{"id":296,"date":"2023-07-04T12:31:03","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T16:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/?p=296"},"modified":"2023-07-04T12:48:14","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T16:48:14","slug":"the-colors-of-potomac-marble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/potomac-marble\/the-colors-of-potomac-marble\/","title":{"rendered":"The Colors of Potomac Marble"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stand on any street corner in Leesburg, VA and you stand on hundreds, if not thousands, of feet of Potomac Marble. Called a breccia by geologists, Potomac Marble consists of angular pebbles or clasts, held together by a calcium carbonate matrix. The pebbles themselves vary in size from microscopic to, in one case, nine feet. Some pebble!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the colors of the stone which first attracted the attention of Capitol architect Benjamin Latrobe. When he got an opportunity to rebuild the House and Senate chambers after the British burning of 1814. Potomac Marble was his first choice for the magnificent Corinthian and Ionic columns. He wrote: “\u2026 as the Cement which unites the pebbles does not receive quite so high a polish as the pebbles themselves, The Mass acquires a spangled appearance, which adds greatly to the brilliancy of its effect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then convinced President Monroe of both the stones’ beauty and efficacy and the quarrying along the Potomac River began. If you would like to visit that quarry, contact me via this web site:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To see the amazing range of colors of this stone, take a look at the pictures below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long considered by local farmers as an \u201cimpediment to agriculture,\u201d many of the outcrops were blown-up over the years. But some of the old farms along Route 15 which have not been developed for housing, still exhibit huge outcrops of the stone. They are grey and foreboding, but cut and polished, the stone reveals itself in all of its beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the full story of Potomac Marble, you might want to purchase my new book, \u201cPotomac Marble: This History of the Search for the Ideal Stone\u201d which is available from this web site or whereever books are sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Potomac Marble boulder, uncut and unpolished.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Huge outcrop at Montresor Farm along Route 15. Its gray, foreboding exterior hides the beauty within. Notice the silver meter stick for context.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Huge outcrop at Rock Croft Farm along Route 15 north of Leesburg. Notice the faint outlines of paint on the stone. Use the silver meter stick for context.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cut and polished samples from the Olde Izaak Walton Park quarry in Leesburg, VA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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White Potomac Marble – Cut and polished sample from the Leesburg Limestone Company quarry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Green Potomac Marble – Cut and polished sample found in the Compass Creek section of Leesburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mahogony Potomac Marble – Cut and polished sample found near Tuscarora High School north of Leesburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Benjamin Latrobe’s Potomac Marble Corinthian columns in the Old House Chamber (Statuary) of the Capitol.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Benjamin Latrobe’s Potomac Marble Ionic columns in the Old Senate Chamber of the Capitol.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Close-up of a Potomac Marble column in the Old House Chamber of the Capitol.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stand on any street corner in Leesburg, VA and you stand on hundreds, if not thousands, of feet of Potomac Marble. Called a breccia by geologists, Potomac Marble consists of angular pebbles or clasts, held together by a calcium carbonate matrix. The pebbles themselves vary in size from microscopic to, in one case, nine feet. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-potomac-marble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potomacrocks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}