TENNESSEE MARBLE

The Holston Formation aka Tennessee Marble has been quarried in Tennessee for lime and dimension stone since colonial times. The white to red, massive, coarse-grained limestone occurs as a conspicuous stratigraphic unit within the Middle Ordovician Chickamauga Group in the Valley and Ridge province of East Tennessee. The formation is a reef mass consisting mainly of bryozoan colonies, pelmatazoa and lime mudstone deposited along the hinge of a tectonically subsiding basin southeast of the reef. The mass is 100 m thick and extends along northeast-southwest trending strike belts for nearly 180 km. Though not marble in the metamorphic sense, it is crystalline, takes a high polish, and actually posesses physical properties that surpasses many metamorphic marbles. According to tests by the U.S. Bureau of Standards the crushing strength of the Holston ranges from 102,787 kPa to 125,995 kPa and similar test for tensile strength averaged 9,198 kpa. An outstanding property of the Holston accounting for its durability is its low absorption values that range from 0.035 to 0.091 percent and average 0.06 percent. Chemically the stone averages 97.5 percent CaCO₃, less than 0.2 percent MgCO₃, and less than 0.2 percent SiO₂. Many early travelers through Tennessee, including early state geologists and the USGS folio mappers recognized the Holston’s economic potential. The Ramsey House, constructed in 1797 from locally quarried pink marble is likely the first building using Holston. In 1814 U.S. Congressman John Sevier, first governor of Tennessee, took a sample of Holston to Giovani Andrei, Italian marble worker working on the U.S. Capitol. Andrei declared the stone to be fine and valuable. Subsequently after considerable national debate over appropriate construction material for federal buildings, Tennessee marble appeared in three significant architectural interiors in the 1850’s – Washington National Monument, Tennessee State Capitol and U.S. Capitol Extensions. Tennessee along with Vermont and Georgia has always been ranked as the top three marble producers in the U.S. – in 1956 Tennessee actually led the nation in marble production. Tennessee marble has been used in sculptures, major building interiors and exteriors in at least 35 U.S states and Canada and continues to be used today.