General Description of the Alcove Stone Quarry
Alcove Bluestone, geologically known as Hamilton sandstone, comes from a quarry located 20 miles southwest of Albany, New York, historically known as the Mossy Hill Quarry. It is part of the Mount Marion formation which lies along the Hudson Valley from southern Albany County to Ulster County. This stone has been quarried since the early1800s and was historically used throughout the Hudson Valley
and New York City for sidewalks and curbing. Its original trade name was North River Bluestone or Hudson River Bluestone. The Mossy Hill Quarry, in Alcove, New York, was obtained by Harold O’Brien, Jr. in 1954, and is currently being worked by the O’Brien family to supply building stone throughout the United States. The ledges of the
Mossy Hill Quarry offer a wide variety of color and texture for many building and landscaping purposes. There are many uses for Alcove Stone. It is comparable to granite in hardness, density, and water absorption; but, it is actually classified as sedimentary sandstone. The
inside color of the stone is blue to a charcoal bluegray. The exception is in the natural cleft surfaces. These surfaces have been exposed over time to water and minerals in the soil and, therefore, have variable colors such as deep blue, gunmetal, rust, and brown. Where there is rust, it is stable and does not bleed. It is an extremely fine grained
stone, suitable for profiling and sculpture. The stone lies in layers within the quarry beds and has natural horizontal and vertical seams running through it of variable thicknesses.