Cobblestone Wall Section

Cobblestone construction was born in this area, and the example here combines several nearby materials and styles. The term comes from the English word cob, meaning a rounded lump, joined with stone. These buildings used naturally rounded stones smoothed in shoreline glacial deposits, along with flat lake-washed stones, rubble cores, fieldstone inner walls, and hand-shaped Medina sandstone quoins, sills, and lintels. Mortar made from lime, sand, and water was tooled either to overhang the course below like clapboards or into raised V'd joints. Quicklime for this mortar was produced in hillside limekilns by heating limestone rock to 2000° in hardwood-fired kilns, then curing the resulting paste and mixing it with sand. The cobblestone era began with the earliest known cluster of buildings from 1825 to 1831, including the 1825 Steward Canfield house, possibly the earliest major cobblestone house, and expanded after the Erie Canal opened. By 1834 a cobblestone church had been built, and by the mid-1830s solid masonry was giving way to firred walls that created a ventilating airspace. The era reached its peak by 1855 with fancy patterns and styles, often using post and beam framework finished with a cobblestone veneer, and by 1860 cobblestone construction was being replaced by modern methods. Rare materials found along the Seaway Trail were combined to create structures of utility and beauty.

Carlton, New York · United States