Page 30 - Demo

30|OctOber 2020
Slippery rOck Gazette
Elks National Memorial
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Continued from page 12
From the marble floor to the second tier columns above as well as the 48 col- umns encircling the room and supporting the balcony, it’s like a showroom dedi- cated to marble from around the world.
“The basis marble,” wrote Swartwout in an issue of American Architect in the mid-1920s, “will be warmly tinted, slightly veined white marble, while the shafts of the columns are of the richly veined colored marble lighter in tone for the small order, as these columns are seen against the white mar- ble background, Pavonazzo, Skyros, Cippolino, and five or six other varieties; and the upper columns are heavier and deeper in tone, Levanto, Tinos, Rouge Jasper, Verona, Alps Green. In the floor, which is a se- ries of round and square panels, the same variety is followed. The coffered ceil- ing will be deep in tone and rich with color and gold and bronze figure in the niches should combine to make a very powerful but subdued effect.”
Sourcing the Marble
Sourcing the marble for such a massive space was no small feat. A year and a half was spent securing, selecting and preparing all of the colored marbles used in Elks Memorial and the marble alone cost $578,000, according to the National Association of Marble Dealers 1926 article.
“Both color and soundness had to be carefully consid- ered, as well as the size of the blocks and veining,” the article notes. “This marble installation affords a strik- ing illustration of a fact that is frequently overlooked by the architect: that where any large work is in prospect, the marble should be ordered at least a year ahead, in order to allow time for the special quarrying necessary.”
The marble was sourced
from quarries throughout Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy and the United States, including Vermont and Alabama. Beyond the gorgeous and striking marble columns, the walls around the rotunda and in the circular corridors, domes and some ceilings feature Eastman’s Cream marble from the quarries at West Rutland, Vermont. “This cream marble has a very soft texture that makes it suitable for intricate deco- rations and fine statuary and carving,” according to the article in Through the Ages. “Twenty-two thousand cubic feet of this particular mate- rial were required and in order to secure exact uni- formity of tone, and the true cream color desired, it was necessary to take out two en- tire floors of the quarry — a total of about 150,000,000 cubic feet of marble.”
Yet, despite the size of the marble contract for this project, one mill handled the whole job.
At the time of its construc- tion, few circular buildings had been built, save for the Pantheon in Rome and some smaller temples.
“Because of the circular design, construction of the
Memorial Hall was partic- ularly difficult and called for extreme care, since all masonry, all brick and stone workhadtobelaidonara- dius. Almost every piece of stone has a curved surface. The size of each piece was worked out, in advance, on the drawings, and each piece was numbered to cor- respond with its numbers on the plans. The manufacturing plant, at Carthage, Missouri, where the stone was cut and finished, made every piece to fit into the mosaic as a whole, a job requiring the strictest accuracy,” according to The Elks Magazine article from July 1926.
The Elks National Memorial Headquarters Building may originally been dedicated to those who served in World War I but it’s since been re-dedicated to honor all American veter- ans serving in all later wars and conflicts. An enduring war memorial, it continues to exemplify fine craftsman- ship with its use of luxurious building materials includ- ing limestone, marble, and bronze.
Megy Karydes is a Chicago-based writer. Find her at MegyKarydes.com .
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