and falsework. As well, no scaffolding meant reduced risk to workers associated with these tasks.
Dome Construction Springing from the Four Great Arches. – Archives of the Cathedral
The lower portion of the dome springs from the four corners of the great granite arches. From these four starting points upward the successive layers of tile widen rapidly over the curve of the great arches. They eventually converge in a perfect circle at their crown. This was not the use intended for the arches. Rafael Guastavino Jr. had to design the dome using those existing structures.
Finding and Using the Center Point for America’s Largest Dome
They threw 1/4 inch cables across from the the center of the crown of each of the four granite arches. This then established the center point for America’s largest dome. They intersected at right angles exactly in the central point of the dome’s diameter. Engineers accurately determined the point with transit and level observations. Turnbuckle attachments rendered it possible to adjust for temperature variations. The engineers attached a 4 inch square steel plate with a center hook to the intersection of the cables. From this hook a fifth cable extended to an 800-pound weight at the floor. This weight acted as a guy to maintain the center point. The threaded end of the hook extending through the plate served for the attachment of the steel tapes. These tapes indicated the circumference of the dome and the hemispherical curvature.
Cathedral Dome Construction Centering Device. – From L. Ramazotti
Stretching these steel tapes determined the vertical and lateral curvature for laying each course. They went from the established center point to the interior dome surface. These tapes were marked for one half the diameter of the hemisphere. They instantly indicated the exact position where each tile should be laid to form its part of the hemisphere. The dome is six tiles in thickness at the base, or about seven and a half inches. This decreased to three courses or four inches at the top.
The Unique Dome Completed
The work progressed rapidly and the materials sustained their weight and that of the mechanics without the slightest mishap. According to every known theory, work created in this manner would fall of its own weight. Each morning, as the artisans resumed work, the material laid the previous day was found to have acquired such rigidity as to be capable of supporting their weight and the fresh construction. The dome was originally intended to be up 10 years. America’s largest dome has lasted over 100 years.
Interior of Dome. Wurts Bros Photographers, Museum of the City of New York
This post was not about divine stone, but about its cousin, divine clay
Archives of the Cathedral
Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. Manhattan: Amsterdam Avenue – Cathedral Parkway
Museum of the City of New York
Zawinsky, N., Fivet, C., & Ochsendorf, J. (2017). Guastavino design of the 1909 thin brick dome of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Construction History, Vol 32(2), 39-66 dog:10.2307/26476167
Scientific America, October 30, 1909, Scientific American Supplement N0. 1765
L. Ramazotti, La cupula para San Juan el Divino de Nueva York de Rafael Guastavino. Las bóvedas de Guastavino en America, S.Huerta (ed.) Madrid Inst. J de Herrera, 2001
