One morning in the summer of 1892. Dr. J. Havens Richards. S.J ..
President of
Preface
Concrete has a long and honorable history as a sturdy, if not very attractive, building
material. Roman builders used it extensively for walls, fortifications, bridges and other
engineering works. but practically always behind a facing of brick or stone masonry to
protect the concrete from weathering, and possibly, for architectural beauty as well.
In the Nineteenth Century. the use of concrete was revived, and after the invention of
steel-reinforced concrete in the 1880's it was again extensively used for buildings and
engineering structures. Seldom, however. was it exposed to view as the final surface. Like
the Romans. modern architects covered their concrete walls with stucco, stone or brick to
provide a traditional. attractive and durable finish. Later, in the early 1920's they intro-
duced rustications and recessed patterns into unfaced concrete walls to create shadows and
add interest to otherwise drab gray surfaces.
But concrete also had a beauty of its own. hidden from view by the gray cement paste
which stuck the aggregate particles together. Although the idea was not original with him,
John Joseph Earley exposed the natural colors of these aggregate particles to view by
removing the cement paste from the surface. The result was a warm, attractive finish, the
color of which could be varied from dazzling white through hundreds of color gradations to
jet black. By applying superb craftsmanship to the scientific discoveries of their time, Earley
and his associates perfected a process for producing exposed aggregate stucco. This led to
the invention of a new art form -- concrete mosaic -- and, later, to the production of entire
buildings by precasting concrete panels in a factory for later assembly at the building site.
This last began a revolution in building architecture which is still under way.
In the chapters which follow. I have. tried to trace the development of the "Earley
Process" which led to this revolution in architecture. This search was seriously hampered
by the loss of most of the Earley Studio's records in a disastrous fire at the Rosslyn plant in
the 1950·s. Inevitably, therefore,l have had to rely heavily on John Earley's own writings,
the Proceedings of the American Concrete Institute and other published sources for
technical details and also for an understanding of the philosophy and motivation which led
Earley into new discoveries and applications for concrete. I am deeply indebted to Frances
Earley Kuhn and Vernon G. Taylor, without whose assistance very little of John Earley's
personal life could have been written. I wish also to acknowledge the assistance of Patricia
J. Krohn with the preparation of the manuscript.
Frederick W. Cron
Lakewood. Colorado
May, 1977
Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.. received two unusual callers. The older of the
two, in his thirties. introduced himself as James Earley. a stone carver employed in the
construction of Dahlgren Memorial Chapel. then nearing completion on the University
campus. With him was his son, John Earley, a boy of about ten years. James Earley had a
special request to make to Father Richards.
On the north wall of the chapel. in an inconspicuous place under the gutter. was a stone
somewhat larger than the others. The elder Earley asked for permission to carve this stone
into the figure of a monk holding up the gutter. This request was granted by Father Richards
and the Chapel's architects. Henry Simpson. and Charles E. Barry of Washington. D. c.. on
condition that the figure not be made grotesque or ridiculous.
Three hours later, as he passed the Chapel on his way to his rooms. Father Richards
noticed with astonishment that the carving. a beautiful and delicate work. was finished
except for a little smoothing of the surface. However. instead of holding up the gutter the
monk was employed in the more spiritual and intellectual occupation of reading a great
folio. I The young Irish sculptor had executed the figure without plans or models. depending
entirely "on his imagination and facile technique."2
James Farrington Earley, sculptor of "The Monk of Dahlgren." as his figure later
became known, was of the fourth generation of a family of Irish stone carvers and
ecclesiastical artists who executed intricately crafted work in churches throughout the
British Isles and on the continent. He was born in Birmingham. England. September 27.
1856: he studied sculpture at the Royal Academy. London. before entering the family
business in Dublin. In 1881 he emigrated to America with his young wife, Mary Kelly.
arriving in New York just in time for the birth of their son. John. James and Mary Earley
became American citizens a year later.
James F. Earley worked for a Boston contractor for a number of years. In 1890. he was
sent by his employer to Washington, D.C.. to supervise some work there. But, owing to
labor difficulties, the work was delayed and the employer finally turned the contracts over
to Earley to complete. Earley then moved his family to Washington and set up his own
stone carving and modeling business, the Earley Studio.:l
'Business prospered, and in the ensuing years the EarleyStudio did the stone work on
many buildings and churches in the Washington area. including a number of government
The Monk of Dahlgren (Jon
Reynolds>
buildings. The ornamental sculptures for the Evening Star Building at Pennsylvania Av-
enue and Tenth Street were notable works of this period. James Earley's best-known work
of sculpture. but one not associated with his name, was the famous "Buffalo" nickel which
he designed for the U.S. mint. Another unusual commission was the death mask of the
assassinated President McKinley, which was executed by an ltalian model maker in
Earley's employ.
About 1900. James Earley leased a piece of property on G Street in Washington
between 21st and 22nd Streets, where he built a new home for his rapidly expanding
business.
John Joseph Earley, the boy who watched his father carve the Monk of Dahlgren, was
born in New York City on December 12, 1881. After his parents moved to Washington, he
entered the parochial schools there, finishing at St. John's College where he studied the
classics under the Brothers of LaSalle. At seventeen, he entered his father's studio as an
apprentice to learn the demanding crafts of sculpture, modelmaking and stonecarving.
Here. he developed skills that served him well in his later career. Here, also, he came to
know Basil Taylor. with whom he was to become closely associated in business for over
forty years.
Basil Gordon Taylor was born in July, 1880. near Warrenton, Virginia. In 1900 he left
his father's farm and came to Washington looking for work. James Earley gave him a job as
handyman around the studio, crating sculpture and doing odd jobs. Young Basil was an apt
and diligent workman. and also a keen student of the production side of the sculpture
business. Impressed by Taylor's ability, Earley gave him work of increasing responsibility.
When James Earley died in 1906, Basil Taylor was well qualified to help John Earley carry
on the business. On his deathbed, the founder of the Earley Studio asked him to stay on
and help John continue the work of the Studio.
Even as he was learning the sculpture business, young John Earley had many interests
outside his father's studio. His active and curious mind was drawn to automobiles, then
beginning to appear in considerable numbers in the cities. He mastered the intricacies of the
automotive engine to the point that he participated as mechanic in cross country road races.
Another interest was athletic sports, in which he excelled. John Earley was a powerful
swimmer, a sport in which he regularly indulged all of his life. He was a champion fencer,
one of the best in the District of Columbia, and on more than one occasion he crossed
points with President Theodore Roosevelt.
On February 11, 1904, John Earley married Elizabeth M. Vibaud, daughter of a
prominent Washington businessman. This marriage was blessed with a daughter, Frances,
born in Washington.
James Earley's last commission was a memorial at the Military Academy at West Point.
While working on this memorial he contracted pneumonia, from which he died in Washing-
ton, February 16, 1906,leaving the Earley Studio to his only son, John. Over the next forty
years John Earley and Basil Taylor would make the Earley Studio the most famous name in
the American concrete products industry.
'Letter, The Rev. J. Havens Richards to the Rev. Frank Barnum, New York, October
13. 1916. Archives of Georgetown University.
2Letter, John J. Earley to Dr. John G. Bowen, Rosslyn, Va., June 9, 1937, Archives of
Georgetown University. In this letter John Earley wrote that the speed with which his father
executed the Monk was not unusual, and that his production was "astounding."
""Monk of Dahlgren Mystery Sculpting at G.U. Solved," Washington Star, December
26, 1937.
Meridian Hill Park
After the founder's death, the work of the Earley Studio assumed a new direction, and
under John Earley and Basil Taylor it became primarily a plaster and stucco firm. They had
no difficulty getting contracts for both government and private work. One of these jobs was
the remodeling of the interior of the White House during President Roosevelt's first term.
Another was the elaborate main lobby of the new building for the Willard Hotel, erected in
1902 at Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street.
Plaster and stucco are ancient crafts. Roman stucco laid over sandstone masonry has
outlasted the stone itself. and the plastered inner surfaces of Roman aqueducts have
withstood centuries of weathering as well as the dissolving actionof water. I In the warm and
rather dry Mediterranean lands. stucco exterior finishes are still widely used, with good
results.
Nevertheless, numerous failures were reported when stucco construction was intro-
duced into the United States on a large scale in the early 1900's. This was true especially of
portland cement stuccoes laid over metal lath, which failed due to corrosion of the lath.
These failures were so frequent that stucco was being openly condemned as unsuitable for
perrnanent construction. Deeply concerned. the Associated Metal Lath Manufacturers
proposed that the Bureau of Standards of the Commerce Department join with them in a
cooperative research project to probe the causes of metal lath corrosion. The modest
project arisihg from this request was funded by the lath industry and carried out by the
Bureau in 1911.
Some 300 small test panels were made for the Bureau of Standards for this test, using
39 varieties of metal lath and 20 different mixtures of sand, cement. lime and gypsum.
These formed the exterior walls of a storage building on the Bureau's grounds in Washing-
ton. The record is not entirely clear, but it seems that the Earley Studio was engaged to
make at least some of the test panels. After two years of exposure, the researchers carefully
examined the panels, and they concluded that porousness of the plaster and imperlect
embedment of the lath had more to do with rusting of the lath than the chemistry of the
cement, lime and gypsum used to make the plaster. 2
This experiment attracted wide attention in the building industry, and also some
criticism. Some of the critics said that the mixes were over-sanded and therefore more
vulnerable to water penetration. Others thought the scope of the tests was too narrow --
that the panels were too small and that the tests should have included stuccoes laid on other
bases than metal lath, since these also had failed in service. Finally, the original sponsors
agreed to continue the experiment on a broader scale, provided other industries would
participate.
This participation was easily obtained. To avoid the criticism that had followed the
previous experiment, the Bureau of Standards selected an impartial panel of experts to
plan and supervise the new experiment and evaluate the results. The Bureau retained the
Earley Studio to do the stucco work under the supervision of the advisory committee. and
John Earley was appointed to the committee.3 The new investigation, directed by the
Bureau's cement chemistJ.C. Pearson, began in 1914 with the construction of another test
building on the Bureau's Connecticut Avenue grounds. This study was closely followed by
other related studies which, except for a brief interruption during World Wdr I. continued
into the mid-Twenties.
Very soon after they were applied, most of the experimental stucco finishes developed
networks of fine cracks known to the trade as "crazing" and "map cracking," which
disfigured the surface finish. Leaner stucco mixes, that is, those with smaller amounts of
cement and lime in proportion to sand, seemed to be more immune to cracking. but the
most effective way to reduce cracking was to change the method of construction. Previ-
7
 ously, it had been considered good practice to douse the first coat of stucco liberally with
water to insure the adherence of the finish coat. When this heavy wetting was experimen-
tally reduced to a very light dampening of the under coat, there was practically no crazing or
cracking. 4 This phenomenon, perhaps the single most important finding of the investiga-
tion, was to prove useful to Earley and Pearson in later studies.
While the Bureau of Standards was conducting the stucco investigation, the U.S. Office
of Public Buildings and Grounds was building a public park in the newly fashionable
Meridian Hill residential section of Washington. This park, designed by Horace Peaslee.
Architect of Public Buildings and Grounds. was an elaborate neoclassical composition of
retaining walls, stair cases, balustrades. renecting basins and formal gardens. To save
expense, all of the masonry construction was to be of concrete. with a stucco finish. The
Earley Studio was engaged to do the stucco work.
Before proceeding with construction. the contract required that a full scale sample wall
be made for the approval of the architect and the United States Fine Arts Commission. of
which the celebrated architect Cass Gilbert. Sr., was then chairman. The sample wall was
duly cast and stuccoed, but it did not satisfy the Commission which pronounced the nat
gray color drab and uninteresting.
Earley then made another wall, casting the piers against plaster molds to produce deep
rustications in the concrete, and giving a rough pebble dash finish to the stucco panels
between the piers. The result was a rougher texture with strong contrasting highlights and
shadows, and a better overall appearance, but the wall still had the cold gray color of
portland cement.
Meridian Hill Park. This photo was taken about 1919, when the walls,
balustrade and precast urns were relatively new. (Earley Studio) Cass Gilbert then suggested that an acceptable finish might be produced by imitating
the pebble mosaics he had seen in Italy. These were made by pressing pebbles of various
colors into mortar while it was still plastic. Earley was sure he could produce such a finish,
but he knew the labor cost could be far higher than the project budget would allow: also. he
was not sure whether the pebbles would stay in place under the action of freezing and
thawing. John Earley then had a brilliant inspiration. Why not produce a pebble finish using
the pebbles already in the concrete mix? These had been dredged from the Potomac River,
then, as now. the principal source of concrete aggregate for Washington. and were
yellowish-brown in color. However. for the pebbles to show, the gray paint-like covering of
portland cement would have to be removed. and this could be done easily only before the
concrete had set into a hard stone-like mass. Earley solved this problem by stripping the
forms while the concrete was still "green", or not fully set. and then exposing the larger
pebbles by removing the still-soft surface sand and cement with wire brushes. *
The result was astonishing. Instead of the cold gray cement color the wall glowed a
creamy tan -- the natural color of the gravel. In Earley's words:

