Based on the sampling of sacred structures covered here, there seems to be little relationship between the type of stone used for the exteriors of sacred structures and architectural styles of those structures. The two most used types of stone, Berea Sandstone and Indiana limestone, were used for structures having a variety of architectural styles. Berea Sandstone, for instance, has been used for Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, Neoclassic, and Italian Renaissance structures. And Indiana limestone has been used for houses of worship in the same variety of architectural styles. Although many structures are based rather closely on European types, the stone used is invariably different. Cleveland's Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, for example, is a fine English Gothic structure, but it is made of domestic Indiana limestone. The use of particular types of stone for church exteriors also transcends religious denominations: both Berea Sandstone and Indiana limestone are used for structures erected by a variety of denominations. In fact, the same types of stone are used for contemporaneous secular structures.

The use of brownstone for Pilgrim Congregational Church (Cleveland), however, is closely tied to its architectural style, as brownstone was often used for such Richardsonian Romanesque structures. The original Society for Savings Building and, especially, the Old Arcade in downtown Cleveland are other examples of Richardsonian Romanesque structures using similar reddish sandstones. The serpentinite used for Cleveland's East Mount Zion Baptist Church (completed in 1908) is unusual, but part of a trend at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Other churches made of similar serpentinite can be found in Columbus (Broad Street United Methodist Church, completed in 1885), Chicago (the Pulman "Greenstone" United Methodist Church, dedicated in 1882), and Pennsylvania (West Chester's Church of the Holy Trinity, constructed in 1868). These serpentinite churches do share some Romanesque architectural features.

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