Smith Campus Rocks

Smith College Hall

A. Red sandstone and white limestone were used to provide contrasting colors for the decorative stone on College Hall (1877), the first Smith College building.

B. The  red sandstone , is known as "brownstone" and can be found in many other buildings in Northampton and throughout the northeast. It is a Mesozoic, arkosic sandstone, most likely quarried in Portland, CT.

C.The  white limestone  is a shell-rich rock that is comparatively soft and, therefore, can be carved into complex shapes such as those ornamenting the columns. The limestone, also found in many other buildings in Northampton and throughout the northeast, is a Mississippian age grainstone quarried in Indiana.

D. Foundation stones used for College Hall include shaped  muscovite-biotite granodiorite  blocks and angular  Hatfield Tonalite  blocks, possibly from the City Quarry now occupied by River Valley Market.

Brown Fine Arts Center

A.  Goshen Formation schist . The Hillyer Hall entrance to the Brown Fine Arts Center is faced with cleaved slabs of schist from Ashfield, MA. The color variation is due to gentle folding in this metamorphic rock changing the orientation of the cleavage and variable reflection of light by the tiny mica crystals in the rock.

B. Closeup of the schist, which is gray due to the presence of black graphite. Bumps in the foliation surface of muscovite mica are due to garnet and biotite crystals.

C. The floor of the walk-through atrium of the Fine Arts Center is paved with a mafic igneous rock (norite) that has interesting, random white swirls in it. The white color is due to concentrations of plagioclase feldspar formed by currents in the magma chamber when this rock was crystallizing. The norite is also used for window sills and the tops of stone walls.

D. Closeup of the norite, a plutonic igneous rock with brown (bronzite) and black (augite) crystals in a sea of white plagioclase feldspar. This rock is quarried in Virginia and sold with the trade name " Jet Mist ." This rock comes from another Mesozoic rift valley (the Culpepper Basin) and is an intrusive equvalent of the  Holyoke Basalt .

Saint John's Church

A. This beautiful stone building (1892) is built with pink granite gneiss blocks and  white limestone  trim. The  pink granite  gneiss is very similar to the gneiss blocks used to build Forbes Library (1894)

B. Closer view of the pink granite gneiss. The gneiss foliation is indicated by the elongated black biotite clots. Pink alkali feldspar, white plagioclase feldspar, and gray quartz are also visible. This is probably " Milford Pink Granite ," still  quarried  in Hopkinton, MA.

Seelye Hall

A. Seelye Hall (1899) makes extensive use of  white limestone  blocks that contrast in color with its red bricks . Granite is used for the foundation and steps, and a very similar granite was found for the added benches.

B. The faces of the white limestone blocks were patterned by stone workers' tools, providing a three dimensional view of some of the many fossils present.

C. Closeup view of the white limestone.

D. White limestone is comparatively soft, which makes it ideal for sculpting ornate decorations for the building.

E. Closeup view of a granite bench surface. The principal mineral is white alkali feldspar crystals approimately 1 cm across, which contrast with the gray quartz and black hornblende grains. Pale white plagioclase feldspar is also present.

Lilly Hall

A. Lilly Hall (1886) has  red sandstone  for its lintels, sills, and decorative features. Gneiss is used for the ground level foundation and muscovite-biotite granodiorite is used for stairs.

B. Closeup view of the gneiss foundation stone. The fine scale gneissic banding in this rock indicates considerable ductile shearing during metamorphism. 18 cm long bricks for scale.

C. Closeup of a  muscovite-biotite granodiorite  stair step.. Much of the muscovite is in large (2-3 mm) crystals that look gray against the white feldspar. The black crystals are biotite.

D. Closeup of another stair step with a slightly different muscovite-biotite granodiorite. The mineral grains in this igneous rock are smaller and there are no larger muscovite crystals.

E. Red sandstone is used to support and decorate the north entrance. Green microbiological growth (algae, lichen) is common on the red sandstone, particularly in the shaded north sides of buildings.

Forbes Library

A.   Forbes Library   was completed in 1894 with funds from Judge Charles Edward Forbes using a design by William C. Brocklesby. The library building is constructed from blocks of a  pink granite  gneiss, with arkosic red sandstone used to provide architectural accents, especially around the windows.

B. Closeup view of the granite   gneiss   with pink alkali feldspar, white plagioclase feldspar, gray quartz, and black biotite. In some blocks, the black biotite clots show the alignment of crystals in the gneiss. This is probably " Milford Pink Granite ," still  quarried  in Hopkinton, MA.