Detail of the same balustrade as it
appeared when photographed in
1971.(Author's Photo)
cally approved by the Fine Arts Commission, but it had its own faults. The worst was a
This method of treating the surfaces at once supplied the sense of strength and size that
was lackingbefore. The wallwas no longer a plastered one, but was reinforced concrete
and nothing else, and it seemed big and strong enough to meet all the demands that
would be made upon it. A change took place in the color. The surface which had been
wholly a cement gray, was broken in frequent spots by clean pebbles in their natural
color, which varied from white to yellow.to lightbrown. These spots relieved the gray of
the cement to such an extent that they imparted to the whole structure a cream color
which was a great improvement and a decided step forward.'
Earley coined the term "architectural concrete" for this new finish. It was enthusiasti-

'This technique was not new, or original.with Earley. As early as 1907. J.H. Chubb of the Universal
Portland Cement Company had demonstrated on a small scale that attractive concrete surfaces could
be produced by exposing the aggregates while the concrete was still green and then washing the
surfaces withdilute acid.5 It is doubtful, however, that Earley knew of Chubb's work in 1916 when he
was building the Meridian Hill Park walls.

Fig. 1. Uniformly Graded Mix, With
Particles Well-Distributed
Fig. 2. Uniformly Graded Mix With
Particles Bunched In Pockets
Fig.4. Step-Graded Mix Of Two Parti-
cle Sizes. Ratio Of Particle Diameters Is
10:1
tendency for the pebbles to bunch into pockets surrounded by areas of gray sandy mortar.
which gave a blotched non-uniform appearance to the wall. However. Earley thought he
could overcome this defect by further experiment, and with characteristic vigor he set out to
solve the problem. First, however, he needed to know more about concrete as a material.
and here he was fortunate to be able to draw on the experience and knowledge of Pearson
and his associates at the Bureau of Standards, which was then the leader in cement and
condete research.
At this time, in 1916, comparatively little was known about the chemical and physical
properties of concrete, and how its various ingredients interacted with each other. even
though large quantities of concrete had been used in engineering works for over a century.
A serious student could learn practically all that was known about concrete in a few months
of intensive reading, and this is exactly what Earley did. After these studies. he sensed that
the problem of non-uniform appearance was, somehow, tied up with the proportioning of
the ingredients in the concrete mix.
The specifications for Meridian Hill Park called for a 1:2:4 mix: that is, one part of
cement to two parts of sand and four of gravel, measured by volume. This was practically a
universal formula for structural concrete in the United States at that time. Furthermore. the
sand and gravel were required to be "uniformly graded," that is, composed of several sizes
of particles, such that each successively smaller size filled the spaces between the particles of
the next larger size. The tiniest spaces between the smallest sand particles were filled by the
finely pulverized cement particles. Figure 1 is a simplified picture of a uniformly graded
concrete in which the various sized particles are distributed evenly throughout the mix.
However, such even distribution did not always occur in practice and it was then possible
for the various sizes of particles to collect in pockets each containing one or two sizes, as in
Figure 2. When the surface was exposed by brushing, the pockets gave the wall a blotchy
appearance.
From elementary geometry, Earley knew that if spheres of one size are arranged on a
plane surface so that each sphere is touching its neighbors an absolutely uniform surface
will result, as in Figure 3. Why not, he reasoned, use gravel pebbles that were all the same
size and then add just enough sand and cement to fill the spaces between them? By
experimenting in his studio with many different combinations of sand and pebbles Earley
eventually hit upon a mix using only one size of pebbles, and one size of sand particles in
which the ratio of the particle diameters was 10 to 1 (Figure 4). This mix gave the desired
uniformity, and also the greatest face area of pebbles when the aggregate was exposed by
brushing. *
With this improvement in the mix, the Earley Studio was able to complete hundreds of
square feet of walls with practically no segregation or bunching of the aggregate. However.
Earley and Taylor were faced with still another problem when they tried to cast the
balustrades. Instead of being cast in place these were precast in the studio and then
cemented in place by the masons after they had hardened and cured. The railings of the
balustrades were not difficult to cast and finish because they were rather simple in shape.
The balusters, however, were quite another story. As with the walls, the balusters had to be
demolded while the concrete was still "green" in order to wire-brush the surface and
expose the aggregate. But when Earley's workmen removed the molds chunks of concrete
stuck to them, causing ugly pits which ruined the balusters. This bond between the green
concrete and the molds was not true adhesion but, rather, a suction caused by a vacuum
developing between the concrete and the form. The green concrete had insufficient tensile
strength to overcome this suction. This problem had never arisen before because no one, in
all history, had tried to demold complicated concrete castings while they were still green
*Many years later Earley stated that these early experiments with so-called "step-graded" mixtures of
aggregates had been influenced by the work of the French engineer R. Fere!. However, Feret was
interested in mixes that would give the greatest density and strength, while Earley was seeking
uniformity in appearance. 7
and weak. This was, however, small comfort to the Earley Studio, which was losing four out
of every five casts.
Earley now drew on his recent experience with the Bureau of Standards stucco
experiments for guidance. The base coats of the most successful stucco panels had been
somewhat porous and were only slightly dampened before the finish coats were applied.
When the finish coats were laid on, some of the water in the fresh mortar was drawn into the
porous base. This immediately stiffened the mortar and caused it to set much more rapidly
than it would have on a non-absorbent base.
The concrete used to cast the balusters had to be somewhat wet and fluid in order to
flow into and fillthe complicated molds, and therefore it contained more mixing water than
was needed to accomplish the chemical set, or hydration, of the cement in the mix. But after
the concrete was in place in the molds, this water was no longer needed and served only to
slow the set and weaken the concrete. Earley reasoned that if he could, somehow, remove
a part of the mixing water from the concrete after it was in the mold, the casting, like the
stucco finish coat. would set faster, and thus have sufficient strength when green to
overcome the suction of the mold. The handiest absorbent material was ordinary news-
paper. so Earley had his shop men pile folded newspapers on the freshly-filled molds. The
papers acted as a blotter and were soon soaked by water drawn out of the concrete by
capillary action. Earley then had the men pile fine sand on the newspapers, and it too
became saturated.
This treatment was completely successful. So much free water was drawn out of the
fresh concrete that the balusters could be demolded without injury and the balustrade was
completed without further incident.
Earley had now discovered and put into use the significant elements of what was to
become an important industrial process. These elements -- step grading of aggregate for
uniform appearance and the development of early strength by removal of excess free water
were eventually to lead him into radical improvements in the ancient art of stucco and, later,
to the precasting of architectural concrete.
For John Earley. Meridian Hill Park was the beginning of an involvement with concrete
that was to last for nearly 30 years. Eventually, he became the world's foremost expert on
the practical aspects of concrete making. and under his direction the Earley Studio
executed works of such unusual complexity and beauty that they have never been
equalled. We will examine some of these works in the chapters which follow.
'R. Malinowski. A Slatkine, and M. Ben Yair, "Durability of Roman Mortars and
Concretes for Hydraulic Structures at Caesarea and Tiberias" Final Report of the
International Symposium, RILEM, Paris, 1961, p. 531.
2Frank A. Hitchcock, "Stucco Investigations at the Bureau of Standards with Recom-
mendations for Portland Cement Stucco Construction" Bureau of Standards Circular
