The Florida Building and Ornamental Stones in 1886
Excerpts from
Report of the United States National Museum Under the Direction of the Smithsonian Institutions For the Year Ending June 30, 1886
Chapter entitled, “The Collection of Building and Ornamental Stones In The U. S. National Museum:
A Hand-book and Catalogue,” By George P. Merrill, Curator, Department Lithology and Physical Geology.
“Limestones and Dolomites Other Than Marbles in Florida, pp. 392-393.
“ Florida. - This State at present furnishes scarcely anything in the line of building stone, nor is there much demand for any other form of building material than wood. On Anastasia Island, about 2 miles from Saint Augustine, there was formerly quarried to a considerable extent a very coarse and porous shell limestone which was used in the construction of the old city of Saint Augustine and of Fort Marion, which was built about the middle of the eighteenth century. The rock is composed simply of shells of a bivalve mollusk more or less broken and cemented together by the same material in a more finely divided state. Fragments of shells an inch or more in diameter occur. The rock is loosely compacted and very porous, but in a mild climate like that of Florida is nevertheless very durable. The quarries were opened upwards of two hundred years ago, but the stone is not now extensively used, owing in part to the dampness of houses constructed of it, and in part to the cheapness of wood. The rock, which is popularly known as Coquina (the Spanish word for shell), is of Upper Eocene age. In the quarries the stone lies within a few feet of the surface, and can be cut out with an ax, in sizes and shapes to suit.
“The Oolitic limestone occurring at Key West has been quarried and used in the construction of numerous private and public buildings in that vicinity.”
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