C. Closeup views of the   red sandstone   in both the building and in the recent (19xx) entrance pillars.

$20,000 Rock

A. this glacial boulder was excavated from glacial till in a location beneath the garage during its construction. While drilling a hole to place one of many concrete piers on the red sandstone (New Haven Formation) about 10 meters below the surface, the drill was stopped by this rock.

B. Drill marks into the glacially-smoothed boulder record the attempt to drill through it.

C. Photograph by Gary Hartwell showing the boulder being excavated. Look carefully and you can see the boundary between Lake Hitchcock clay layers at the glacial till near the bottom of the hole. Estimated cost of the delay in construction and the extra excavation is about $20,000.

D. Closeup of the  Hatfield Tonalite  boulder consisting of black hornblende and biotite, white plagioclase feldspar, and gray quartz. An anglular black xenolith is clearly visible. This rock was transported by a glacier flowing from Hatfield, where similar rocks can be found in outcrop, to Northampton. 8-cm-long knife for scale.

Neilson Library East

A. Neilson Library (1909) continues the red brick with red sandstone ("brownstone") borders and a granite foundation at ground level. The roof is Vermont  slate . Circle medallions are Tennessee Limestone.

B.  Pink granite  pillar left and red sandstone right. The granite has both pink alkali feldspar and white plagioclase feldspar. The dark minerals are hornblende, biotite, and a small amount of magnetite. Sculpting of the  red sandstone  is visible in detail.

C. Closeup of limestone medallion sculpted from the Ordovician Holston Limestone, a famous building stone from Tennessee. Note the many fossil shells, predominantly mollusks.

D. Closeup of red sandstone resting on a  muscovite-biotite granodiorite  foundation block. Water-caused weathering of the sandstone is visible.

Neilson Jewelbox Limestone

A. The north (Ruth J. Simmons Wing) and south (Mary Maples Dunn Wing) jewelbox addtions to Neilson Library are faced with  white limestone  slabs. You can see the limestone up close (without a ladder) where the "Limestone" label is placed on the photo.

B. A closeup view of the Mississippian fossils in the white limestone, notably a large bryozoan at the edge of the block. Translucent quartz grains are visible in the mortar along the right edge of the image.

Neilson Library West

A. Burton lawn entrance to Neilson Library with a red sandstone overhang and  pink granite  pillars. The walkway was paved (in 2021) with a muscovite-biotite granodiorite, keeping an chiseled pink granite end.

B. Closeup view of the polished surface of the right granite pillar showing pink alkali feldspar, white plagioclase feldspar, gray quartz, black biotite, hornblende, and magnetite.

C. Closeup of the lawn edge steps showing the contrast between the chiseled pink biotite granite stone and the finer-grained gray  muscovite-biotite granodiorite .

D. Comparison of the  red sandstone  from Connecticut used in the original eaves that remain on the east side of Neilson and the eave replacement red sandstone (from China) on the North side of Neilson.

Alumnae Gym

A. Alumnae Gym (1891) has red sandstone sills and lintels, a gneiss foundation, a slate roof, and a terra cotta name plaque that both names and identifies the original use of the building.

B. The banding of the granite gneiss foundation is vertical in this photo. The gneiss blocks will last longer in contact with the ground than will bricks or red sandstone. 8-inch-wide brick for scale.

C.Closeup of the  red sandstone  walls of the entrance on the east side. Iron hydroxide minerals (rust) give this rock its color.

D. Pale green to reddish Vermont  slate  roof (installed in 2020). The colors are due to chlorite (green) and hematite (red) in this rock metamorphosed from mud during the Ordovician Taconic Orogeny.

Bass Hall

A. The west entrance to the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Hall is framed by pillars and borders of white Indiana limestone. The entrance patio is built with blocks of a pink granite and granite pegmatite.

B. Closeup view of the  white limestone  showing the many Mississippian fossils that comprise this rock.

C. Closeup view of the pink granite pegmatite with the cleavage of an especially large (10 cm across) pink alkali feldspar crystal reflecting light in the top left.

D. Closeup of the pink granite on the west side foundation with rusty red alkali feldspar, white plagioclase feldspar, gray quartz and black biotite mica. The rusty red color is due to tiny iron oxide crystals in the feldspar.

1883/2010 Sundial

A. The Class of 1883 Sundial, refurbished with a gift from the Class of 2010. The gnomon that causes the shadow is missing from the sundial due to vandalism.