No. 311, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1926, p. 4.
'Earl J. Bradley, The Magic Powder G.P. Putnam's Sons, N.Y., 1945, p. 203.
"Hitchcock. op. cU., p. 9.
'J.H. Chubb. "Artistic and Commercially Practical Surface Finishes for Concrete
Work" Engineering Record, April 3, 1907, p. 415.
'John J. Earley, "Some Problems in Developing a New Finish for Concrete" Journal
of the American Concrete Institute, Proceedings, Vol. 14, Detroit, Mich., June 1918,
p. 128.
'John J. Earley, "On the Work of the Committee on Architectural Concrete of the
Exposed Aggregate Type and the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower" Journal of the
American Concrete Institute, Proceedings, Vol. 34, Detroit, Mich. 1938, p. 600.
12
The Potomac Park Field House
To J.e. Pearson. the most interesting discovery of the 1916 stucco experiments was the
great reduction in cracking and crazing that occurred when the wetting of the undercoats
was discontinued. Clearly. the shrinkage causing the cracking was related to the water in
the fresh mortar and the undercoats. Pearson planned an experiment to probe this
relationship. He cast test bars from the same batch of stucco mortar. so that all specimens
would have the same composition and water content. Thus. the only differences between
the bars would be in the forms in which they were cast. Pearson measured the lengths of the
bars with great precision immediately after they were cast and. again. 10 days later.
These measurements showed that the shrinkage or shortening of the test bars was
directly related to the capacity of the forms to absorb water. The greatest shrinkage
occurred in bars cast in metal forms. and these bars shrank as much as 0.20 or even 0.30
percent of their original length. When bars were cast in dry. highly-absorbent plaster of
Paris forms there was practically no shrinkage. but if these same forms were saturated with
water the bars cast in them shrank as much as those cast in the non-absorbent metal forms. I
Pearson concluded that the shrinkage of stucco mortar was proportionate to the
amount of water remaining in the mortar when chemical set took place. Extremely dry
harsh mortars shrank very little. even when laid on non-absorbent bases. because they
contained little water to begin with. Wet. sloppy mortars shrank a great deal unless laid over
porous absorbent bases which sucked out the excess water. As the water was Slicked out.
the minute spaces it formerly occupied closed lip. so that the mortar was denser and less
prone to shrink when chemical hardening occurred.
While Pearson was the first to demonstrate this relation between water content and
shrinkage scientifically, he was not the first to make practical use of it. Microscopic study of
ancient Roman aqueduct linings in Israel has shown that the undercoats were soft and
porous and contained large amounts of charcoal. The final finish coats laid over these
porous bases were, however. extremely hard and dense and contained no charcoal. 2
Earley followed Pearson's experiments with keen interest. Pearson was likewise in-
terested in Earley's technique for obtaining uniform appearance in exposed aggregate
concrete by step-grading of the aggregates. They decided to pool their efforts to develop a
new type of stucco and, in 1919, began a small experiment at the Bureau of Standards.
Prior to this experiment. builders and architects had regarded stucco merely as plaster--
a mixture of sand with cement or lime -- and had used it to produce a smooth exterior
surface that was usually painted or whitewashed. Occasionally. they colored the plaster by
mixing in pigments such as ochre. but these colors were not permanent. because weather-
ing removed some of the pigment from the surface. which then assumed a bleached-out
appearance. Earley and Pearson decided to break with tradition and treat stucco as a
fine-grained concrete rather than as plaster. This "minature concrete," they thought.
could be wire-brushed and washed with acid in the manner of the Meridian Hill concrete
work to produce a permanently-colored surface.
To Earley, an admirer of the French Impressionist painters, the color possibilities of such
a finish were without limit. As he later wrote:
An examination of drawings done in hard pastelles and of paintings of the
impressionist school suggestsa technique in coloring which is peculiarly adapta-
ble to the coloring of concrete by means of the aggregate. In the pastelles. tones
are reproduced by hatching and cross-hatching with lines of pure color without
blending on the surface of the drawing: in the paintings. by spotting with pure
 colors one beside the others. and without blending. In both cases the tones are
effected by the blending of the light rays reflected from the picture to the
observer. Wonderful depth and clarity of tone are characteristics of this school of
coloring. and in it are to be found. a great deal of exact knowledge and valuable
precedent. When this knowledge is translated in terms of concrete aggregates. it
is obvious that if the aggregates are carefully placed. all the elements are present
for the successful coloring of concrete surfaces. '

To probe these color possibilities, Earley proposed to combine natural aggregates of

different colors -- not just the yellow and brown Potomac River gravels. but also white
quartz. red sandstone. and black trap rock. First, however, he needed to know what effect,
if any. the color of the cement in the mortar matrix might have on the final color of the
concrete. Portland cements as they come from the mill have a white. buff or gray color,
depending on the ingredients of which they are made. Would these colors affect the
over-all appearance of the concrete surface after the aggregates were exposed? To find out,
Earley and Pearson cast two slabs using identical aggregates. but different-colored ce-
ments. After the surface treatment of wire brushing and washing with acid, only an expert
could have said which sla b was made with white cement and which with dark gray cement,
so greatly did the color of the aggregates dominate the color of the whole surface.
This simple test convinced John Earley that the color of the cement was of minor
Modernized facade for a build-
importance. but in actual practice for years afterward he used one brand of cement. made
ing on Connecticut Avenue,
always in the same mill. for all of his important work.'·
Washington, D. C. Finished in
For their new stucco process to be practical Earley and Pearson knew that they would 1923, this was one of the ('artiest
have to be able to control the gradation of the aggregates. the water content of the mortar, applications of theEarleyPro-
and the absorptivity of the undercoats within rather narrow limits. Also, the mix would have cess. <Earley Studio)
to be of such consistency that reasonably skilled workmen could apply the stucco using
techniques then available to tlle trade. Their trial mixes were concretes in which the sizes of
the gravel and sand particles were scaled down to one tenth of those for normal structural
concrete. A great many of these trial mixes were made, with aggregates of different sizes
and colors Skilled plasterers from the Earley Studio applied these mixes to panels on the The columns for the Field House were precast in the Earley Studio. and for the
penthouse of one of the Bureau of Standards laboratories. The researchers then observed complicated Corinthian capitals. plaster molds were used. At this time. the usual practice
the panels minutely. changing the mix if necessary to improve the appearance, or to make was to waterproof plaster molds by coating them with shellac. After each casting the molds
the miniature concrete easier for the workmen to handle. had to be touched up and re-shellacked, a tedious job. Earley conceived the idea of lining
the molds with metal foil, or oiled cloth, not only to waterproof them but also to protect the
Finally. Earley and Pearson were sufficiently satisfied with the process to try it out on an soft plaster surface from damage during casting. These linings were so effective that the
actual building outside the laboratory About this time. 1919, the Office of Public Buildings studio was able to cast all the capitals with one set of molds. Later. Earley patented this
and Grounds was seeking bids for the construction of the East Potomac Park Field House in idea.' He also patented the idea of using step-graded aggregate to achieve uniformity and
southwest Washington. The walls of this building were to be of structural clay tile with an color control for exposed aggregate concrete.' These patents were the basis for the "Earley
applied stucco surface in the popular neoclassic style. Along the south side was a long Process" which the Earley Studio exploited for four decades afterwards.
portico supported by fourteen Corinthian columns, which gave the structure the appear-
ance of a small Greek or Roman temple. When completed, the entire building was to be
painted a uniform color.

