Candoro Marble Works
|
Candoro Marble Works
|
|
Candoro Marble Works showroom
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | 681 Maryville Pike Knoxville, Tennessee |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 35°55′58″N 83°55′20″W / 35.93278°N 83.92222°WCoordinates: 35°55′58″N 83°55′20″W / 35.93278°N 83.92222°W |
| Area | 5.4 acres (22,000 m2) |
| Built | 1914 |
| Architect | Charles I. Barber, multiple |
| Architectural style | Beaux-Arts |
| NRHP Reference # | 96001399 |
| Added to NRHP | December 4, 1996; July 22, 2005 |
The Candoro Marble Works is a marble cutting and polishing facility located in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Established as a subsidiary of the John J. Craig Company in 1914, the facility's marble products were used in the construction of numerous monumental buildings across the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Although Candoro closed in 1982, independent marble fabricators continued using the facility until the early 21st century, when it was purchased by the preservation group, South Knox Heritage. In 1996, several of the facility's buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places.
By the beginning of the 20th century, East Tennessee had become one of the nation's major suppliers of finished marble. The John J. Craig Company, which operated several quarries in the vicinity of Knoxville, was one of the region's top marble suppliers during this period. John J. Craig III, grandson of the company's founder, and three co-investors— F.C. Anderson, W.J. Donaldson, and S.A. Rodgers— established Candoro to cut and polish the company's quarried and imported marble. The name "Candoro" is a combination of the first letters of each cofounder's last name. The company's showroom and garage, completed in 1923, was designed by noted Knoxville architect Charles I. Barber (1887–1962).
The Candoro Marble Works is located in South Knoxville's Vestal community along Candora Road, spanning most of the north side of the road between its Maryville Pike (State Route 33) and Spruce Road intersections. The showroom is the easternmost building, lying adjacent to Maryville Pike, and is connected to Candora Road by an oft-photographed tree-lined allée. The large cutting facility lies to the west of the showroom and garage, and the finishing building lies immediately west of the cutting facility. A smaller building housing the boilers and company offices stands in front of the finishing building.
A marble scrap yard lies across the street from the cutting facility. Behind the scrap yard lies one of the so-called Witherspoon sites, where radioactive materials from the K-25 plant in Oak Ridge were recycled in the 1960s and 1970s. The Witherspoon sites were at the heart an environmental controversy in the 1980s that led to a multi-million dollar cleanup effort by the Department of Energy.
In the years after the Civil War, East Tennessee experienced a quarrying boom that focused on a type of pinkish Holston Formation limestone known as "East Tennessee marble." By 1900, nearly a dozen companies were operating quarries or finishing facilities in and around Knoxville, giving the city the nickname, "The Marble City." The John J. Craig Company, one of the most successful of these companies, operated quarries near Friendsville in Blount County and near Concord in Knox County.
...
Wikipedia