B. Closeup view of the white granite pedestal carved from a rocks quarried in Bethel, VT. Bethel white granite contains both alkali feldspar and plagioclase feldspar, with less than 20% quartz making it a quartz monzonite plutonc rock. Muscovite and biotite are also present.

C. Closeup view of the concrete bench. The rock aggregate used for the concrete is largely quartz grains.

Mendenhall Center

A. Black slate is used not only for the Mendenhall Center (1968) roof, but also for wall tops and even for an chiseled building sign. The black color is due to graphite in the  slate .

B. In both this wall capstone and in the sign, lighter-colored bands mark premetamorphic sedimentary bedding. The wall slate surface is split along the planes of mica alignment (foliation) in the slate.

C. The black slate roof is hard to see because of its low inclination. Notice that the window lintels are made with concrete.

Sage Hall

A. Sage Hall (1924) has white  marble  steps on the entrance to Sweeny Concert Hall and also at the south east side entrance. Another east side entrance has sandstone steps.  White limestone  is used as a wall capstone. And the roof is covered with green  slate .

B. Marble steps showing folded layers in the marble. Darker mica and quartz layers in the otherwise pure white calcite marble record deformation during the metamorphism of the limestone with interbedded mud.

C. East entrance to Sage Hall constructed during the 1991 renovation has sandstone ("bluestone") steps. White limestone caps the brick border walls.

D. A closer view of the sandstone steps shows fractures that have developed along sedimentary bedding planes. These cracks are likely to reduce the useful life of the sandstone as freezing water in the cracks will expand and break the rock apart.

Scott Gymnasium

A. The Scott Gymnasium (1924) has marble trim to its red brick, entrance stairs and patio made from two kinds of granite, and a  slate  roof.

B. A comparison of the two igneous rocks used for the front steps. The left rock is lighter, has both muscovite and biotite, and not much quartz. The right rock has little if any muscovite, black biotite, and lots of gray quartz along with the white feldspar.

C. Closeup view of the  marble  base of the right lamp alcove. The white cleavage surfaces of unweathered calcite crystals of this pure marble are exposed at the top where the base has been slightly broken.

Marshall Schalk Stone

A. The Schalk Stone, named after Professor Marshall Schalk, is a glacial "dropstone" floated from Hatfield to Northampton on an iceberg in glacial Lake Hitchchock. To learn about why we know this, read the plaque on the stone in the next photo.

B. Zoom to read the plaque. Marshall Schalk recognized the significance of the boulder as he photographed the upgrades to the athletic fields in 1986.

C. A closer view of the Schalk Stone, an intrusive igneous rock called the  Hatfield Tonalite  and two cross-cutting igneous dikes.

D. Photo of Marshall Schalk with the stone when the stone was unearthed during the drainage construction.

Dam Outcrop

A. The only bedrock outcrop on the Smith Campus is red sandstone of the Mesozoic New Haven Formation. It is exposed just above the dam when the water level in Paradise Pond is lowered.

B. Closeup view of the  red sandstone . Notice the angular clasts and poor sorting. 9-cm-long knife for scale. Sandstone continues for more than 300 meters below this spot before the unconfomity with the metamorphic rocks of the Devonian Gile Mountain Formation.

Mill River Dike

A. The Army Corp of Engineers diverted the Mill River around Northampton following the great flood of 1936 and built a dike around the town to keep floodwater out. The rock and earth dike dike begins at the Smith dam and is covered in the river side by blocks of Holyoke basalt.

B. A closeup view of one of the  basalt  blocks with larger white plagioclase phenocrysts visible in a groundmass of smaller plagioclase crystals and black clinopyroxene crystals. This lava rock has been quarried in Greenfield, Westfield, on the Holyoke Range, on the Mt. Tom range, and further south in Connecticut.

Rock Park (front right)

A. To provide good large rock samples to view with a class on a sunny day, the Rock Park was assembled largely from New England quarry owner donations. The layout of the park was designed by Nancy Denig (Smith '68).

B. The first rock on the right as you enter the park is 200 million year old Holyoke  Basalt  from the quarry on Rt. 116 south of Amherst. The white veins contain quartz.

C. The next rock on the right (from Greenfield, MA) is a coarse (conglomeratic) version of the Mesozoic red sandstone used in many Smith buildings. The coarse, angular pebbles in the rock are evidence for a nearby sediment source.

D. Granite pegmatite from New Hampshire with large (several cm across) crystals of white feldspar, gray quartz, and silvery muscovite. A quarry drill hole is visible in the middle.

