(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 the December 27, 1984 edition of The Times of London, Architecture Correspondent Charles Knevitt interviews James Bambridge, Master Builder. Mr Bambridge was 56 at the time.
Bambridge is dividing his time between the Dorset village of Winterborne Stickland and 110th Street on the edge of New York’s Harlem. “His job for the past five years has been to finish building the world’s largest cathedral. His main task at present is to train eight new stone carvers in a tradition killed by the advent of modern architecture in the United States. An $80 million appeal was launched in September and more than seven million dollars has already been committed. Two towers will be built to finish off the west front.
The task will be a culmination of Mr. Bambridge’s lifetime with stone. He was apprenticed at fifteen, attended the Brixton School of Building in London and then was employed with the City Builders, Trollope & Colls. He worked on the US Consulate in Toronto and on MP’s accommodation at Westminster. In 1967 he then moved to Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral. Ten years later he was appointed master mason at Wells Cathedral and in 1979 was asked to help complete St. John the Divine.
Five years at the Cathedral
He now spends five weeks at home in Dorset producing working drawings and full size details, then returns to New York for three weeks, supervising the work and the setting out shop. He has two British assistants, Mr. Stephen Boyle, the site construction manager, who served some time at York Minster; and Mr. Nicholas Fairplay, a carver and cutter.
If the job had come my way 15 years ago, I would not have been able to do it. I needed to work at Liverpool first: it rounded me off
– Jim Bambridge
The cathedral has its critics, especially among the local black community, half of whom are jobless. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, once Martin Luther King’s chief of staff, believes the cathedral is irrelevant because it represents white culture and money.” The Cathedral Stoneyard Institute has employed many of these neighborhood youths in its apprentice program supported by the Harlem Commonwealth Council. Mr. Bambridge says: “The building is more important than any man, I am keeping faith with those artisans and clergy who started it all off.”
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
