The “Old Stone Chimney” is the second oldest masonry structure west of the Hudson River in New York State.
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[…] than you would imagine. You can read all about its incredible history written up on Niagara Hub
Niagara's Information Source
The “Old Stone Chimney” is the second oldest masonry structure west of the Hudson River in New York State.
[…] than you would imagine. You can read all about its incredible history written up on Niagara Hub
Paul Gromosiak, Bob Baxter, “the Reluctant Tourist”; I was able to obtain the engineer’s report from 2011 and have written a submission to NiagaraHub to explain my opinion. It is my hope it will be published soon. I hope you take time to read it and the findings of the engineering team because these are important findings both for the integrity of that chimney and the finances of our City.
Hi Again Bob, I really don’t want to speculate at all about matters of architectural history. I’d like to have facts. I was told by a preservation architect that at some point in it’s history (after one of the fires) that the chimney was reassembled without care for stone placement. I haven’t seen documented evidence of that nor of it’s careful re-assembly.
That really isn’t the full basis of my opinion that I just don’t “get it”. I don’t see that the chimney is endangered. I don’t see that it’s location is detrimental to it. I don’t see that there is any funding from any source to move it. I think the idea to build a reproduction structure around it would be entertaining if we lived in a community ripe with funds to do so.
Also, my personal opinion, I fail to agree it is the “most magnificent relic in the United States.” I kind of prefer the native mounds, (like Serpent Mound), the heiroglyphics found in the Appalachian mountains, the Shaker trail, Paul Revere’s old neighborhood… really probably 100 other historic sites in our nation over a stone chimney who has lost every structure it ever served and has been relocated and reassembled. It’s just not my thing. I’m allowed to think that. If we could get money to showoff our history here, I can think of much more worthy causes.
Does anyone know what the inscription says on the plaque? I have taken pictures of the chimney but I can’t get the wording to come out clear enough to read what it says.
For what it’s worth: the Wikipedia entry re the chimney states the stones were carefully reassembled
during the moves—(two of them, not “numerous”)–and it probably got its information from the 18 August 1902 edition of the Niagara Gazette which said “each and every one of its surface stones was carefully marked” so it could be restored to its original appearance. Likewise, a later restoration and reporting, when it was revealed that Wright & Kremer supervised the restoration, which was paid for (and it was implied the expense was not small) by the Carborundum Co and the Niagara Falls Power Company. So why Andrea Galyn, whose restoration and preservation sensitivities are so otherwise finely tuned, would want to speculate that the restorations were less than authentic is puzzling.
I’ve inquired in the past about this chimney and was told it is not currently in it’s original configuration and we are not able to put it into it’s original configuration. Also I was told the chimney is not threatened in it’s current location and that it would be impossible to put it back in it’s original location. I wish Paul Gromosiak would come out from behind the technological curtain and enlighten us directly without the use of someone reading my posts and calling him to tell me and then him asking someone else to transcribe a response. How ridiculous!
From Paul Gromosiak – “When the chimney was moved in 1902 and 1942, every stone was marked before they took it apart. Every stone went back into the same exact place.”
I failed to mention that this is Chris Stoianoff
A worthy cause c
“the Old Stone Chimney is absolutely the most unique and magnificent historic relic possible on the American continent, probably in the United States, and certainly in the state of New York. It is highly probably that no structure anywhere in America has a status such as that.”
While it’s old, it’s stone, and it’s a chimney I really don’t see how it would possibly qualify as the most magnificent historic relic in the entire United States of America.
In addition, while moving it numerous times, people failed to reassemble it as it originally was built- failed to ensure all pieces were still intact, failed to use historic materials to reconstruct it. I think it has lost it’s original integrity.