How to Build a Cobblestone House

He huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down - certainly not if the house was built with cobblestones. Building cobblestone houses was a folk art that flourished in upstate New York from 1825 until the Civil War in 1860. Many of the 700+ cobblestone homes that were built survive today, a testament to their fine craftsmanship.

To build your cobblestone house you'll need 5 main components: cobblestones, soft lime mortar, wood for windows and doors, cut stone blocks for quoins, lintels and sills, and lots of cheap labor. Lets take them one at a time - assuming the cheap labor is you, your family, friends, relatives and anyone else you can convince to do manual labor for $1.00 to $1.50 per day.

The first step is to gather the cobblestones. This may take several years. Cobblestones are small fist-sized stones deposited by the glaciers that swept from the north millennia ago. Rough-shaped ones can be gathered from the farm fields or rounded, lake-washed ones can be gathered along the shore of Lake Ontario. You'll need over 14,000 cobblestones, so get cracking. As the manly work of stone gathering progresses, the women and children can be kept busy sorting the stones by size and color. You'll want to use the finest, smoothest, similar-sized stones on the front of your house, and save the rougher, odd-sized ones for the back, sides and interior of the walls.

While this is progressing, you better start preparing the soft lime mortar. Don't skimp and use Portland cement. It dries too fast and will pop the cobbles out as it dries. Soft lime mortar is made of lime, sand and water. Find limestone (calcium carbonate) or dolomite (magnesium carbonate) and break it into pieces. Burn it within heaps of logs for 2 to 3 days to create quicklime. Add water to the quicklime to create a hydrated lime sludge.

Mix in 5 to 9 bushels of sand to 1 bushel of lime sludge. Age the mortar in a ground pit covered by sand or cow manure for up to a year. Fell a bunch of trees. They'll need to be hand-hewn to build the doors and windows - each custom fitted to a specific opening. Also, find a quarry where you can get limestone or sandstone blocks for the corners of your building (quoins) and as structural support over the doors and windows (lintels) and under the windows (sils).

Now the fun begins. Start by laying the stones in walls 18 to 20-inches-thick. Build the wall with rubble stone, faced by cobbles. Use elongated or triangular shaped stones to tie the cobbles to the rubble wall. Use the soft lime mortar as your glue, getting fancy with straight ridges between the horizontal and vertical rows of cobbles. Build about 3 rows (or courses) per day so the mortar has time to slowly begin setting. It will take 35 years for the mortar to fully harden. Lay in the cut-stone blocks at the corners to create quoins. To finish the inside, apply horsehair plaster to the stone.

Once the walls are above reach, you'll have to build scaffolding by burying poles in the ground 6 to 8 feet from the wall and tying cross members from the wall to the poles with hickory witches. Then lay planks on the cross members to provide a building platform. As the walls rise, you'll have to repeatedly raise the height of the scaffolding. Attach a crane and tackles to the highest pole to winch up buckets of cobblestones and mortar. Hand build your windows and doors to fit each opening and hand-hew trusses for your roof. Winter is a good time to do much of your carpentry work. Depending on how many workers you have and their skill level, you may finish in a year. More likely, the building process will take about 3 years.

When you're done, you'll have a fine home that will stand for centuries. Go see for yourself. A new guidebook called "Cobblestone Quest - Road Tours of New York's Historic Buildings" (Footprint Press, www.footprintpress.com, 1-800-431-1579) offers 17 self-guided car or bicycle tours for viewing the diversity of cobblestone buildings clustered within a 65-mile radius of Rochester, NY, and no where else in the world.

"Cobblestone Quest - Road Tours of New York's Historic Buildings" By Rich & Sue Freeman

17 self-guided car or bicycle tours for learning the history and observing the diversity of unique cobblestone buildings in Western New York State. http://www.footprintpress.com/Cobblestone/CobblestonePreview.htm 208 pages, 20 maps, 85 photos, indexed, paperback, 10 X 7 inches Price: $19.95, ISBN# 1930480199 Footprint Press, Inc., www.footprintpress.com

### Photos available - email sue@footprrintpress.com or call 585-421-9383.

Rich and Sue Freeman decided to make their living from what they love-being outdoors. In 1996 they left corporate jobs to spend six months hiking 2,200 miles on the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. That adventure inspired them to share this love by introducing others to the joys of hiking. They decided to focus on short hikes, near home and wrote "Take A Hike! Family Walks in the Rochester Area." They went on to explore hiking, backpacking, bicycling, skiing, and snowshoeing trails, waterfalls, and waterways for paddling throughout central and western New York State. Along the way, they kept discovering unique and beautiful places in this region. They saw unusual "potato" houses (to quote an architectural student visiting the area from New York City). Of course, these weren't potato houses at all. They were cobblestone houses. They not only inspired the architectural student, but they inspired the Freemans to find out more and share their find with others. Cobblestone Quest is the result of that curiosity. This is the Freemans' 14th guidebook.

The Cubs are a national joke -- and the Blackhawks are laughing Chicago Tribune, United States - 5 hours ago Because I never imagined the Blackhawks president could orchestrate a first-round sweep of his former employer, the Cubs, after they put together the best ...

Killing Joke play first US show in 20 years NME.com, UK - 53 minutes ago Killing Joke played their first US show in 20 years at the House Of Blues in Los Angeles last night (October 9) for a star-studded crowd that included ...

Kazakhstan coach wants players to prove country is no joke Times Online, UK - 25 minutes ago At Wembley Stadium this afternoon, 11 Kazakh football players can prove that their country is not a joke. They may be ranked 131st in the world, ...

Joe Moody criticized for online 'joke' over military El Paso Times, TX - 8 hours ago "Obviously, it was a joke," Moody said. "It was a poorly worded joke at that. I have nothing but respect for the military and military service. ...

Long Beach 'Aquatics Capital': A boast, a goal, a joke? Los Angeles Times, CA - 5 hours ago Long Beach this week declared itself "Aquatics Capital of America." Yes, Long Beach has a lot of nice oceanfront property -- and the Queen Mary. ...

LIKE IT IS : Offensive struggles no joke to Auburn’s coach Arkansas Democrat Gazette, AR - 13 hours ago Of course, that is a joke making its way around the state of Alabama, especially among Crimson Tide fans, which our Harding reader happens to be. ...

The Morning Line: Get Out the Joke Washington Post, United States - 12 hours ago By Date By Category As we open the envelope, this week's Riffys resonate with electoral humor. Whether the results are rigged or not, the high court that is ...

Keane joke about Noel Gallagher assault - Daily Gossip NME.com, UK - 13 hours ago Welcome to the Daily Gossip: your daily stop-off to find out who in the world of music has been up to what. Keane drummer Richard Hughes has reopened the ...

Schoolboy stabbed after ‘bad joke’ Dispatch Online, South Africa - 17 hours ago “What we’ve heard is that he never liked that joke and he ran to his class to get the knife. After that, he came running out to the victim and stabbed him,” ...

Stuff.co.nz

Buy Kiwi Made labelled a 'joke' Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand - Oct 9, 2008 One New Zealand manufacturer, who did not wish to be named, said the Buy Kiwi Made brand was a 'joke.' "We're not wanting to get involved. ...