Sheet Scaling in Mohegan Granite

Karen Stone

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, dimension stone construction was widely popular for monumental structures in the United States. The rise of steam-powered quarry machinery, as well as expedient transportation options, increased access to building stones such as Mohegan granite, extracted from the Peekskill area of New York. The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City, the George T. Bliss Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery, the Westchester County National Bank in Peekskill, and the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Reading, Massachusetts are but a few of the structures that utilized this medium-grained, yellowish-gray granite. Approximately one century later, many of these stones are consistently displaying evidence of sheet scaling deterioration. This condition not only degrades the aesthetic integrity of a structure, but it has the potential to...