Builders & Architecture Buffs: What is This?

[kathy2trips]

Hi, everyone

I see this block on houses [[mostly) all over Detroit but have no idea what it is. You'll often see it paired with brick [[as in the photo). Is this sandstone? It is VERY plentiful on buildings around town so it must have been readily accessible and relatively inexpensive.

Any information you can share would be really appreciated.

Attachment 28441!

[Baselinepunk]

Hi, everyone

I see this block on houses [[mostly) all over Detroit but have no idea what it is. You'll often see it paired with brick [[as in the photo). Is this sandstone? It is VERY plentiful on buildings around town so it must have been readily accessible and relatively inexpensive.

Any information you can share would be really appreciated.

Attachment 28441!

I've seen it referred as "Canyon Stone". In those Usonian homes, it's not full stone.

[gvidas]

It's almost certainly not real stone. The last time I looked closely at it, I thought it was a ceramic product designed to look like stone and installed like face brick. Having recently spent some time in Baltimore, I wonder if it's Formstone or Permastone.

[Jason]

The stuff on the 1950s ranch houses is real sandstone blocks. From the 80s onward god only knows what materials faux stone actually is.

I've been curious about the history of the sandstone too. My guess is that one, or several of the home builders decided to do it and it was cheap enough, so all the houses got it without much thought. I'd love to hear if there's more of a story to it.

[kathy2trips]

The stuff on the 1950s ranch houses is real sandstone blocks. From the 80s onward god only knows what materials faux stone actually is.

I've been curious about the history of the sandstone too. My guess is that one, or several of the home builders decided to do it and it was cheap enough, so all the houses got it without much thought. I'd love to hear if there's more of a story to it.

Thanks to all, especially you, Jason. Yeah, I'm talking about pre-1960 Detroit housing stock. I would like to know more, too, especially if the sandstone was Michigan-mined...where would that have been? I assume it was quarried semi-locally due to transportation costs.

Now that you've confirmed it's sandstone, much of it appears to be "Quartz-bearing sandstone" because it has little sparkly flecks in it. When the sun hits it just right, or if it's wet...boy is it pretty!

I do know that the famous New York brownstones are made from sandstone mined back east, which gives it that darker color. Perhaps there are some Detroit "tan-stones" still standing somewhere?

[p69rrh51]

Perma Brick very popular in the 1950's.

[Hermod]

We always referred to that stuff on houses as "field stone" in the sense that it was natural and not made in a kiln like brick and cinder block.

[Honky Tonk]

I've seen it referred as "Canyon Stone". In those Usonian homes, it's not full stone.

I too remember people putting it on to "modernize" their homes, and it being advertised as Canyon Stone. I don't think it was real Sandstone though. The Sandstone I was familiar with was much too soft. This might have been a man-made material, but it was on the soft side. As kids, we found a pile of these "bricks" behind an abandoned, half rehabbed house once. We were playing "Karate" with it and were able to chop it in half. It was fun and games until a friend grabbed the wrong brick and ended up with a broken hand and a cast. Ah, the good old days.....

[black gold man]

Its Tennessee sandstone I reclaimed a front of a house on schooner near 8 mile
it is real stone.

[Honky Tonk]

Its Tennessee sandstone I reclaimed a front of a house on schooner near 8 mile
it is real stone.

How did you get it off of the house without breaking it?

[Jason]

I think we might be thinking of different things.

What I'm thinking of is commonly found in inner ring suburbs, for accents, but also for flower planters or porches, and if it's used on the outside it's common for the fireplace to be made out of it too. It has subtle color banding, and if you hit it with a hammer or if it naturally wears it comes off in big flat chips. It's definitely natural stone.

https://goo.gl/maps/YaBMeb5Bmmo

https://goo.gl/maps/1BSSGc2bzkS2

Then there are other things that are faux stone surfaces of various kinds. Molded concrete, various kinds of rocks, textured asphalt, foam, plastic, all kinds of stuff. The products already mentioned plus so many more. Those have always been used since the industrial revolution all over the world, but the sandstone thing is a more specific phenomenon.

