Medina Sandstone

Building Materials - Table of Contents.........,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,....... Illustrated Architecture Dictionary

Medina Sandstone
TEXT Beneath Illustrations

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Medina sandstone sidewalk in front of the Williams-Pratt Mansion on Delaware Avenue

Medina sandstone masonry and foliated capital ornamentation of Buffalo Psychiatric Center, designed by H.H. Richardson

St. Louis RC Church on Main St. in downtown Buffalo

One of Buffalo's best known landmarks: the 72-foot-tall St. Louis RC Church pierced spire, perhaps the only remaining pierced spire in the U.S.

Quatrefoil tracery in a round window on a spire of the endangered Asbury Delaware Avenue Methodist Church

Note theflying buttress of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral on Church Street

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See also:

Wicks House

Atwater House (DEMOLISHED

Connecticut Street Armory

Sidewalk: 51 Symphony Circle

Definitions:

Medina: a town in western New York, about --- miles from Buffalo. Quarries are no longer operational.
Sandstone: a sedimentary rock formed by the consolidation and compaction of sand and held together by a natural cement, such as silica. See "Sandstones," from Building Stones and Clay-Products: A Handbook for Architects, by Heinrich Ries, 1912, First Edition

Types:

Red - Grimsby sandstone
White - Whirlpool sandstone. Relatively little and below the Grimsby

Characteristics:

Although harder than Onondaga limestone limestone, it's easier to work with it.
Large sheets can be quarried.
Feels gritty to the touch.

Sources:

Found in the Niagara Escarpment (e.g. Art Park).
In the Buffalo area, there is sandstone present under the limestone, but it's usually too deep to be quarried.
It is the most drilled subsurface in Erie, Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua counties because of deposits of natural gas in the rock.

Uses:

Red Grimsby: For curbstones in Buffalo until recently. The Erie canal was used to transport the sandstone from Medina. (Buffalo's newer curbstones are made of granite.)
Red and white: In parts of the west side, including the Delaware Preservation District, there are some Medina sandstone sidewalks.
Buildings: Buffalo Psychiatric Center by H. H. Richardson. and a number of churches along Delaware and Richmond that imitated Richardson's Romanesque style
Most houses along Route 104 in Niagara County and Orleans County are of Medina sandstone.

Transportation to Buffalo: The Erie Canal ran through the middle of Medina.

Special thanks to Jerry Bastedo and John Opera supplying much of the information of this page.


Medina sandstone sidewalk in front of the Williams-Pratt Mansion on Delaware Avenue	Medina sandstone masonry and foliated capital ornamentation of Buffalo Psychiatric Center, designed by H.H. Richardson	St. Louis RC Church on Main St. in downtown Buffalo

One of Buffalo's best known landmarks: the 72-foot-tall St. Louis RC Church pierced spire, perhaps the only remaining pierced spire in the U.S.	Quatrefoil tracery in a round window on a spire of the endangered Asbury Delaware Avenue Methodist Church	Note theflying buttress of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral on Church Street
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