The Earley Studio took the contract for this building with the understanding that they
could use the new exposed aggregate stucco: and if the final appearance was satisfactory to
the owner. the painting would be omitted. The construction posed no difficult problems to
the experienced Earley Studio workmen. The final surface had the same pleasing buff color
that had been so warmly praised by the Fine Arts Commission at Meridian Hill Park, and.
needless to say. it was never painted.
'For its earliest works Earley Studio used Atlas White Portland Cement produced at the Northampton,
Pennsylvania. plant of the Atlas Portland Cement Company. This was the beginning of a long and
mutually profitable relationship that lasted until Earley's death. Earley wrote a number of books on
architectural concrete which were published by Atlas. and Earley's process was widely praised in Atlas'
national advertising.
'J.e. Pearson, "Shrinkage of Portland Cement Mortars and Its Importance in Stucco
Construction" Journal of the American Concrete Institute. Proceedings. Vol. 17.
Detroit. Mich. 1921, p. 133-148.
'R. Malinowski, A. Slatkine, and M. Ben Yair, "Durability of Roman Mortars and
Concretes for Hydraulic Structures at Caesarea and Tiberias" Final Report of Interna-
tional Symposium. RILEM. Paris, 1961, p. 535, 543.
'J.e. Pearson, and J.J. Earley, "New Developments in Surface Treated Concrete and
Stucco" Journal of the American Concrete Institute. Proceedings, Vol. 16, Detroit.
Mich., 1920, p. 76.
'United States Patent No. 1,412,392. issued April 11. 1922.
'United States Patent No. 1,376,748, issued May 3,1921.

15

The Fountain of Time
The Potomac Park Field House was a triumph for the Earley Process. No sooner was it
completed than a stream of orders for the new finish began to flow into the Studio. '"
However. John Earley's restless mind was ready to move on to other things. and an
opportunity to do so was not long in coming.
In November. 1920. in his Illinois studio. the sculptor Lorado Taft was putting the
finishing touches on his model for a huge fountain which he hoped would be erected on the
Midway in Chicago. the site of the IH93 World's Fair. The inspiration for this fountain had
come from the couplet by the English poet Austin Dobson:
Time goes. you say? Ah. no.
Alas. time stays: we go.
Taft tried to express this thought in sculptural terms. He conceived of rime as an
immense brooding figure standing austerely alone. -- immovable -- as a wave of humanity
passed before him in its march to eternity. As he developed the idea. the group of struggling
humanity became longer and longer. In Taft's words:
Meantime. the procession had gotten to be 120 feet long: there were ninety nine figures
and then a baby -- we hadn't expected the baby -- that made it an even hundred. I
Finally. after seven years of work. the Fountain ofTime was completed. and Taft looked
around for some way of putting the plaster model into more permanent form.
~'r,
Lorado Taft in his studio modeling the Fountain of Time, 1920. (Chicago
Historical Society)
'The most notable commissions of this period were the Siamese Embassy in northwest Washington.
and the refinishing of the exterior of old St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Alexandria. Virginia.
16
The monument had grown to be so long. so high. so complicated. that I couldn't eve:l
get a bid on the carving of it. I did not care to put it into bronze: my thought had been
stone. or something similar to stone. .1 began to make inquiries to see whether a thing
as complicated as this could be made in concrete.
Through the good offices of a friend 1 was referred to the Bureau of Standards in
Washington. They in turn referred me to Mr. Earley. as true an artist as this country
possesses.and I finally persuaded him to study my group.'
The Fountain of Time posed a challenge that Earley could not resist. At the time. it was
the largest single group of statuary in existence. and Earley viewed its fabrication as a
magnificent opportunity to try out on a grand scale his new ideas about concrete. Soon. he
and Basil Taylor were deep in the details of planning the casting of the Fountain.
Previously. most large sculptural groups had been composed of separate figures
standing on a common base but touching each other only at a few points. The individual
figures could be cast separately. and then assembled on the base. Not so with Lorado Taft's
Fountain of Time. Father Time was indeed a solitary figure. but the rest of the Fountain was
a large "wavelike mass. from which projected and into which receded nearly one hundred
colossal figures. '" This part was a single continuous structure 120 feet long. 18 feet high
and 14 feet wide of such complex shape that it would have to be cast in a plaster mold of
unprecedented size. The mold was far too large to be made in one solid piece. and much
too complicated to be filled by the usual concrete casting methods. Add to this the
requirement that every part should be made so that the concrete could be demolded while
"green" to expose the aggregate. and you have the elements of a first class engineering
problem which Basil Taylor. as the firm's production manager. and practical engineer. set
out to solve.
His first decision. in which Earley and Taft concurred. was to make the statuary group
hollow. thus saving concrete and reducing the weight on the foundations. and. most
importantly. making it possible to remove excess mixing water from the concrete through a
porous core. Constructing the core was a critical part of the job. First. Taylor made a survey
of Taft's plaster model. drawing contours of it at every foot of elevation. (1\ was as if the
model were submerged one foot at a time and a line drawn where the water surface met the
model surface.) The contours were sawn from wood. but made about four inches smaller
all around than the outline of the model. so that there would be a 4-inch space between the
core and the exterior plaster molds. When the contours were assembled on a strong
framework in their proper places. they were covered with metal lath and over this a coat of
lean mortar was applied without compaction. The result was a strong. highly porous inside
form for the concrete shell of the monument.
Next. Taylor designed the outside plaster mold. and because of the extreme irregularity
of the figures he had to divide the mold into hundreds of pieces. each of which could be
easily and quickly removed after the concrete was cast. These were made of plaster of Paris
heavily reinforced with jute fiber and 2-inch iron pipe. The smallest pieces were only 12
inches across. but the largest were about 2112 feet by 4 feet and weighed over 1000 pounds.
In all there were more than 4500 pieces. and when completed. the mold for the Fountain of
Time was the largest plaster piece-mold ever made.
Like everything else about the project the concrete work was unique. To begin with. the
color of the concrete had to be satisfactory to Lorado Taft. Earley proposed a mixture of
crushed Potomac River gravel for the aggregate in which the particles ranged in color from
white to yellow to brown. and were of such size that when viewed at a distance of 100 feet
the concrete would appear uniform in color and texture. When Taft saw the sample panels
made from this aggregate he gave his enthusiastic approval. As he later said. after the
Fountain was finished.
I found that aggregate of his produced an effect which. in surface. is like the treatment
we used to study so diligently in Paris. When I found I was going to get that color. I was
17

Basil Taylor (left) and workman inspect the form work for casting the
Fountain of Time. The porous core for extracting surplus water is visible at
left. (Earley Studio)
more than delighted. and even then I was not prepared for the beautiful result that has
come to me.'
In order that the concrete might fill so complicated a mold it was necessary to mix it very
soft. In order that it might not shrink away from the dome-like surface of the mold it was
necessary to mix it very stiff. This difficulty was overcome by bringing about a change in
consistency while the concrete was in the mold. The core was so constructed that it
would extract the excessof water but at the same time leave sufficient for the hydration
of the cement. Although the most important parts of the work. such as the heads and
arms were at the top of the molds. the most difficult position to fill. the concrete showed
no tendency to shrink away from the mold owing to the extreme density developed
when the excess water was extracted."
As the above would indicate. the actual pouring of the concrete. so carefully studied
and planned. was accomplished without a hitch. The twenty-six pours into which the work
was divided were completed on schedule during the summer of 1922 and the Fountain was
dedicated November 15. 1922.
The Fountain of Time was both an artistic and a technical triumph. To John Earley. who
had been trained as a sculptor and stone carver. it marked the beginning of the emancipa-
tion of the artist from the sweat and agony of converting his inspired creations into
permanent form with hammer and chisel. or else relying on another to interpret his work in
stone. Schooled in the history of art. Earley knew that Michelangelo, after he had conceived
the idea of his great statue of David and had thoroughly worked it out in a model. had spent
three years in a frenzy of work translating his design into marble. And now. the Earley
18
Studio had rendered a far larger work into permanent form in less than one year -- a task
that a score of expert stone carvers could not have duplicated in that timel Earley was
convinced that if Michelangelo "had known concrete as we know it he would have filled the
world with his work. ".'
Now. probably for the first time. Earley realized that his new "architectural concrete"
was also a new fine arts medium. From his studies he was familiar with the life and works of
the impetuous Renaissance sculptor Luca delia Robbia. who longed to see his work
completed as soon as it was conceived and was impatient with the slow producti0n of works
in stone and bronze. Luca sought a new. an easier and less costly matC'rial for his art and Iw
found it in terra cotta. a plastic medium that could be made permanent merely by firing in a
furnace.
Earley's architectural concrete was just such a plastic medium. As he wrote in 1924:
We are now in need of a new artistic material: one beNer in keeping with the character of
our time. quicker. less costly than the medium of Luca delia Robbia. by just so much as
the general movement of our time is quicker. more economic than that of his.
Craftsmen have always known that for the production of three dimensional forms
plastic materials are the very best. and because of the great facility of such materials.
have used them wherever possible. The faCility of plastic materials is based upon the
general law that less force is required to mould and form a plastic than a solid. Now.
therefore, because force whether mechanical or human may always be measured in
terms of expense. plasticity endows a material with basically economic properties.
However. facility and economy alone are not enough: there must be permanence to
guarantee the preservation of the works themselves: nor is form alone enough: there
must be color and texture to meet the requirements of an architecturally acceptable
appearance. So. a new material must be easy. spontaneous. inexpensive. permanent
and subject to any form. color or texture.
This is what at1racted us to concrete. its character as a plastic which would harden
into a strong. permanent mass. The history of concrete. its universally honorable
service, are convincing and sufficiently satisfying to justify the expenditure of a lifetime of
study and effort to give to it the necessary appearance. Is it unreasonable to assume that
concrete. a permanent plastic. when taught to take form. color and texture at the will of
the designer and under the direction of the craftsman. will be the long-looked-for
material?"
Through his experiments with step grading and exposed colored aggregates Earley had
intentionally secured control over the color and texture of concrete surfaces. Unintention-
The Fountain of Time a few years after its completion, probably in the late
1920's. (Chicago Historical Society)

