MATERIALS FROM THE EARTH USED AT TOPEKA HIGH SCHOOL
By Kathy Jensen
kjensen@topeka.k12.ks.us
I have been a teacher at Topeka High School science teacher since 1971. Over the years I have enjoyed working in a building of such substance and beauty. It is a building in which the entire City takes enormous pride . In the Summer of 2001when I was asked to do a project to fulfill the course requirement for the Earth Science Update Class at Emporia State University, it seemed natural for me to explore the natural materials found in the school. Topeka High School is located at 800 W. 10th Street, Topeka, Kansas, USA. This project was completed in the Spring of 2002.
Every day, thousands of students and staff of Topeka High School trod upon, sit upon, and look upon rocks and minerals that were formed millions of years ago in Kansas and throughout the United States. On this website examples of each of the major rock types, igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary are shown.
ths tower
The Topeka Board of Education approved the building of a new high school on Tenth Street in 1929. This building was to be like no other school in the region. It was to cost over a million dollars! This at a time when bread was less than 25 cents a loaf and the average laborer made less than $2 a day. They appropriated money for marble, slate, limestone and terrazzo to be used as building materials. They hired a locally esteemed architect, Thomas Williamson, to design the building.
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photo date 4/3/2002© kathy jensen
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The base of the building is faced in native Kansas limestone, a sedimentary rock, which was quarried in the southeastern part of the state, and is also found on the Statehouse two blocks east of the school. http://www.kgs.ukans.edu/Publications/primer/primer06.html
statehouse limestone
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date 11/3/01© kathy jensen
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The rice-like objects, which are easily seen in the Statehouse limestone, are fusalinids, a marine organism that inhabited the seas which covered Kansas during the Mesozoic Era. These can also be seen in the Topeka High School limestone.
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date 11/3/2001© kathy jensen
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The picture above illustrates the weathering of limestone, which has occurred in the sixty years since the school was built. The moisture and acidity in the air dissolves the calcium carbonate from which limestone is made.http://www.kgs.ukans.edu/Publications/primer/primer07.html
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photo date 11/3/01 ©kathy jensen
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Terrazzo is a man-made conglomerate. A conglomerate is a group of rocks which are cemented together usually using limestone. The terrazzo used on the indoor steps to Topeka High School is made of biotite, and quartz. The biotite chips are black and the quartz are white.
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date 3/11/02© kathy jensen
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Marble is a metamorphic rock of limestone. The marble used on the walls of the first floor at Topeka High was quarried in Tennessee and represents the total supply of a small pocket of a quarry in Tennessee. The patterns were carefully matched when it was installed.
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date 12/28/01© kathy jensen
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The sections of the roof facing the street sides of the school are covered with slate. The slate in this roof weighs a total of 157 tons. It was quarried in slabs of a quarter inch to an inch thick; it was attached with over a ton of copper nails. Slate is a metamorphic rock of shale. It is extremely durable and attractive. It is also used as flooring in homes and businesses. Note the green copper weathervane on the roof. When copper weathers, it oxidizes to a green patina. This can also be seen on the Statehouse dome.
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date 11/3/01© kathy jensen
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Below is a close-up of the slate used for the school roof.
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date 3/11/02 ©kathy jensen
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photo date 11/3/02 ©kathy jensen
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The bench in the front foyer was a gift from Sarah McNeive's 1949 classmates honoring all of the work she had done over the years for her class. It was presented during their 50th reunion in the fall of 1999. The bench was made by the Carthage Marble Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri at a cost of $2,780. The bench is made of granite, an igneous rock.
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The 500, 000 face bricks used in the building were hand made in Carlinsville, Illinois. The Board of Education. wanted a special brick, not the standard school brick. The bricks they chose were made using the clay of Illinois. The bricks made by this company were also used in the most expensive homes of the time in St. Louis. The mortar used in the building is cement, which is made of a mixture of limestone and clay. The cement joints were tuck-pointed (a type of repair used for cement which joins brick) in the 1970s.
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date 11/3/2001 ©kathy jensen
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date 11/3/2001 © kathy jensen
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It took twelve months from rough excavation to the completion of the exterior of Topeka High School in 1930. In the sixty plus years since its completion, thousands of students and staff have enjoyed the many beautiful features of the school. What they may not have considered is the fact that it took millions of years for the Earth to form the materials which were used in the school.
TOPEKA HIGH QUIZ
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people without whose help I could not have completed this project: Doug Wallace, the Topeka High School Historian; Joan Barker, the secretary for the Topeka High School Historical Society; Kathryn Jensen, my daughter, who’s technical assistance was invaluable; Susan Patrick andBarbara Oldham, the Topeka High School Librarians; and Don Jensen, my husband who assisted my photographic efforts.
This page was last modified 4/29/02