Cornerstone

“ The spot bears every appearance of having once been a populous city. Stone foundations are to be seen, covering many acres. Innumerable 600 columns and walls rise up in every direction, composed of both limestone and sandstone. The columns are built in a variety of shapes, some round, others square, and bear every imprint of the work of human hands.... For miles in the vicinity, the basin is covered with broken pottery of burnt clay, fantastically painted and ornamented with a variety of inexplicable designs. ”

“ The houses do not have doors below, but they use ladders, which can be lifted up like a drawbridge, and so go up to the corridors which are on the inside of the village. As the doors of the houses open on the corridor of that story, the corridor serves as a street. The houses that open on the plain are right back of those that open on the court, and in time of war they go through those behind them. ”

“ The builders were evidently ignorant of the principle of the ARCH, and the support (ceiling) was made by stones (blocks) lapping over as they rose, as at Ocosingo, and as among the Cyclopean remains in Greece and Italy." * * * * "From the centre door of this corridor a range of stone steps, thirty feet long, leads to a rectangular courtyard, eighty feet long by seventy broad. On each side of the steps are grim and gigantic figures carved on stone in basso relievo, nine or ten feet high, and in a position slightly inclined backward, from the end of the steps to the floor of the corridor. ”

“ Others crowd up close to the street, utilizing the fortress-like slope as a combined wall and floor. Others mount the proud eminence of an ash-heap perhaps twenty feet high, a relic of abandoned dumping-grounds. Almost every yard of space is occupied. ”

“ It is far better that foundations are a little too high than too low, for when too high, the approaches can easily be raised at any time with a few loads of earth; but when too low, there seems to be no cure, except to raise the entire building. The foundation-walls are designed to be constructed of broken stone, laid in coarse mortar, as more particularly described for Design XXI.... ”

“ Although not difficult to construct, the upright corner requires considerable mechanical skill and accuracy. A good carpenter can frame the entire building on the ground before any logs are placed on the foundation, after which it can be erected in a very short time. Next to the round-notch corner the upright, or groove-and-tenon corner, probably has the best appearance. ”

“ The feature of greatest interest remaining is the subterranean structure in the centre. This consists of an overhanging platform on a concrete foundation. There are traces of an encircling wall, and projecting upwards from the centre is an extraordinary cruciform platform. An underground passage runs round the whole. ”

“ As one approaches the Terrace, which is an elbow of blocks at one end and a diagonal at the other, one is confronted by a confusion of cross streets, which look as if they had been gotten up expressly to demoralize one's points of compass. ”

“ A chief corner stone - This is the same as the foundation stone; and it is called here the chief corner stone because it is laid in the foundation, at an angle of the building where its two sides form the ground work of a side and end wall. And this might probably be designed to show that, in Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles were to be united; and this is probably the reason why it was called a stone of stumbling, and rock of offense ”

“ Picture to yourself acres upon acres of naked granite, split and splintered in every conceivable form, of enormous size and weight, yet pitched, piled, and tumbled about like playthings, tilted, or so poised and balanced as to open numberless caves, which sprinkled the whole area with a thousand shadows—figure this, I repeat, to yourself—and the mind will then grasp but faintly the idea of this colossal barricade, seemingly built by the giants of old to guard their last stronghold from all intrusion. ”

“ The foundation walls are nearly two feet in thickness, resting upon planks or stakes, which constitute also their floors. In the houses of one story only, the walls, which in all cases are plastered with extreme neatness both externally and within, after rising about two feet perpendicularly, approach each other, so as at length to constitute, in closing, a species of dome. In the application of the mortar to their habitations, the tails as well as feet of the beavers are of essential service. ”

“ In this ceremony the candidate becomes the representative of a spiritual corner-stone. And hence, to thoroughly comprehend the true meaning of the emblematic ceremony, it is essential that we should investigate the symbolism of the corner-stone.
The corner-stone, [1] as the foundation on which the entire building is supposed to rest, is, of course, the most important stone in the whole edifice. It is, at least, so considered by operative masons. It is laid with impressive ceremonies; the assistance of speculative masons is often, and always ought to be, invited, to give dignity to the occasion ”

“ That a considerable saving must attend the system propounded will be evident from the fact, that, instead of a corridor, on the first floor, at least twelve feet wide, as constructed on the prevailing plan, one of six feet, or less, simply as a passage for communication, is all that is required, and thus a saving of about that number of feet in the thickness or depth of the building, in each story above the ground-floor, is at once gained. ”

“ They also enacted that every house should be built with party-walls, and all in front raised of equal height, and those walls all of square stone or brick, and that no man should delay building beyond the space of seven years. ”

“ Granite block pavement is, as a rule, used upon, and appropriate for streets of the heaviest class of travel, and should, therefore, be provided with the best and strongest foundation. It is nearly always poor economy to lay granite blocks upon a broken stone, gravel, or sand foundation. ”

“ It is conceivable that those parts of the wall where the foundations are specially deep do not sink so much in the course of time as those of shallower foundations, and settlement is unavoidable even with these, standing as they do upon earth and mud. Thus where the foundations are dissimilar there must be cleavages in the walls, which would seriously endanger the stability of the building. ”

“ It is quite unnecessary to recapitulate the features which give to this the character of a military work; for they are too obvious to escape attention. The angles of the hill form natural bastions, enfilading the wall. The position of the wall, the structure of the ditch, the peculiarities of the gateways where ascent is practicable, the greater height of the wall where the declivity of the hill is least abrupt, the reservoirs of water, the look-out or citadel, all go to sustain the conclusion. ”