A portion of the Fountain of Time as it appeared in 1973 after over fifty
years of exposure to severe weathering. (Chicago Park District)
ally. Earley had vastly improved the durability of concrete by withdrawing surplus mixing
water before the concrete hardened. a phenomenon that was demonstrated experimen-
tally by the pioneer concrete scientist Duff Abrams in 1918 when he proposed his
water/cement ratio law. but which was still not widely known. Earley had. indeed. trans-
formed concrete from a drab utilitarian material into a first-class artistic and architectural
medium. The Fountain of Time was not only an artistic triumph for Lorado Taft. its sculptor.
but was also the unveiling to the world of an exciting new artistic material.
The Fountain of Time inspired so much interest among concrete men that Earley and
Taft were persuaded to appear before the 1923 convention of the American Concrete
Institute to explain how it was planned and executed. The paper Earley prepared for this
occasion was awarded the Institute's Wason Medal for the most meritorious paper of the
year. an honor he deeply appreciated.
The Fountain of Time put the Earley Studio in the national spotlight and I~d to further
commissions of major importance. It also increased Earley's confidence in himself and his
organization to the point where he was willing to undertake even larger and more rompli-
cated tasks. One of these came to him before the Fountain was finished. By the time the
Shrine of the Sacred Heart was finished. John Earley would be ilcclaimed as the;1 ,Jentor
of one of the few art forms to originate in the Twentieth Century.
References
'Lorado Taft. "A New Art of Concrete: An Address" Journal of the American
Concrete Institute, Proceedings. Vol. 19. Detroit. Mich. 1923. pp. 178-1H4.
'''Remarks of Lorado Taft" A stenographic report of the remarks of Lorado Taft at a
dinner given by the Portland Cement Association in Chicago about November. 1922.
Archives of Georgetown University.
'John J. Earley. "Building the "Fountain of Time" Journal of the American Con-
crete Institute, Proceedings. Vol. 19. Detroit. Mich .. 1923. p. 186.
'Ibid., p. 190.
"John J. Earley. The Concrete of the Architect and Sculptor, Portland Cement
Association. Chicago. 1926. p. 7.
"John J. Earley. "What Concrete Means to the Craftsmen Who Are Entrusted with
Interpreting Architectural Design" Substance, Form and Color Through Concrete,
The Atlas Portland Cement Company. New York. Circa 1924, p. 16, 17.
20
The Shrine of the Sacred Heart
In 1920 the congregation of the Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart acquired
a superb site at Park Road and Sixteenth Street in Washington. not far from Meridian Hill
Park. Here, they set out to build what was to become the most beautiful church in the
District of Columbia. On November 14,1920, quietly and without ceremony. the pastor,
Father Patrick C. Gavan. assisted by Fathers Eckenrode and Winter, turned the first sod for
the new edifice. I
To plan the great church. the congregation retained the Washington architectural firm
of Murphy and Olmsted. After much study. the architects recommended a church in the
form of a vaulted basilica in the north Italian Romanesque style. Surviving churches in this
style are remarkable for their lavish and colorful interior decoration. and Murphy and
Olmsted envisioned an equally beautiful interior for the Shrine of the Sacred Heart. as the
new church was to become known. However. they were immediately confronted with
practical problems of availability and cost. In the words of Frederick V. Murphy:
The broad use of color on the interior was suggested by the extensive areas of the walls.
vaults and dome. which in the Romanesque period were decorated through the free use
of rare marbles and mosaics. rich in color and interest. These materials are no longer
available for such large areas within the limits of permissible cost. but the decorative
need remains. For we still feel that walls should be covered with an enduring material of
such character. as to express the elements of design -- piers. free-standing columns and
arches'
Fortunately. at this early stage of their planning the architects learned of the recently-
completed Potomac Park Field House. One look at the warm buff color of the walls. the
crisp detailing and the superb workmanship was enough to convince them that here was an
architectural material worthy of the great church they were planning. But. they asked.
would it also be possible to vary the color and. conceivably, even produce the symbolic
designs they wished to incorporate into the decorative scheme? Murphy and Olmsted lost
no time bringing their problem to John Earley. Characteristically. he immediately sensed
the possibilities the great Romanesque church offered for immensely expanding the
horizons for his new medium, and he agreed to work with the architects to realize their
rather ambitious plan. In effect, to use his own words, Earley committed himself to produce
in concrete
decorative effects similar to those produced centuries ago by highly skilled craftsmen in
other materials, by other methods. under different conditions. but so beautifully that
they became standards of excellence for all time. J
Earley immediately set out to learn everything he could about the architects' design for
the church, to. understand it and be in perfect sympathy with it.
We studied the records of those buildings which are the accepted works of reference in
style, analyzed the values, the relative importance of the various motifs and planned the
optical sensations which should be produced by the forms, colors and quality of the
surface. The establishment of the optical sensations, or the decorative effects was the
important, in fact, the sole object of the work done in the first phase of the problem.
All the work in the first phase was done without relation to the materials which were
to be used, but later it became the reason for the selection and arrangement of these
materials. J
21
 Having thoroughly studied the design, Earley next began a search for materials with
which to execute it. Heretofore, he had used crushed Potomac River gravel for the yellow
and light brown hues, crushed quartz for white, and small amounts of black trap rock and
red sandstone. Now, however. he needed a far more varied palette to reproduce the
architects' brilliantly-colored polychrome designs.
With his usual thoroughness, Earley began the search with an intensive study of all
materials that might have sufficient durability to be used as aggregates:
A review of the materials meeting the physical requirements for aggre-
grates. .disclosed a long list of natural stones -- marble. granite and the like. the
characteristic colors of which are well established Added to them is a group of quartzes
too hard for practical use as building stone, but very beautiful. and available in granular
form for aggregate. The review brought forth also a second class of materials. the
ceramics, which are well known in pottery and mosaics. They are a permanent material
of great color range, characterized by a white clay body in which colorants. lIsually
metallic oxides. are mixed. and which is then bumed to a vitreous state. The colors of
ceramics are usually described as 'pastel shades', which denotes those of a character
common to all pigments mixed with white. A third class of materials included glasses. or
rather glass enamels, to distinguish opaque glass from clear glass. which is unsuited to
concrete aggregate. The history of these latter materials in mosaics is too well known to
need telling. Their color range seems to be without limit and their permanence beyond
dispute. They are characterized by a quartz body colored in a manner like that of
ceramics, and melted into complete fusion. They have a greater range of color than the
ceramics. greater brilliance. and equal permanence."

Although they canvassed the domestic market thoroughly, looking at hundreds of

samples, the Earley Studio eventually had to import many of the colors they needed from
France and Italy. By the time they were ready to begin work they had assembled a!Ijregates
of 200 different colors. These were stored in bins and bottles, each color catalogued
according to the Munsell System. of which Earley was an enthusiastic advocate.';' By
combining these colors in various proportions the Earley craftsmen could produce an
almost limitless variety of color tones.
Earley and his associates then had to devise a technique for applying these colored
aggregates in planned designs to the interior walls of the church. Their first experiments
were with small precast panels. and for these the architect supplied hand-painted paper
patterns showing the outlines of the design. The workmen transferred these outlines to a Oat
plaster of Paris slab, and then carved narrow grooves in the soft plaster following the lines of
the pattern, until the entire design was incised into the slab. Next. they made a casting from
the carved slab on which the design appeared in reverse. with thin ridges separating its
various parts, instead of grooves.
The workers now had an accurate form for the colored concrete, which they placed in a
half-inch layer, each color separated from its neighbors by a narrow ridge of plaster. For
strength, this thin layer of colored concrete was backed up by a two-inch layer of ordinary
gravel concrete reinforced with galvanized steel mesh. Absorptive materials. such as
newspapers, were laid on the backing concrete to extract the surplus water from fhe
" Earley was once quoted as saying, "Imagine the day before there was any system of recording
musical notes, and you have the present condition, so far as general practice goes, in the notation of
color.'"
The Munsell System, introduced in 1915, described colors in tellTls of their visual appearance to the
human eye when viewed by daylight. Colors were arranged according to three scales: hue. ranging by
ten steps from red through yellow, green, blue, purple and back to red: value. ranging in ten steps
from white through various grays to black: and chroma. in ten or more steps for each hue and value.
from very pale to brilliant to vivid. There were hundreds of combinations. each of which was numbered
in an atlas of color chips". Earley's aggregates were of ten hues in five values and four chromas, or 200
different colors in all.'
concrete and make it set quickly. Finally. Earley's men lifted the casting from the mold and
exposed the colored aggregates by hand-brushing with steel brushes.
This technique worked perfectly for precast slabs. but how could it be applied to walls.
ceilings and columns which could not be brought into the workshop? Earley's workmen
solved this problem by first incising the design into a plaster slab as for precast work. They
applied a brown coat of lean porous plaster to the wall that was to be decorated and pressed
the incised slab into the soft mortar. When the slab was removed a few hours later the ridges
outlining the design stood out from the plaster to guide the plasterer in the next step. which
was to apply the colored concrete stuccoes with a trowel. each color separated from the
other by the ridges in the brown coat. The plasterer then trued the surface and troweled it
smooth as the excess water in the colored stucco was absorbed into the porous brown coat.
Finally. after a few hours other workmen exposed the aggregates by wire brushing.
Earley called this product "concrete mosaic". and once his men had mastered the
technique for making it. completion of the church interior was merely a matter of time. The
job exerted a fascination of its own on the workmen which was probably unequalled by any
of the Earley Studio's later work. As Earley later wrote:

