Seneca sandstone: a heritage stone from the USA

Seneca sandstone is a fine-grained arkosic sandstone of dark-red coloration used primarily during the nineteenth century in Washington, DC. Several inactive Seneca sandstone quarries are located along the Potomac River 34 km NW of Washington near Poolesville, Maryland. Seneca sandstone is from part of the Poolesville Member of the Upper Triassic Manassas Formation, which is in turn a Member of the Newark Supergroup that crops out in eastern North America. Its first major public use is associated with George Washington, the first president of the Potomac Company founded in 1785 to improve the navigability of the Potomac River, with the goal of opening transportation to the west for shipping. The subsequent Chesapeake and Ohio Canal built parallel to the river made major use of Seneca sandstone in its construction and then facilitated the stone's transport to the capital for the construction industry. The most significant building for which the stone was used is the Smithsonian Institution Building or ‘Castle’ (1847–55), the first building of the Smithsonian Institution and still its administrative centre. Many churches, school buildings and homes in the city were built wholly or partially with the stone during the ‘brown decades’ of the latter half of the nineteenth century.