3602 Bridge Avenue, Cleveland; construction began in 1871 and continued for many years. Mostly completed by 1880, but the tower was completed in the early 1900s and there have been other additions as well. Gothic Revival.

 Exterior: Most of the exterior is a pinkish to very light gray-colored Middle Devonian limestone, quarried in the Sandusky, Ohio area. The stone has been called "Sandusky limestone," (Callahan and Hickey, 1978, p. 168), "Sandusky blue limestone" or "Sandusky blue stone" (Tim Barrett, personal communication, 1999). Geologically speaking, it is either the Columbus Limestone, the Delaware Limestone, or a combination of both. Although this stone was sold under the name Sandusky blue stone, it is certainly not blue today. As Bownocker has noted (1915, p. 61), the name is a misnomer. However, the limestone at Sandusky was apparently blue or blue-gray in color when freshly quarried (see Bownocker, 1915, p. 61; Hawes, 1884a, p. 634, also 1884b).

Exterior view.  Most of the church is limestone, but the top of the tower and most of the trim seen here is sandstone.

The rock-faced stone blocks are set in courses. This stone contains many types of fossils, including large horn and colonial corals, bryozoans, sea lilies, tentaculids (fossils that resemble screws in size and shape), and brachiopods. Some fossils are up to two centimeters or greater in diameter. Much of the base of the building, the top portion of the bell tower, and original trim, for instance around windows, is Berea Sandstone. The steps are also sandstone, but these are not the original steps. Many details sculpted in Berea Sandstone, including the drove-work dressing of the windowsills and the band of sandstone near the base of the building, are still in very good shape. However, some of the lower sandstone features around the entranceways are pitted from sandblasting done in the 1990s. Outer layers of many of the limestone blocks have weathered away and the originally pitched edges of some limestone blocks are barely visible. Networks of horizontal and vertical cracks have also eroded into many limestone blocks. The pillars of the colonnade linking the rectory to the west entrance of the church are fashioned from Indiana limestone (Salem Limestone).

Interior: The narthex has a fine-grained, mottled true marble wainscoting with a swirling pattern of gray-green and white, possibly from Vermont. The trim is a fine-grained, light gray true marble. Flooring is true marble with gray and gold streaks. The communion railing is a fine-grained white true marble. The pulpit is white marble with insets of green marble (probably Verde Antique) and a base of a yellow and gray (possibly Siena) marble. Sanctuary trim and the base of two pillars by the sanctuary are Verde Antique. The sanctuary steps and flooring are made of grayish orange pink fossiliferous limestone (possibly Tennessee marble). Statuary is white true marble, most of which has been painted white. The original main altar is a fine-grained white marble with insets of a beige, green, and yellow mottled marble (possibly a Siena marble) and pillars of a white, purple, and gray marble. The base of the altar has a green breccia trim composed of clasts of dark green in a lighter green matrix. The main altar platform is white marble with gray streaks (veins). Side altars are a fine-grained white marble with insets and pillars made from the same material as the main altar, with the addition of insets of Verde Antique marble.

 

Close-up of limestone used for the exterior.  Note the large, light-colored solitary coral and cracks in the stone caused by weathering.

 

Remarks: According to parish tradition (recorded in Callahan and Hickey, 1978), Sandusky limestone was hauled to the church site by parishioners using an undertaker's wagon. Limestone from Sandusky, mostly Columbus Limestone, was once used extensively for churches (Bownocker, 1915, p. 62; Hynes, 1953, p. 65), but apparently not in the Cleveland area due to the closer proximity of sandstone quarries. Therefore, the use of Sandusky stone was rare. Limestone from Sandusky was used, however, for the exterior of the now-demolished 1874 First Methodist Episcopal Church, once located at Erie (East 9th) Street and Euclid Avenue (Payne, 1876, p. 142).

The Berea Sandstone trim of the church darkened within a few decades, while the limestone has been steadily eroded by acid rain, resulting in the retention of a light color. A 1903 photograph of the church (Moran, 1903) shows this contrast. The only light-colored sandstone in that photo is that used for the newly completed tower. Cleaning of sandstone parts of the church in the 1990s unfortunately reduced the contrast between the sandstone and the limestone that had been created by weathering. The tower, following one of several lightning hits over the years, was cleaned in 1992.

References: Callahan and Hickey, 1978; Hannibal, 1992.

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