300 BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and Eleventh street, is a good example of the Dorchester 

 freestone, which shows little sign of decay, after nearly 

 forty years' exposure ; the American Exchange National 

 Bank building, Broadway, corner of Cedar street ; the Re- 

 formed church, on Madison avenue and Fifty-seventh street, 

 and the *' Dakota," on West Fifty-seventh street, are other 

 examples. 



The bridges and the fence walls of Central park, and 

 much of the stone masonry in the park, are constructed of 

 freestone from Dorchester and Albert, in New Brunswick. 

 There are many house-fronts up-town which have these 

 sandstones either as trimmings with red brick, or as ashlar 

 with the same stone facings. Generally they are olive- 

 colored and fine-grained and soft enough to be worked 

 readily. Hence, they have been used in nearly all cases in 

 the form of dressed dimension blocks, and rarely with rock- 

 face surfaces. They are not '' reedy ," that is, they are not 

 laminated, and are worked equally well in all directions and 

 are true ''freestones." In consequence of this structural na- 

 ture, flaking is not common. Their softness, as compared 

 with Connecticut brownstone, causes a more rapid disinte- 

 gration and decay on weathering, and such decay is notice- 

 able, particularly on the southern and south-western expos- 

 ures, and less on north-facing walls. The fence posts in front 

 of the Protestant Episcopal church on the corner of Fourth 

 avenue and East Forty-second street, and the Church of the 

 Heavenly Rest, near Forty-fifth street, show this disintegra- 

 tion, and roughened, south-west surfaces. Some of the 

 fronts on the upper part of Fifth avenue, and some on Madison 

 avenue, above Thirty-fourth street, show like effects. Per- 

 haps the most pronounced case of decay is to be seen in the 

 carved work of the terrace wall and stairways, at the north 

 end of the Mall and bordering the lake. The fluted posts 

 and ornamental caps have had to be covered during the 

 winter, for their protection. The stone is so much weathered 

 here that it is possible to abrade the surface by the hand. 



