Tuesday, 5/21

I have a big rock in my office.

It’s a little smaller than a brick, and it’s made of Marquette Brown Sandstone, the sandstone that was used in many of downtown’s historic buildings. How do I know that?

It fell off of the Harlow Block.

Don’t worry; it’s not like it fell on me, or anything. I was just walking up Front Street, noticed it lying on the sidewalk, picked it up, and brought it with me. And it's something I've noticed happens quite a bit after a heavy rain, which we've had a LOT of recently. It is, however, a sign of something I think we'll again begin to see with increasing frequency in the future--

A part of Marquette’s history may be crumbling right before our eyes.

If you spend any time looking closely at many of the city’s historic sandstone buildings (admittedly, probably not a popular exercise, but one I HIGHLY recommend) you’ll notice that there are cracks developing in the stone walls, and that there are flakes of sandstone falling from the building. Or, in the case of the Harlow Block, there are big chunks of rock peeling off the edifice.

Now, I’m not an building engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but I’m thinking that can’t be a GOOD thing, can it? I mean, I know they’re not in danger of crashing down to Earth, or anything, but I’d hate to think that, some day in the future, those impressive buildings that have defined Marquette’s architecture for over a century will just crumble into sand.

There are a couple of reasons why there were so many sandstone buildings erected in Marquette--it was a plentiful local material in the late 1800s, it’s a very hard stone, and, perhaps most importantly, it doesn’t burn. If you know your local history, you know that most of downtown Marquette was consumed in the fire of 1868, and that many of the sandstone buildings we still see were erected shortly after that. It’s also the reason why there were many buildings constructed out of U.P. sandstone in places like Chicago or New York. THEY had huge fires around that time, as well, and needed material that wouldn’t burn.

You know, just like Marquette.

Now, 130 or 140 years after some of these historic structures were built, the sandstone is starting to flake off of them a little. I suppose if you look at it one way, you could say that the buildings have stood solidly for 130 years now, surviving snow, and cold, and sun, and hail storms, and you’d be right on the money about that. But I think the flaking also points out that the buildings HAVE stood for 130 years, and that nothing--except perhaps Twinkies, cockroaches, and Donald Trump’s hair--lasts forever. One day, Marquette’s unique sandstone office buildings, churches, homes, and apartments will just be known to future city residents through pictures, or 3-D holograms, or brain chip implants, or whatever they’ll be using to catalog local history.

So next time you pass one of those historic sandstone structures, the ones you’ve seen your entire life, take a fresh look of appreciation at them. After all, if the rock in my office is any indication, not all future generations will be able to do that.

(jim@wmqt.com)