Hummelstown brownstone is a medium-grain, dense sandstone quarried near Hummelstown in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a dark brownstone with reddish to purplish hues, and was once widely used as a building stone in the United States. [1] [2]
The Hummelstown Brownstone Company [3] quarried high quality brownstone near Hummelstown from 1863 to 1929 and sold it across the U.S. as a preferred masonry material of builders. [4] Because of its durability, it was used for a wide range of building projects, especially as trim and ornamentation on large buildings, but also as bridge piers and in the foundations and walls of buildings or the sculptures that decorated them. Frequently, entire buildings were dressed in Hummelstown brownstone. An example of this is the Barbour County Courthouse (1903–05) in Philippi, West Virginia.
Hummelstown brownstone and similar sandstones were known as “freestone” because of properties allowing them to be worked freely in every direction, rather than in one direction along a “grain”. This characteristic made them very popular with stone cutters and masons. [5]
Derry Township is a township in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 24,796 at the 2020 census, up from 24,679 at the 2010 census. Hershey, the site of the well-known Hershey's chocolate factory and its affiliated amusement park, are located within the township. Pennsylvania State University's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital are also located on a large tract of land in the township.
Hummelstown is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,535 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Middletown is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States, on the Susquehanna River, 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Harrisburg. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 9,550. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:
Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.
A freestone is a type of stone used in masonry for molding, tracery and other replication work required to be worked with the chisel. Freestone, so named because it can be freely cut in any direction, must be fine-grained, uniform and soft enough to be cut easily without shattering or splitting. Some sources, including numerous nineteenth-century dictionaries, say that the stone has no grain, but this is incorrect. Oolitic stones are generally used, although in some countries soft sandstones are used; in some churches an indurated chalk called clunch is employed for internal lining and for carving.
Pennsylvania Route 39 (PA 39) is a 17.83-mile-long (28.69 km) state highway located in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. PA 39 runs from North Front Street near Harrisburg east to U.S. Route 322 (US 322) and US 422 near Hummelstown and Hershey. The route passes through the northern and eastern suburbs of Harrisburg and passes by Hersheypark, Giant Center, as well as the primary production factory for The Hershey Company. Between Harrisburg and Manada Hill, it is known as Linglestown Road, from Manada Hill to Hershey as Hershey Road and from Hershey to near Hummelstown and Hershey as Hersheypark Drive. Prior to the establishment of PA 39 in 1937, PA 39, had previously been designated as a route in northeastern Pennsylvania during the 1920s. That designation was deleted when it was renumbered US 11. As a result, PA 39 is one of a few routes which has a set of child routes which are no where near the primary route.
Sydney sandstone is the common name for Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, one variety of which is historically known as Yellowblock, and also as "yellow gold" a sedimentary rock named after the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where this sandstone is particularly common.
Yorkstone or York stone is a variety of sandstone, specifically from quarries in Yorkshire that have been worked since the middle ages. Yorkstone is a tight grained, Carboniferous sedimentary rock. The stone consists of quartz, mica, feldspar, clay and iron oxides.
The Barbour County Courthouse in Philippi, Barbour County, West Virginia, USA is a monumental public building constructed between 1903 and 1905 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It dominates the town center and is the county's chief symbol of government. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
From 1863 to 1929, the Hummelstown Brownstone Company owned and operated quarries in the Hummelstown, Pennsylvania area which produced Hummelstown brownstone, once widely used as a building stone throughout the US. The quarries of the Hummelstown Brownstone Company are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Indian Echo Caverns is an historic show cave in Derry Township, Dauphin County near Hershey and Hummelstown, Pennsylvania in the United States. The caverns were mentioned in an article by the Philadelphia Philosophical Society as early as the 1700s.
Berea Sandstone, also known as Berea Grit, is a sandstone formation in the U.S. states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. It is named after Berea, Ohio. The sandstone has been used as a building stone and is a source of oil and gas.
Jacobsville Sandstone is a red sandstone formation, marked with light-colored streaks and spots, primarily found in northern Upper Michigan, portions of Ontario, and under much of Lake Superior. Desired for its durability and aesthetics, the sandstone was used as an architectural building stone in both Canada and the United States. The stone was extracted by thirty-two quarries throughout the Upper Peninsula of Michigan approximately between 1870 and 1915.
The Bayfield group is a quartz sandstone found in Wisconsin along the Lake Superior coast. It is named for the village of Bayfield, Wisconsin, but was once known as Western Lake Superior Sandstone.
Harrisburg Technical High School, also known as Old City Hall, is a historic building and former high school located in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Though previously used as a high school, vocational school, and municipal building, it is now converted for apartments. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
William Hiester Jr. was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as an Anti-Masonic member of the United States House of Representatives for Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district from 1831 to 1837.
Medina sandstone is a geographic subset of the Medina Group stratigraphic formation in New York state and beyond. The name refers specifically to sandstone first quarried in Medina, NY and later quarried in other locations in Orleans County and adjacent quarries in Monroe County to the east and Niagara County to the west. Medina Sandstone was widely used to pave the streets of early U.S. cities because it was sufficiently hard to stand long and severe service, and in wearing it maintained a flat, even surface where granite would wear round and acquire a smooth slippery polish. The Medina stone was also a highly desirable building stone that could be obtained in colors from light gray to pink, red and brown. It was used in the construction of hundreds of homes, churches, public buildings, monuments and other structures from the 1830s to the mid-1900s.
Allen Walton was an American machinist and businessman who served as the president of both the Hummelstown Brownstone Company and the Brownstone-Middletown Railroad Company.