Williamsville Water Mill ............................ Williamsville - Table of Contents
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EXCERPT - Natural Cement Industry in Williamsville Historic Structure Report - Williamsville Water Mill 56 East Spring Street, Williamsville, NY Bero Architecture P.C. 32 Winthrop Street, Rochester, NY 14607 2.4 The natural cement industry in Williamsville Lime-based mortars harden (sets) upon exposure to air; water prevents them from setting. Lime mortars are soft and erode under water so they are unsatisfactory for canal structures. Portland cement sets upon exposure to water. Portland cement mortars are hard and resist erosion. All canal structures today are built with Portland Cement. When the [Erie] canal was begun on July 4, 1917 [1817] , Portland cement had not yet been developed, and only lime mortar was produced domestically. The canal's first builders knew of "natural cement," which was produced from limestone containing clay and which hardened under water and resisted erosion. Various natural cements were available for import from France and England but because of their cost, they were not available. In 1917 [1817?] what was badly needed was a domestic source of natural cement. In 1818 it was found by Erie Canal builders near Fayetteville in central of New York State. The rock strata which contain the raw material extend in a band across New York State on a line from Fayetteville to Buffalo, just south of the route of the Canal. After 1819, all Erie Canal structures were specified to be constructed with this natural cement. Also known as water lime, waterproof cement, hydraulic cement, and rock cement, natural cement was manufactured by mining, burning in a kiln similar to a lime kiln, and then grinding the resulting lumps into a fine powder which was stored in airtight containers, shipped to a construction site, and added to sand to make a mortar which would set and maintain high strength even under water. The importance of the discovery of available clay-bearing limestone, and development of a marketable natural cement, cannot be overemphasized. From its first production until about 1890, when Portland cement became a serious competitor to natural cement, it was used for most major construction projects. New York State, because of its extensive deposits of high quality raw materials and access to markets via the Erie-Hudson waterway, quickly became the country’s largest natural cement source. New York natural cement was used throughout the country: for many Federal Buildings including those in Detroit, Macon, Georgia, and Waco, Texas: for many commercial buildings such as the Atlantic Brewing Company in Atlanta, Georgia; and for infrastructure, such as improvements to the Erie Canal and the foundations of bridges across the Niagara and Hudson rivers, which fueled the growth of the Empire State. Early American masonry expert Harley McKee identifies Williamsville as the 1824 site of the America's first natural cement manufacturing concern. Uriah Cummings notes that Williamsville cement, ". . . was used extensively in the construction of the locks on the Erie Canal at Lockport, N.Y." Historian Warren Reist describes the origin of the local natural cement industry with a discovery of natural cement rock by Erie Canal advance surveyors. The deposit was located a short distance north of the mill. “ In the year 1818, Storrs and Caryl, immediately upon hearing of the limestone deposit, built lime kilns ... and at that time they converted the grist and flour mill into a cement mill.”Reist also describes the construction of a corduroy road [a road made of tree trunks laid across a swamp] from Williamsville to Tonawanda Creek, to facilitate the transport of cement to the canal lock construction at Lockport. There were two mills producing lime for mortar at the falls in 1824. McKee’s identification of Williamsville as the earliest location of natural cement manufacturing leads to the conclusion that these mills were suppliers of the natural cement used in the Erie Canal’s initial construction and consequent expansion. |