Aug
While those soaring rock walls of the Mohawk No.6′s boiler house were impressive enough, they paled in comparison to what stood just a few feet away. Towering above those old walls were another set of walls, these belonging to the shaft’s enormous hoist building. In fact the word enormous hardly does this building justice, as its scope seems to define comprehension as you’re craning your neck to peer up to its soaring heights. The shocking juxtaposition is perhaps best illustrated by the photo above showcasing both sets of ruins – the boiler house marked in white and the hoist building in yellow. Simply massive in the most obscene sense of the word.
Peering up to those soaring heights we could make out a building of great class and dignity. Like the boiler house, these walls were built of poor rock and featured creme colored brick highlights around the windows and at the quoins. Oddly the building’s workmanship seemed to diminish substantially as you moved up its height, as the upper portion of the wall was more crudely set and less tightly mortared. I would suspect however that this loosening of standards has to do with the building’s missing roof and years of exposure to the elements. The mortar along these upper sections have simply been eroded away by decades worth of rain and snow.
Along these massive walls were a series of large window openings along their upper reaches, which a scattering of smaller windows down below.
Here’s a closer look at one of those smaller openings. While these most likely were windows, they could have also been egress points for steam lines or other utilities. Looking into this particular window reveals an interesting vista…
Below the window was a deep chasm followed by a long concrete lined tunnel spreading out in front of us. At its end stood what looked to be a ladder. It was the type of environment that immediately stimulated our explorer’s sense and beckoned us inside. Though some enterprising individual had provided us with a way in via a narrow board set across the chasm, we decided to find a less precarious way inside.
Making our way around the building’s backside its massive walls just continued, seemingly into infinity. At the corner stood this massive column of cream colored brick.
Along the building’s backside were several more windows, both at ground level and above. A third set of windows graced the wall’s peak, which towered high above our heads over the tree-line. (Click HERE for a larger look)
Another small window opening near the ground.
We made our way around a second corner, once again graced with a tower of cream colored brick.
Passing the corner we peered down the building’s southern facade that was heavily overgrown with brush and trees. Peering at us though the thick foliage was this large brick arched opening – a doorway! It was time to make our way inside…
Per Dr. Lankton (during an SIA tour), back in the day a master stonemason and his helper(s) were expected to cut and set four stones per day on a “show” building like the C&H office and library. One would expect a bit more demand for output on utilitarian buildings like hoist houses etc., so 6-8? Looking at the work around the corners and frames of these buildings you see almost the same level of work as at the C&H office and library.
Stonemasons were highly valued, when the mines were in the growth stage there was plenty of work for them and the companies had no problem keeping that skill in the area. About the time of the last big building phase, concrete became the material of choice and stonemasons began to fade away.
I worked for DuPont and noted the large number of stone fences in the Wilmington, Delaware area. I asked around and found that the fences were DuPont’s way of keeping skilled stonemasons in the area between construction projects at the powder mills. Those skills were that important to them. The guys that built these Copper Country buildings were just as important to the copper industry.
Could the top of that hoist building have had a few feet added to it?The material and workmanship looks different.They could have jacked the roof up and added more stone to the walls.They did this at the Victoria school house.Made a two story by jacking up the whole building and adding another floor underneath.
Its possible but I don’t think that’s the case here. The building’s height matches Sanborn descriptions and you don’t see the same oddities inside. I think its just weather related, the mortar further down the building being protected by the rock on top.
It also make sense if you consider how most CC ruins present themselves – usually with the top sections of the walls missing (those sections more open to the elements).
Very amazing site. Did someone say that Mohawk is on private property and not readily accessable?
Years ago at Adventure Mine near Greenland, the owner Jack Neph told me that the ornate rock buildings there were built by skilled stone masons that came from Italy. I wonder if this one has a similar history?
The property is currently privately owned I’m afraid.
As far as where the stone masons of the are came from, they surely had to come from somewhere. But I would guess that there were skilled masons from all countries, not just Italy.
I had about the same experience at the Adventure Mine as Herb.Years ago the old owner told me the stone masons were from Italy and that there is one big foundation there that they built that’s three foot thick and now it was very deep inside and they were afraid somebody would climb up on it and fall in and not be able to get back out.But the stone work was so nice they didn’t want to bust a hole in it so they filled the inside with stone.He said one day he was going to build a house on that foundation.I never seen the foundation and don’t know if he ever built his house.
My great grand father was a mason for the Quincy till the late 20′s .One of his early projects was the powder house in Ripley.He was from Germany .His son in law, also a mason at Quincy was from Switzerland.