Concrete is so wonderfully responsive that it has wound a spell around me and around
the men in my studio. When the work is taken from the moulds each morning and the
colors are exposed. there is something so spectacular. so magical about it. that our
enthusiasm never abates. Many of the men have fallen under the spell to such an extent
that they object to working with other materials. Architects and artists who have used
concrete feel this attraction just as much as these craftsmen. 7 The photo above shows the cartoon
made by John Earley for the head of a
Earley began decorating the interior of the great church in the summer of 1922. One religious figure. Below is the shop pat-
year later the job was completed and the church was opened for services, unveiling to the tern for laying out concrete mosaic pic-
world a sensational decorative medium new to architecture. There was nothing like it in the ture, made from Earley's cartoon. (Both,
world: the effect on most beholders. then as now. was breathtaking. Light. striking the Earley Studio)
myriads of many-faceted colored aggregate particles was diffused and mellowed, filling the
interior of the great basilica with a warm glow.
The Shrine of the Sacred Heart attracted wide attention in architectural circles and also
in the concrete industry. At that time. concrete was considered only as a drab utilitarian
material. structurally efficient but not suitable for finished surfaces. yet here was a concrete
of incomparable beauty that compared favorably with the finest brick, marble or terra cotta
as an architectural finish'
The Shrine greatly enhanced Earley's reputation as a daring innovator. A story is told
that General George W. Goethals. builder of the Panama Canal. visited the church with
Earley shortly after it was completed. Earley asked the general what phase of the undertak-
ing he found most impressive, to which Goethals replied, "The nerve of the man who let
you do it''''
However. to John Earley the Shrine of the Sacred Heart was much more than an artistic
and technical challenge. It was also his offering of time and talent to Almighty God -- the
supreme expression of a deeply religious nature. This holy task was the beginning of an
intense study of religious architecture and Christian art and symbolism which led Earley in
1928 and again in 1936 to Europe and especially to Rome. Here he did research in the
Vatican library and also in the mosaic shop where over ten thousand colors in mosaic
tesserae were on display.
A life-time student. Earley assembled a very considerable personal library on architec-
tural decoration. religious art and Christian symbolism. and he was considered an authority
on these subjects. He was eager to share his encyclopedic knowledge. especially with
young people. for whom he had a great affinity. His occasional lectures on Christian art in
District of Columbia colleges were always well attended.
24
 Cartoon for concrete mosaic in-
terior ornament for the United
States Naval Academy Chapel,
Annapolis, Maryland, 1940.The
drawing is coded to show colors
of concrete aggregates. (Earley
Studio)

Earley accepted church commissions by preference, although other work was more
profita ble. Between 1923 and 1930, the Earley Studio executed mosaics and precast
ornament for at least seven churches throughout the East and South. * However, the most
unique commission of this period was the building of a gateway and ambulatory for the Main gateway of the Rosary Portico, Franciscan Monastery, Washington,
Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C. D. C., completed by the Earley Studio in 1925.John Earley's sculpture of St.
Christopher and the Christ Child is visible through the left passageway.
(Earley Studio)
About the time James Earley opened his studio in Washington the Franciscan Order
established a small monastery there under the leadership of the Very Reverend Godfrey
Schilling, O.F.M. This congregation, known as the Commissariat for the Holy Land in the
United States. had as its purpose the preservation and maintenance of the Holy Shrines
and the support of many churches, missions and schools in Palestine and other countries of
the Near East. As the work of the congregation expanded, Father Godfrey conceived the
idea of a great church in the Byzantine style as a focal center for the activities of the
Commissariat. This great church, under construction nearly a decade, was dedicated in
1899.
During the building of the Memorial Church of the Holy Land, Father Godfrey and
James Earley came to know each other well and became warm friends. Earley's artistic skill
was enlisted for the decoration of the interior, and he created at least one of the side chapel
altars. and possibly others. **

* SI. Mary's Church, Mobile. Ala. completed 1927

Chapel of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word. Houston, Texas 1927
Holy Family Church, Dayton. Ohio 1925
Church of SI. Phillip and St. James. Baltimore. Md. 1929 Earley's sculpture of St. Christ-
Church of the Immaculate Conception, Jenkintown, Pa. 1929 opher and the Christ Child as it
Church of SI. Francis de Sales. Buffalo. N.Y. 1927 appeared in May, 1972. In back-
Church of the Sacred Heart. Newark, N.J. 1928 ground is the Rosary Portico.
(Author's Photo)
**James Earley executed the altar and the carved reredos panels of the Chapel of Saint Anthony.
 Twenty-five years later, Father Godfrey came to James Earley's son with another
monastery project, this time for the construction of a cloister or portico enclosing the
Monastery grounds and gardens. This remarkable structure consisted of a Romanesque
gateway and fourteen small chapels, all connected by a colonnaded ambulatory over one
quarter mile long. Earley did the work in concrete mosaic and exposed aggregate concrete
and stucco. This Rosary Portico, as it is called, was completed in 1925.
A niche on the outside of the main gate holds a life-sized sculpture of Saint Bernardine.
facing the street. In another niche on the inside, facing the church, is an image of Saint
Michael who looks down on a third sculpture in the courtyard, this one of Saint Christopher
carrying the Christ Child on his shoulder. These are three of the four works of sculpture
known to have been created by John Earley's own hand. All three were cast in permanent
form in exposed aggregate concrete by the Earley Studio, probably about 1925. Early Process pictorial
The fourth work. inside the Church, depicts that dreadful event -- the Crucifixion of Our concrete mosaic made by
Lord on Mount Calvary. In this awe-inspiring sculpture, seventeen life-sized figures in full or Vernon G. Taylor about
partial relief rivet the attention of the beholder on the tragic scene. This powerful group is 1925. (Author's Photo)
John Earley's greatest accomplishment as a sculptor. One cannot help thinking as he stands
before it that John Earley might have become one of America's great sculptors had he
chosen to channel his energy into sculpture rather than stucco and concrete.

lThe Parish Record, monthly bulletin of Sacred Heart Church, Washington, D.C.,
January. 1921 (Archives of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, Washington, D.C.).
'F.V. Murphy. "What Concrete Meant To The Architect In the Design of the Shrine of
The Sacred Heart" Substance, Form and Color Through, Concrete, The 'Atlas
Portland Cement Co .. New York. 1924, p. 11.
'John J. Earley, "What Concrete Means To The Craftsmen Who Are Entrusted With
Interpreting Architectural Design" Substance, Form and Color Through Concrete,
The Atlas Portland Cement Co .. New York. 1924. p. 18.
4John J. Earley. "Decorative Concrete" Engineers and Engineering, Vol. 4,,",. No.
7. Engineers Club of Philadelphia. Phila. July 1931, p. 160.
'''John J. Earley "Journal of the American Concrete Institue, Proceedings. Vol.
42. January. 1946. p. 8.
"Webster's Third New International Dictionary, G. and C. Merriam. SpriJl!:lfield.
Mass, 1967. p. 448.
'''What Concrete Means to the Craftsmen, ... " op. cit. p. 20.
"William M. Avery. "Earley's Mosaic Concrete Opens Limitless Vistas in Products
Field" The Concrete Manufacturer, September, 1944, p. 131.

Entrance to Reptile House, National Zoological Park, Washington, D. C.