[black gold man]

Hammer and chisel. I have a patio of Indiana blue stone about 800 sq

and picked the stone by tiger stadium when a church was torn down
it was around the windows about 6 inches thick I split large stones by hand.

[Richard]

I would go with sandstone also,the glittery specks are quartz.

The different colors are derived from the nearest rock the sandstone was created from and the available minerals,IE black would be with a granite rock and reddish tint would be from a high iron source nearby.

Michigan was a high source of sandstone in the UP [[some of the best) the problem was it was high silica based which made it perfect for optic lenses,which is why they started sourcing out from other states after the war for construction,think spy plane optics which made it more valuable.It was very desirable for glass production also.

I would think if somebody had the time they could take a piece of early or mid 20s sandstone and pinpoint within a few 100 feet exactly where it was mined in the state.kinda neat if one thinks about it.

[mauser]

I have one of those stones from the front of Corrado Parducci's Cass Corridor studio after it was demolished. The block I got is definitely sandstone.

[detroitbob]

A major company "Canyon Stone" located on Cloverlawn, between Elmhurst and Grand River --across from the DTRR Sears Roebuck tunnel parking lot. They sold product under many names...the name mural stone comes to mind. Ceased operation about the time the Jeffries cut through the neighborhood.

[Richard]

I have one of those stones from the front of Corrado Parducci's Cass Corridor studio after it was demolished. The block I got is definitely sandstone.

That is a cool example,the defining edge looks like it was a part of a lake bed,to the right the black grains of granite and the left was from iron minerals flowing and stopping right at that line.

Nice save.

[kathy2trips]

.....As kids, we found a pile of these "bricks" behind an abandoned, half rehabbed house once. We were playing "Karate" with it and were able to chop it in half. It was fun and games until a friend grabbed the wrong brick and ended up with a broken hand and a cast. Ah, the good old days.....

We sure knew how to have fun, didn't we? Ha. Ha. Thanks for sharing that!

[1953]

Whenever I see these, I always wonder what is underneath that it is covering up - even though its likely that a lot of this stuff isn't covering up anything but the studwall.

[catch22]

Hi, everyone

I see this block on houses [[mostly) all over Detroit but have no idea what it is. You'll often see it paired with brick [[as in the photo). Is this sandstone? It is VERY plentiful on buildings around town so it must have been readily accessible and relatively inexpensive.

Any information you can share would be really appreciated.

Attachment 28441!

The front of my house looks much like this. In my case, it's sandstone, same thickness as the face brick.

[kathy2trips]

Thank you to everyone who responded! We are renovating and I found a file with every receipt from the building of my grandparents' house in EEV in 1956. If I can find a receipt for the stone, I'll scan and post it. Like catch22 , this house is a 1/2 brick, 1/2 stone.

[kathy2trips]

Thank you to everyone who responded! We are renovating and I found a file with every receipt from the building of my grandparents' house in EEV in 1956. If I can find a receipt for the stone, I'll scan and post it. Like catch22 , this house is a 1/2 brick, 1/2 stone.

Attachment 28668

Here's one of the receipts I found from the construction of my grandparents' house in EEV in 1956. Unfortunately, these aren't real specific. Most just say "block". Note the 3% sales tax! Thanks again to all who contributed to this thread. I will post some photos I found of the area in the 50s while I-94 was under construction at Moross and Harper on a new thread soon.

[Richard]

I am thinking that the Structolite mentioned there would be the browncoat or base coat used in the wall plaster process,lath and plaster. Unless the house was Sheetrock walls

$1.45 a bag for 65 bags $94.25. That price of $1.45 per block or brick would be extremely high or at that time maybe 3c per brick.

It is neat seeing the vintage tickets.

[kathy2trips]

It is neat seeing the vintage tickets.

I'll post more on the new thread I've started with photos of the area pre-expressway if anyone's interested in bygone construction vendors of the 50s.