Built to Last
This stone house
located at 172 Walnut Street in Buena Vista and was built in the 1800's from naturally occurring sandstone that was
found in abundance in the area.
The house is currently owned by Russell and Dorothy Harcha.
The Stone Industry
in Buena Vista
Several sandstone bearing rock formations crop out along the Ohio River in the vicinity
of Buena Vista.
These exposed rock formations attracted the attention of early settlers of the area who
used blocks of the stone that naturally broke off of the ledges of the outcrops for building purposes.
The village
of Buena Vista is situated on the bank of the Ohio River in the Southwestern corner of Scioto County and is one of the oldest
quarrying centers in Ohio and for many years it was one of the most important.
General Nathaniel Massie aquired
a parcel of land along the river at Buena Vista no later that 1801 and a short time later sold part of this
land to Joseph Moore.
Moore used lose blocks of stone from the adjacent hillsides to build a stone house in the
valley between Buena Vista and Rockville in 1814.
Over the next 15 years or so Moore dragged a large quantity of local stone from the hillsides using oxen to
the river bank and then rafted it downriver to Cincinnati.
In 1831 Moore was succeeded in the stone business
by John Loughry who was an egineer and actually started quarrying the bedrock
from three ledges at and near the tops of the hills in the area.
One of the deeper layers of rock was of
particular high quality and became very popular amongst the architects, engineers, and builders of Cincinnati so
much so that it became known as the City Ledge.
After the early 1840s almost all the Buena Vista stone
quarried for use in Cincinnati was obtained from this layer and transported by barge to the Queen City.
Loughry
retired in 1856, however more quarries opened in the region in the mid-1800's and remained in production until the early
1900's.
