Berea Sandstone

Wapakoneta’s Court House is built of Berea sandstone with tile floors, the Courthouse was highly fire-resistant. The Courthouse marked its centennial in 1994, and continues in its role as seat of the county's courts. Photo shot by Derek Jensen, 2005-October-30.

The Berea Sandstone was named for exposures near Berea, Cuyahoga County, where it was quarried at an early date for grindstones. The Berea is fine-grained, but the grains are angular rather than rounded, which makes this stone ideal as an abrasive. It has been quarried in many areas as a building stone and was used for foundations, sidewalks, bridge abutments, and for buildings. Many large pubic and private buildings were constructed of Berea Sandstone. It is still quarried at South Amherst, where it reaches a thickness of more than 200 feet. Traditionally, the Berea was considered to be of Mississippian age but recently it has been assigned a Late Devonian age. The Berea formed when sand was carried by streams into the Ohio sea from the Canadian Shield to the north and from the Catskill Delta to the east.