E. Closeup view of the pegmatite showing many white tabular albite crystals (cleavelandite), along with gray transluscent quartz and silvery muscovite.

Rock Park (back right)

A.  Slate  from Poultney, VT showing both slaty cleavage (nearly horizontal planes) and pre-metamorphic bedding (nearly vertical colored planes). The green color is due to the mineral chlorite. The black color is due to the mineral graphite, which hides the chlorite green in the layer on the right.

B. Sillimanite-garnet-cordierite gneiss from Willington, CT. This rock was heated to temperatures over 700°C during Ordovician metamorphism, growing pink, Mg-rich garnet crystals.

C. Closeup view of the gneiss showing the garnet crystals and blue-gray cordierite around some of them.

D.  Marble  blocks from Adams, MA (Ordovician Stockbridge Formation). Silty layers in the limestone protolith now contain chlorite and show folding in this white calcite marble.

Rock Park (front left)

A. Graphitic schist of the  Goshen Formation  quarried in Ashfield, MA. Foliation is parallel to the pre-metamorphic graded (sand to mud) turbidite bedding.

B. Closeup view of the cleavage surface of the graphitic schist. The irregular surface shows the wrinkle-like folds (crenulations) of the muscovite mica crystals that are reflecting the light.

C. Gray calcite limestone (Onondaga Formation) from Seneca Falls, NY. The calcite crystals of this Middle Devonian marine sedimentary rock are too small to be seen individually.

D. Fossiliferous quartz-rich sandstone (Oriskany Formation) from Seneca Falls, NY. This Lower Devonian shallow water deposit is rich with fossil shells.

E. A closer view of some of the fossil brachiopod shells embedded in the white quartz sandstone.

Rock Park (back left)

A. Petrified log from Holbrook, AZ, sitting on a muscovite-biotite granite block pedestal from Georgia. Microcrystalline silica (e.g. chert, chalcedony, jasper) replaced this tree about 220 million years ago.

B. Closeup view of the 300 million year old muscovite-biotite granite ( Elberton Granite ) from Elberton, GA, that is used for the pedestal, benches, and paving stones in the Rock Park.

C.  The Aperiodic Penrose Torus Alpha  sculpture by Helaman Ferguson is carved from a pink granite (Carnelian Granite from Milbank, SD) and set in a gabbro base (Academy Black from Raymond, CA).

D. Closeup view of the granite sculpture shoing the pink alkali feldspar, gray quartz,, and black biotite.

Burton Hall

A. Burton Hall, constructed as a biology building in 19xx, has magnificent columns and a variety of other features made with    red sandstone  ("brownstone").

B. A biotite granite was used as a ground level foundation stone for Burton Hall. Granite is less permeable and will last longer than red standstone when in contact with the ground. Notice the special red mortar used with the red sandstone.

C. The top steps on both the north and south exit stairs from Burton Hall are a dark alkali feldspar granite. The likely source is Quincy Granite, a 450 million year old granite quarried in Quincy, MA. The rock includes black arfvedsonite (amphibole) and deep green aegirine (pyroxene) crystals and plenty of gray quartz in addtion to the microperthitic alkali feldspar.

D. The bottom step on both the north and south exit stairs from Burton Hall is a hornblende-biotite granodiorite. The greenish color in the photo is biological. The source of this rock is unknown, but it was likely formed as an intrusive rock in a continental arc geological setting.

Border Garden Fence

A. The Richardson Perennial Border Garden straddles an iron fence with pink granite fence posts.

B. Closeup view of the granite with pink alkali feldspar, white plagioclase feldspar, gray quartz, and black biotite visible.

Boathouse Path

A. The unpaved path down the boathouse slope is covered with crushed Holyoke basalt stones to prevent erosion.

B. A closeup view of the 1-2 cm size black  basalt  gravel stones shows their irregular, angular shapes and their fine-grained mineral content. The Holyoke basalt fractures easily because of cracks introduced by rapid cooling and shrinkage of the original lava.

Neilson Monument

A. This boulder is inscribed with the name of William Allen Neilson, who was President of Smith College from 1917-1939. It is a piece of the Hatfield Tonalite that was picked up, rounded, and brought to the campus from Hatfield by the last continental glaciation, which ended in Northampton about 16,000 years ago.

B. A closeup view of the minerals of the boulder. The white minerals are plagioclase feldspar and alkali feldspar. There is some gray quartz. The dark minerals are hornblende and biotite.

