Masonry Magazine December 1997 Page. 21
These cables were attached to limestone blocks and other supplies, like mortar, for transport to masons high atop the building. This same steam technology also powered stiff-legged cranes, jibs, and booms enabling masons to move limestone blocks horizontally over greater distances.
As Rush's design indicated, each limestone block was dressed on site by masons skillfully employing 'pitching chisels.' These rather heavy, flat-faced, un-sharpened chisels were used exclusively to 'pitch off the edges of a stone to square it up for placement. As stone fragments were pitched off, masons created a block, ready for construction use, that possessed a distinctive rock faced exterior finish.
Such uniform, rock-faced exterior finishes were inherent characteristics of Richardsonian Romanesque buildings and reflected the architectural style's philosophy of 'truth to materials.' This philosophy links buildings like the Rush County Courthouse to the subsequent architectural Arts and Crafts Movement, as well as to architectural greats like Louis H. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.
As one of Rush's midwest adaptations of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, the Rush County Courthouse's facade is punctuated with windows set deeply into its walls and arranged in groups in a ribbon-like fashion that circles the building.
Large, Roman arch entries without columns or piers for support are utilized on each side of the building with Roman Order Tuscan columns flanking both sides of the main, north entrance for aesthetic purposes. The same tapered columns appear again on all sides of the building at the second story window line to support a decorative limestone ledge.
Perhaps, the first purely decorative limestone element carved for the building was its cornerstone, ceremoniously placed on September 27, 1896 as tradition dictates on the northeast corner of the building.
The east side of the stone bears the names of county commissioners, architects, and builders, but it's the north side that best illustrates the skills of the stone-carving masons to create a piece of art celebrating the essence of the community. A sheave of wheat wrapped in a banner proclaiming, 'Erected 1896 A.D.' is