USE OF WHIRLPOOL SANDSTONE (SILURIAN) AS A BUILDING STONE IN SOUTHERN ONTARIO

The Whirlpool Formation outcrops from the US border north along the Niagara escarpment almost as far as Georgian Bay. Near Queenston, and again in the Credit River Valley, it forms a minor escarpment below the main Niagara escarpment, thus facilitating its excavation in quarries. The first recorded use, however, was in Hamilton in 1806. It was used to construct fine houses in Queenston as early as 1820, and was extensively quarried in Hamilton, Dundas, Waterdown, and Milton in the 1840s to 1870s. It is known that a gang saw was used in Dundas as early as the 1830s to produce stone sills and lintels, widely used in buildings that were mainly constructed of other stone (e.g., Eramosa dolomite in Ancaster). After 1879 when a railroad linked the Credit Valley with Toronto to the southeast, and Fergus to the west, the distinctive Credit River varieties were used in those cities; and were also used in Hamilton, as late as the 1940s, even after the local quarries were exhausted.