“ Walls are multiplied,—blood-colored walls thirty metres thick,—which cross the road, and are surmounted by queer roofs and pierced by low gates,—narrow ambushes that send a thrill of terror to your heart. The defending moats at the foot of the walls have marble bridges, triple like the gates, and from here on the road is paved with superb big slabs crossing one another at an angle, like the boards of a parquetry floor. ”

“ In the construction of a road level foundation is sought, and on this is put a heavy layer of crushed rock and brick, which, after having been well packed and rounded, is covered with a layer of earth. ”

“ We depress into the earth at the east end to the depth of 16 feet, and enlarge all around beyond the lines of wall 3 feet for a footing. The north and south walls are 8 feet thick clear of pedestal; they stand upon a footing of 16 feet wall on its bearing, which slopes 3 feet on each side to the height of 71⁄2 feet. The footing of the towers rise to the same height as the side, and is one solid piece of masonry of rough ashlars, laid in good lime mortar. ”

“ Anything more tedious than this crossing of the bare dunes it is impossible to imagine, though slower progress might conceivably be made in an attempt to cross a closely built city by climbing up, over and down the houses instead of using the streets.
However, I reached the pan at last and found it to be an oval-shaped “floor,” strewn thickly with water-worn pebbles and quite free from sand. Scattered bush grew here and there upon it, and near the centre I saw larger trees growing. ”

“ A narrow alley, inclosed by high brick buildings cut into innumerable small tenements, and swarming with Chinese men and women of the lower class, runs through the centre of a square or block, from one street to another. This alley is a study for the student of humanity. ”

“ In many places fields are commonly enclosed by the roadside with such walls, which are built of a flat stone dug just beneath the surface, and used without mortar. There are men who make a business of building these walls ”

“ Years have rolled over our scene, and converted the forest-track into a dusty thoroughfare, which, being intersected with lanes and cross-paths, may fairly be designated as the Main-street. On the ground-sites of many of the log-built sheds, into which the first settlers crept for shelter, houses of quaint architecture have now risen. ”

“ How she searches for the vulnerable points in your structure, the weak places in your foundation, the defective material in your building!
The farmer's stone wall, when well built, stands about as long as he does. It begins to reel and look decrepit when he begins to do so. ”

“ The corner-stone of an edifice must be perfectly square on its surfaces, lest, by a violation of this true geometric figure, the walls to be erected upon it should deviate from the required line of perpendicularity which can alone give strength and proportion to the building. ”

“ The highest wall of my house was no higher than the ten-foot fence we had already built on the church alley. The western wall, if, indeed, a frame house has any walls, was only eight feet high. For foundations and sills, I dug deep post-holes, in which I set substantial cedar posts which I knew would outlast my day, and I framed my sills into these. ”

“ Many small houses in the country are built without any permanent foundation, but are temporarily supported on posts set in the ground, and “boarded down.” They are always shaky, and doubtful while they stand, and are frequently blown over altogether. As will be readily seen, the above method provides for the saving of one-half of the mason-work in the foundation. In many places stone is abundant, and will answer the same purpose as brick in this case, except for the 6 inches above ground. The laying up of a single-face wall, 21⁄2 feet high, of rough stone and mortar, would cost but a trifle. ”

“ The Great Wall, which has now, even in its best parts, numerous breaches, is made of two walls of brick and masonry, not above a foot and a half in thickness, and generally many feet apart; the interval between them is filled up with earth, making the whole appear like solid masonry and brickwork. ”

“ A small undulation of surface, or embarrassment of road, makes large difference in the portability of masses, and of consequence, in the breadth of the possible intercolumniation, the solidity of the column, and the whole scale of the building. Again, in a hill-country, architecture can be important only by position, in a level country only by bulk. ”

“ Rebuilding and Adjusting Street Structures.—Catch basins, manhole, sewer and water frames and covers, sewer inlets, water 19pipes and other conduits, belonging to the City and within the limits of the work, shall, if necessary, be reset to the new lines and grades of the street and for this purpose good brick masonry of the original thickness, laid in Portland cement mortar shall be used. ”

“ The noble gateway leads now, not from courtyard to hall, but doorless, with its massive stones wrenched apart by clinging ivy, stands merely as some sort of key to the enigma of ground plan presented by walls ruinated in greater part to the level of the watery turf. ”

“ Behind the tunnel, and towards the west, the declivity of the ground is met by means of brick piers of the heights necessary to raise the foundation pieces of the columns to the level at which they rest on the summit of the hill. ”

“ The houses in some districts are built of clay, or prepared earth, rammed down between boards, and thus forming solid walls of twelve or eighteen inches in thickness, that harden in a short time almost to the consistency of stone. ”

“ The claim is as follows: 'A pavement composed of blocks laid in rows directly upon the sand foundation with spaces between the rows filled with sand or gravel, which is swaged or driven into said foundation, substantially as and for the purpose specified.'
The use of wood for street pavements, the laying of the blocks directly upon a sand foundation, the placing of the blocks in rows, leaving spaces between the rows, are all old devices. ”

“ Now we would come upon a long reach of finished road-bed on comparatively level ground all ready for the rails, with carpenters at work in little gullies which they were spanning with timber trestles. Next we would see a battalion of men and dump-carts cutting into a hill of dirt and carting its substance to a neighboring valley, wherein they were slowly heaping a long and symmetrical wall of earth-work, with sloping sides and level top, to bridge the gap between hill and hill. ”

“ Oxford Street, Regent Street, the Strand and Holborn—all the buildings in main thoroughfares, whose front walls stand upon plate-glass, would fall prostrate at a blow, and choke the thoroughfares with heterogeneous ruins and the mashed frames of humanity. ”