Earley mosaic executed in 1927. (Author's Photo)
29
 While Earley was developing his techniques for concrete mosaic and exposed aggre-
gate stucco. Russell Hart. an architect of Nashville. Tennessee. was working on plans for
rebuilding the Parthenon. a tattered relic of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897.
This plaster replica of the famous Athenian temple was the only building spared when the
Exposition was dismantled in )~9H Built to last a year. the beloved landmark. with much
patching. stood until )<)20. when it was declared unsafe. and closed to the public.'
Long before this. the Nashville Board of Park Commissioners had begun studies to
decide whether a more permanent replica could be built to replace the old Parthenon. Hart.
who had been retained for these studies. spent eleven years on the task. examining every
scrap of evidence that might suggest how the Parthenon appeared during the Golden Age
of Pericles. He studied the materials assembled by the Centennial architects in 1895.
including photographs and drawings generously given by the King of Greece. He went to
Athens to see the ruins and also to London to see the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum.
I ie read the reports of the numerous commissions of architects. historians and ar-
chaeologists who had examined the ruins over the years. And he consulted the architec-
tural scholar William Bell Dinsmoor of New York conceded by most authorities to know
more about the Parthenon than any living person.
The dimensions shown on Russell Hart's plans were as close to those of the original
temple as scholarship and architectural skill could make them. However. Hart and the
Board realized that authenticity would have to stop there: a stone building such as the
2300-year-old original would cost far more than they could hope to raise. As John Earley
later wrote. "The means by which the original had been built were no longer economic.
and other more economic means had to be devised. The achitect faced the problem of
accurately repoducing certain optical sensations by new means. of reconstructing the
Parthenon with modern material".'
Hart's dilemma is best expressed in his own words:
With the use of marble or stone eliminated at the outset. due to prohibitive cost.
there remained only reinforced concrete. finished as might later be determined.
This alternative was attended by the usual visions of crazed and cracked sur-
faces. with here and there an irregular space of the base surface painfully visible
due to deterioration of the finsih. the latter scattered in confusion on the
pavement or the ground. mute witness of another failure chalked up against the
unhappy architect _. or else perhaps the contractor' \
At this point in Hart's studies. the Earley Studio had completed the Potomac Park Field
House. the Siamese Embassy and other stucco and pre-cast jobs in the Washington area.
including the renovation of a number of Victorian brick front residences. all in the popular
neoclassic style. In these buildings thOebasic structural material was brick or structural clay
tile. and the final finish was architectural concrete stucco made by the Earley process.
These were small-scale applications of an ancient principle of building that Earley
wanted to apply on a much larger scale. He was convinced that the full economy of modern
mechanized construction methods could be realized only if structure and finish could be
completely separated so that the structural contractor could work at high speed to rough
tolerances without having to worry about the final appearance of the work. Later. this
.;.~"
~ _'tt.~""~
Replica of the Athenian Parthenon at Nashville, Tenn., 1925. (Earley
Studio)
rough structure could be covered with a high-quality finish of expensive materials applied
to close tolerances by expert workmen. To Earley the Baths of Caracalla were a good
example of how the Romans applied this principle. and in one of his papers he wrote:
In those days in Rome laborers. craftsmen. artists and even architects were
mostly slaves taken in war. So. when such a work as this was undertaken it was
organized for the best use of available resources. There were unskilled hands
aplenty and into them was put a material suited to their use. the long rough
Roman brick. With this they built. bearing the burden of the work. while skilled
hands. of which there were relatively few. decorated floors. walls and vaults with
form and color now treasured among the achievements of our race.
I recommended to architects a complete separation of finish from structure. I
am convinced that this is the best manner of using architectural concrete.
Perhaps it is the best manner of using all decorative materials. It permits all
classesof labor and materials to be used to advantage. It separates skilled from
unskilled labor and fine from coarse material. 4
When Earley began his career in the early 1900's, the separation of structure and finish
was just beginning to be applied extensively in skyscraper buildings. In these. a structural
steel skeleton fabricated at the mill could be rapidly assembled on the site. and then
covered at leisure by a non-structural skin of expensive brick. cut limestone. or terra cotta
applied by skilled and highly-paid workmen. Later, concrete skeletons were introduced.
When Russell Hart and the Nashville Park Commission came to John Earley with their
difficult concrete problem he was prepared to undertake the job. Here was the very
building he had been looking for·- a monumental work on which structure and finish could
be completely separated: the one accomplished by modern high-speed mechanized
construction methods in structural concrete. the other done painstakingly by Earley's
highly-skilled workmen using extremely accurate molds and costly materials.
With Earley's assurance that the Earley Studio would do the exterior finish and cast the
sculptures. Hart finished his plans for the concrete skeleton, and the Board contracted with
31
the Foster-Creighton Construction Company of Nashville to do the foundations and
structural work. Early in 1922. Foster-Creighton razed the old replica. strengthened the
foundations and began the construction of the frame.
The Parthenon rises from a rectangular base. or stylobate. that is 238 feet long -- about
half the length of a city block -- and III feet wide. On the stylobate, three steps above its
base. rests the peristyle. a row of 46 massive Doric columns which encloses the temple on
four sides. The peristyle supports a beam. or architrave. above which is a Doric frieze
consisting of 92 sculptured panels alternating with a conventional device called a triglyph.
The frieze and architrave. in turn. support a massive flat-pitched roof decorated at the
corners with sculptured gryphons. half beast. half bird. At each end of the building. the
triangular spaces. or pediments. between the Doric frieze and the roof are filled with
sculptured figures of heroic size from Greek mythology. The inner temple is a rectangular
room with thick masonry walls.
Architectural nuances incorporated by the ancient Greek builders in the original
Parthenon were faithfully copied in Hart's plans for the replica. For example. the columns.
although appearing to taper uniformly from base to capital. in reality bulge slightly near
their midpoints. Without this bulge the columns would appear to be slightly concave.
Another refinement: the columns and walls lean very slightly inward, creating in the
beholder a strong sense of strength and stability. It was Earley's responsibility to faithfully
reproduce these "optical sensations" as he called them. in concrete.
The most important optical sensation of all was that of color. The Pentelic marble of the
original Athens quarries contained minute traces of iron which. over the years, oxidized and
imparted a brownish yellow color to the ruins.' This was the color that Earley set out to
imitate. His final choice was a mixture of crushed Potomac River gravel of brownish-yellow
hue. and crushed white and pink quartz, with a few added particles of dark brick-red
ceramic. To insure uniformity of color the Earley Studio prepared enough aggregate at
one time to do the whole job. with a little left over for future maintenance should that be
necessary.
Foster-Creighton needed almost a year to strengthen the foundations and build the
structural frame. Earley utilized this time to precast the 92 sculptured panels, or metopes, of
the Doric frieze. These were about four feet square: each panel contained a group of
Fig. 5. Cross Section Of Doric Column. A)
Reinforced Concrete Load Bearing Column
By Foster·Creighton Co. B) Porous Concrete
Structural Core By Earley Studio. C) Ar·
chitectural Concrete Shell By Earley Studio.
32
sculptures in high relief illustrating legendary and mythological stories dear to the hearts of
the Greeks. and no two metopes were alike. The models for the metopes were made by
George Julian Zolnay. the distinguished sculptor who. twenty five years earlier. had done
the plaster sculptures for the old replica. As fast as the models were received from the
sculptor's Washington studio. Earley's workmen made plaster molds from them. In these.
they cast the panels. face down. using for the sculptured figures concrete that would match
the color of the building. and for the background concrete made with deep red ceramic
aggregate. They emb~dded galvanized steel anchors in the panels so that they could later
be attached to the temple above the architrave.
The real challenge of the Parthenon was casting the mighty Doric columns. These were
a little over six feet in diameter at the base and 35 feet high. Each column had a fluted
surface. and for the column to look right. the cusps between the flutes had to be absolutely
true. The slightest irregularity -- even as little as a quarter inch -- would be instantly
detectable and would mar the appearance of the column. This kind of accuracy called for
unusually accurate molds. As a model for the molds. Earley's workmen built a full-sized
column in the studio out of plaster. accurate in all details. From this they made segmental
plaster molds reinforced with burlap and steel pipe that could later be assembled at the site
to form the outside surface of the column.
The weight of the massive roof was carried by reinforced concrete columns. which were
much smaller in size than the fluted Doric columns. Around these the Earley Studio built
hollow drums of ordinary gravel concrete as a base for the architectural concrete finish.
These drums were about four inches less in diameter than the finished Doric columns. with
a wall thickness of eight inches. and they had a rough. porous texture designed to absorb
excess water from the surface concrete. This system. shown in cross-section in Figure 5.
provided a rigid permanent base for the final finish that was entirely independent of the
structural system for the building. The volume of the architectural concrete finsih. made
from expensive Potol\lac River gravel and quartz, was only about one tenth the total
volume of the column.
Earley's men cast the architectural concrete finish in three-foot lifts. and were careful to
accurately level the top of each lift before pouring the next one. This gave them accurate
control over the casting as they filled the form. and at the same time imparted a suggestion
of the joints separating the cylindrical stones of the original Athenian columns.
After the columns were finished. Earley's men built a U-shaped concrete trough, or
hollow beam. resting on the column capitals as support for the precast metopes and
triglyphs of the Doric frieze. When these were anchored in place on the sides of the trough
the final finish was applied as stucco to the sides and soffit of the architrave. Similar methods
were used to finish the cornices and the surfaces of the pediments.
Finishing the outside walls of the temple proper called for a somewhat different
technique. These were brick, the only part of the original 1897 building that was saved. The
north and south walls were 157 feet long and 34 feet high. presenting a large expanse
unrelieved by windows or doors. The treatment of these walls is best described in John
Earley's own words:
Among the most difficult problems is to do a very large wall surface pleasingly.
Sometimes a wall surface such as that is much more difficult than the dome of the Baha'i
Temple. because there is so little you can do, and it must be done in good taste: so we
decided then that it would have to be divided up to make it easier to look at, and we took
for the dimensions the courses of stone in the Athenian Parthenon. We applied an
undercoat of portland cement and sand stucco to the brick waUswhich brought them all
out nice and even. Then we stripped the walls with wooden strips. horizontaUy. We next
applied the same materials used to cast the columns. but applied it in alternate strips all
the way up the building. When the wooden strips were taken down the courses served
as forms for the intervening courses. We troweled one course one way and each
33

