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Concept
Hokie Stone
Summary
Hokie Stone is a grey dolomite—limestone rock found near Blacksburg, in western Virginia. It gets its name from the traditional nickname attributed to students and alumni of Virginia Tech.
Hokie Stone is quarried by Virginia Tech for campus projects and is prominently displayed on the majority of buildings throughout the Blacksburg campus.
Hokie Stone is limestone infused with magnesium and calcium under intense pressure and temperature. Hokie Stone with impurities such as siltstone and sandstone is multi-colored and found on some newer Blacksburg campus structures.
Eighty percent of the stone is quarried from a Virginia Tech-owned quarry a few miles from campus near the Highland Park subdivision of Blacksburg, Virginia. Twenty-five to thirty Virginia Tech employees use black powder each day to dislodge the stone, cut it into block sizes required by campus construction projects and then finish the blocks by hand using hammers and chisels. In 2010 Virginia Tech upgraded the quarry equipment to reduce costs, including the purchase of a computer-driven saw. Hokie Stone from this quarry can only be sold to Virginia Tech.
The remaining 20% of stone, which is black, is mined once per year from an additional quarry located on a local farm near Lusters Gate. About 50 tons can be quarried each week. This university-owned quarry has been in operation since the 1950s.
The native woodland Indians are believed to have made tools from Hokie Stone.
When the university was founded in 1872, buildings built in the Old Quad (now known as the Upper Quad) were red brick structures, reflecting the architecture of its first building, the Preston and Olin Building, a three-story red brick edifice constructed in 1855 for the Preston and Olin Institute. The first Hokie Stone was cut in 1899 for the YMCA Building (present day Performing Arts Building), the first to be constructed of it. V.P.I.'s first native-limestone-clad, neo-Gothic style building, known as The Chapel, was later constructed on the site where Newman Library stands today.
Official source
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