Wright Hall

A. The exterior walls of Wright Hall are framed in white limestone that contrasts with the red brick and red sandstone used on all the walls except this front, glassy facade.

B. Closeup of the  white limestone  from Indiana showing the fossil shells made of calcite that are cemented together to make the rock. Calcite is comparatively soft, making it easier to shape or chisel.

C. Sandstone slabs ("bluestone") pave the entrance, and a pinkish granite was used for the door sills.

D. Closeup of the pinkish granite door sills. The pink miineral is likely to be alkali feldspar, the white mineral plagioclase feldspar, the gray mineral quartz, and the black minerals hornblende and biotite.

E. South side entrance to Wright Hall showing the  red sandstone  walls of the lower level, a granite pavement using the same muscovite-biotite granodiorite that was used for the nearby Neilson west entrance walk, and the white limestone and red brick of the upper walls.

John M. Greene Hall

A. Impressive  red sandstone  Ionic Columns support the entrance overhang above muscovite-biotite granodiorite steps of John M. Greene Hall (1910).

B. White feldspar, gray quartz, black biotite, and silvery muscovite form this even-textured granite, a plutonic igneous rock used for the front steps to John M. Greene Hall..

C. The campus gate pillar adjacent to J.M. Greene Hall is constructed from textured blocks of  muscovite-biotite granodiorite .

D. A closeup view of a textured granodiorite block in the J.M. Greene gate. Black biotite and white feldspar dominate this image.

Campus Center

A. The large paving stones leading into the Campus Center and the stairs inside the Campus Center are a gabbroic igneous rock called norite because of the brown orthopyroxene present. The wavy patterns in the rock are due to white plagioclase crystals that collected in layers as the magma crystallized.

B. Closeup of the norite, a plutonic igneous rock with brown (bronzite) and black (augite) crystals in a sea of white plagioclase feldspar. This rock is quarried in Virginia and sold with the trade name " Jet Mist ." This rock comes from another Mesozoic rift valley (the Culpepper Basin) and is an intrusive equvalent of the  Holyoke Basalt .

C. Photo of the sand layers exposed during the construction of the Campus Center in 2002. The layers sloping to the left were produced here about 15,000 years ago when the Mill River was forming a delta here where it flowed into Lake Hadley. Lake Hadley is the name given by geologists to the smaller lake (100 feet lower) that remained when Lake Hitchcock drained. Elm Street and the upper campus are flat because the are located on the nearly horizontal surface the the delta.

D. Photo of the clay layers exposed during the construction of the Campus Center in 2002. The clay varves were deposited by Lake Hadley beneath the delta sands that covered the clay as the delta was extending out into the lake. Rain water sinks down through the delta sands here, but cannot flow through the clay. This creates a high water table that spills out through springs on the hillsides along the Mill River.

Haven House Gate

A.  Muscovite-biotite granodiorite  pillars border the campus entrance in front of Haven House. Notice that the texturing of the blocks and the capstone are different from those at the J.M. Greene gate.

B. Closeup view of the textured granodiorite. Silvery white mica and gray quartz stand out much more prominently relative to the black biotite and white feldspar in the J.M. Greene gate.

College Lane Entrance

A. The gates to Smith College at the Elm St. entrance to College Lane are constructed of  white limestone  and red bricks on a granite foundation.

B. White limestone caprock on the right gate. Dark microbiological grownth on some of the layers brings out current features (cross bedding) in this fossiliferous grainstone deposited in a shallow marine setting.

C. Dark gabbro paving stone in the walk next to the gates. Black augite crystals are visible in a sea of dark gray plagioclase crystals. This rock is the intrusive equivalent of  basalt  lava.

President's Garden

A. Stone walls for the formal part of the Happy Chase '28 Garden are made primarily of a garnet-amphibolite gneiss. The rocks are split parallel to the metamorphic foliation, so the gneissic banding is not visible on the facing sides.

B. Closeup of the gneissic banding in one of the wall blocks. Slighly greenish plagioclase-rich layers alternate with layers filled with red garnet, black hornblende and biotite.

C. Graphitic schist slabs stack nicely to form a raised bed for roses. The schist is  Goshen Formation  that is quarried in Western Massachusetts for walls and walks.

D. Cleavage surface of one of the graphitic schist wall stones. Sunlight is reflecting off of the many alligned tiny muscovite crystals. Bumps in the surface show the locations of larger crystals of garnet, staurolite, and biotite.