COSSITT LIBRARY

Memphis’s first public library opened here at the corner of Front and Monroe in 1893. It was a gift from a wealthy businessman, Frederick H. Cossitt, who wanted to build a library for the city that he was grateful for. The city of Memphis provided the lot, architect L.B. Wheeler was awarded the contract, and the Portage Red Stone Company of Michigan supplied the stone.

The Only thing that was not supplied was the books. After the library’s dedication, it sat empty for a year because there wasn’t any money left in the budget to buy any reading material. So the city’s newspapers began a campaign asking the public for help, and soon the bookshelves began filling up. By 1906 the library started to become too filled up, and it expanded its space by putting on an addition overlooking the Mississippi River.

The Cossitt Library with its large Romanesque stone tower was the most photographed building in the city for many years. It appeared on more postcards than any other landmark in Memphis during it’s time. Eventually the old stone building was declared “unstable,” and it was demolished in 1958 for a newer more modern building with even more space. Some of the original red stone building remained; a section of the red stone wall, as well as the 1906 stone addition.

JACOBSVILLE SANDSTONE

Jacobsville Sandstone is a sedimentary rock from Michigan. A sedimentary rock is composed primarily of sand-sized grains of mineral, rock, or other organic material. It is found throughout the worldand is mined for use in construction. Sandstone contains a material that bands the sand grains together known as a cementing material, which contains silt or clay sized particles filling the spaces between the grains of sand.

Jacobsville Sandstone started forming from continental deposition in the middle Cambrean Age. Erosion Slowly diminished the mountainous Northern Michigan Highlands into hills, and fluvial streams flowed northward transporting sediments along what is now the southern shore of Lake Superior.

Sandstone comes in many colors. Typically, a sandstone ranges in color from an off-white to a tan to brown. Pure quartz is very light in color, while feldspar is more of a darker amber color. A light-colored sandstone indicates that it has a high quartz content and a low feldspar content, and the darker the sandstone indicates a greater feldspar content with much less quartz.

The environment where Jacobsville Sandstone deposited was moist and humid, which resulted in it’s redish to redish-brown color. The red color itself is due to the presence of hematite. Hematite is one of the most abundant minerals on the Earth’s surface and in the shallow crust. It is an iron oxide, a common rock-forming mineral, and an important ore of iron.

Sedimentary stones such as sandstone are relatively soft, porous, and have easily crumbled surfaces. The cements that bond the various sediments together can be easily damaged by weathering, salts, and pollution. Anything that causes a difference in the behavior of the outer surface of stone structures compared to the inner regions can lead to stresses that eventually cause cracking and the exfoliation of the outer surfaces.

Memphis has a humid, subtropical climate with multiple wet/dry and freeze/thaw cycles. This can cause moisture to freeze inside cracks in the rock. Upon freezing its volume expands, causing large forces which cracks spall off the outer surface. As this cycle repeats the outer surface repeatedly undergoes spalling, resulting in weathering that would continually stress weaker areas, and eventually lead to contour loss. That beiong said, Jacobsville Sandstone can endure temperatures to 800° F before cracking or crumbling (as it was well tested during the great Chicago Fire). Also this stone is well adapted to the cold being from Michigan, and it also known to retain solar heat in the winter.

LOGGING REQUIREMENTS:

To log this Earthcache: Read the geology lesson above. Answer all four questions posted below. Answers can be sent via e-mail or messenger contacts on my Geocaching profile within a reasonable time. Group answers are fine, but please include the members of the group you are with.

QUESTION 1. What gives this sandstone its red color and is one of the most abundant minerals on the Earth’s surface? (The "H" word from the reading)

QUESTION 2. Rub your hand gently on the stone (Please do not scratch!). Do the grains of sandstone feel tightly cemented on or do they rub off easy?

QUESTION 3. Observe the color of stones that make up the house. Judging by the color, this sandstone has:
A) A high quartz content and a low feldspar content.
B) A low quartz content and a high feldspar content.
C) A pretty even amount of feldspar and quartz

QUESTION 4.Did you observe any weathering at the wall? If so what do you think caused it?

OPTIONAL PHOTO: Posting a photo that readily indicates that you (and anyone else logging the find) are at the location.

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REFERENCES:
1. Geology of the Marquette and Sands Quadrangles Marquette Count Michigan, J.E. Gair and R.E. Thaden, Department of the Interior, Geological Survey Paper 397, pg 101- 102, 1968, pubs.usgs.gov
2. The Library Open, The Memphis Commercial, April 13, 1893, Pg 5, newspaper, newspapers.com
3. The Other Cossitt Library, K.Kuhl, Granby Drummer, November 30, 2020, website, Granbydrummer.com
4. Jacobsville Sandstone, K.Kuhl, Keweenaw Geoheritage, website, geo.mtu.edu
5. History in Stone, S.Longtine, Lake Superior Magazine, October 11, 2017 website, lakesuperior.com