The West Entrance colonnade
of the Parthenon, Nashville,
when relatively new. (Earley
Studio)
East Pediment of the Parthenon in Nashville in 1973. (Author's Photo)
34
adjacent course the other way. and in brushing them out to expose the aggregate
revealed the stones a little deeper on one than the other. There were vertical joints in the
stones of the original Parthenon. but we felt we had no right to put them there (in the
replica) because they would be frankly an imitation of the stone courses. but we had a
reason which justified us in banding the building in the way we did."
The exterior of the Parthenon was completed in 1925 with the casting and placing of
the heroic sculptures for the pediments. To make the models for these. the Board had
retained the Nashville sculptors. Belle Kinney and Leopold Scholz. who. as had George
Zolnay. put into their work a vast amount of sympathetic study and research. Earley cast the
pediment sculptures in plaster molds over absorbent cores in much the same manner as the
Fountain of Time.
It required another six years to raise the money and do the construction work to
complete the interior of the Parthenon. and it was not until May 20. 1931. that the great
building was thrown open to the public.
The Nashville Parthenon was one of the best-known architectural undertakings of its
day. It was undoubtedly the direct cause of the Earley Studio's involvement with Louisiana
State University in another. even larger. project: In 1923. the Legislature authorized a
completely new campus for the university to be located in open country several miles south
of Baton Rouge. The university retained Theodore Link as architect for the project. and he
designed a handsome quadrangle with 27 major buildings grouped around it.
The choice of an architectural style for these buildings was a difficult one for the
architect and the university authorities. As a matter of state pride and academic prestige
they wanted a design in keeping with the dignity of a great state -- an intuitive course in
architecture for the students. But at this time Louisiana had neither sufficient masons nor
experienced contractors capable of executing such a large project in traditional stone or
brick architectural styles. Happily. a solution to the dilemma was found in the "Mission"
style used extensively in Florida and California.
"Mission" buildings were originally the expression of someone's memory of domestic
buildings in Spain and Italy. especially those developed during the Italian Renaissance.
Historically. in Europe. these buildings were built with the materials at hand. As John Earley
wrote:
The people took stones from the fields and built them into walls. rough. irregular.
unsightly and none too weatherproof. They refined these walls and made them sym-
metrical. beautiful and waterproof with a separate finish. a stucco.7
Here was the complete separation of structure and finish that Earley had been preach-
ing to American architects. In the case of Louisiana State University. why not build the
structural parts of the buildings of reinforced concrete. for which an ample supply of
contractors. labor and materials was available in Louisiana. and then apply a finish of costly
materials applied by highly skilled workmen imported into the state for this purpose') Such a
plan would keep a very large part of the total expenditure at home. and still insure first-class
structures of which everyone could be proud.
This was exactly the plan adopted after Earley assured Theodore Link that the Earley
Studio was prepared to do the stucco work. duplicating the same warm buff color used for
the Parthenon.
The LSU job occupied the Studio the best part of three years. from 1924 to 1926. Of
course. during this period there were other projects. too -- the Parthenon interior. the
Franciscan Monastery cloister. interior decorations for the Arlington Amphitheater and a
number of libraries. and the church projects previously mentioned. These last were the
rrecursors of another and far greater religious edifice which was to be the crowning
achievement of the Earley Studio. and also one of the most elaborate and difficult
accomplishments in the history of concrete technology.
35
 'Wilbur F. Creighton. The Parthenon in Nashville. W.F. Creighton. Nashville,
Tenn .. 1968. p. 25.
2John J Earley. "Architectural Concrete" Journal of the American Concrete
Institute. Proceedings. Vol. 22. Detroit. Mich .. 1926. p. 517.
'Russell E Hart. "The 'Parthenon' Nashville" The Architectural Forum. May.
1927. p. 433.
'Earley. "Architectural Concrete" op. cit., p. 525.
'B.F. Wilson. "The Parthenon AtAthens. Greeceand At Nashville. Tennessee.
John T Benson. Nashville. Tenn .. 1941.
"John J. Earley. "Architectural Concrete of the Exposed Aggregate Type" Journal of
the American Concrete Institute. Proceedings. Vol. 30. Detroit. Mich .. 1934. p. 277.
7Earley. "Architectural Concrete" (Reference 2 above). p. 515.

- "'*!"
• r c*en •
Doorway
(Author's
Detail,
Photo)
Boyd Hall.

Memorial Tower on the new campus for Louisiana State Univer-

sity at Baton Rouge, about 1925. Boyd Hall is visible at right. The Alumni House on the Louisianna Univeristy State campus as it ap-
<Earley Studio> pear€j in 1973. (Author's Photo)
37
 The Temple of Light
On a warm day in August. 1920. two visitors came to the Earley Studio and asked to see
John Earley. One. an intense. magnetic man in his sixties. introduced himself as Louis
Bourgeois. a New York architect. His friend. Mr Ashton. explained that they had been
recommended to Earley by a mutual friend. an engineer. who thought the Earley Studio
might be able to help with a serious problem that was on Bourgeois' mind.

Bourgeois and his friend were members of the Baha'i World Faith, a religious move-
ment of Persian origin which taught that men of all nations. religions and races were
brothers. and that the time had come for the people of the world to unite in a common faith
and social order. They brought with them a photograph of a plaster model of the most
exotically beautiful building Earley had ever seen -- a structure that seemed "to come up
out of the earth like the sprout of some great plant bursting out to light and growth. '" This
was Bourgeois' conception of the Temple of Light. the national House of Worship of the
American Baha'is which was to be erected on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan at
Wilmette. Illinois.
The reason for the visit was soon revealed. As Earley later wrote:

It soon became clear that this Temple was the dream of Mr. Bourgeois' life. that all his .~
hopes and ambitions were centered in it. and that he believed himself to have been i··~·'
,-it,,- ~l>"
inspir~d to ci~sign a temple unlike any other in the world. so that it might be the symbol
of a new reliyion in a new age. At that moment he was anxiously seeking a material with
which to build it and someone with the ability to understand his work and the skill to
ex~cLlte it. 1

BourgeoIs received the encouragement he so greatly needed, but as events transpired,

more than a decade would elapse before the Baha' is were to call on Earley's skill. for it took
that long for t1wm to raise the funds for the Temple. sink the foundations and erect the
structllrClI framework of steel and concrete. During this period Bourgeois. working in a loft
building in Chicagu. !'r<.'pared full-scale drawings for the exterior ornament for the dome
i'lnd the nine grl!at ribs thClt enveloped it.
These were among the largest architectural drawings ever made. Bourgeois would
stretch a great sheet of paper on the floor of the loft and "with a crayon on the end of a stick
layout the outlines of his drawing. and then with bold sweeps draw in the interlacing lines of
the ornament: one line through another. under and over. onward and upward. until the
motif was finished.'" Occasionally. as the work progressed he would climb up on a tall
stepladder and view the work through binoculars to see it as a whole. In this manner.
Bourgeois finished the drawings for the exterior ornament of the Temple. but his work was
cut shon bdore he could finish the drawings for the interior. Louis Bourgeois died in 1930
without seeing his dream translated into reality.

I\1Il1ari h.' from financial necessity. the Temple trustees decided to treat the supporting
structure of the Temple and the exterior ornament as separate problems. They had their
engineers design a concrete and steel skeleton on which the ornament could later be hung.
This dl'cisll)J1 solved CIhost of structural problems. At the same time, it enabled the trustees
to dder the decision CISto what type of material to use for the elaborate and costly exterior.
~lIld. possibly. to get competitive prices from producers of alternative materials. The
Dome panels are placed on structural steel frame in September, 1933. (Ear-
Temple became an ideal example of the principle of separation of structure from ornament ley Studio)
so perSl,asively ad vocated by John Earley a few years earlier while he was working on the
Parthenon and the LSU campus.
 The Temple of Light, July, 1939.
The exterior ornament for the
dome and clerestory are com·
pleted, and Earley Studio
,I workmen are finishing the py-
lons of the second, or gallery,
A workman puts the finishing touches on a plaster mold story. (Earley Studio)
fOl'a panel of the dome. (Earley Studio)
The hope of arousing competition among suppliers of alternative structural materials
proved to be illusory. In 1932. when the trustees decided to go ahead with the exterior
decorative shell of the building. they were unable to get even an estimate. They showed
Bourgeois' drawings to producers of cast stone. terra cotta. cast aluminum and architectural ,;
. :'."
limestone. only to find that no one had the nerve to take on such a complicated job. Finally. ,~. !

'. 't
they came to the Earley Studio. where they were sympathetically received.
Over the years. since that first visit in 1920. Earley had kept in touch with Bourgeois.

We studied this temple with all its ramifications of form. of treatment and of meaning as a
preparation for the time when work on it would be begun. It was strange. in a way. that
we of the studio should have given so much thought to it. But somehow it always
seemed to be our work. We understood it. we had the material and were equipped to do
it. The architect was interesting to us and we to him. I

Earley agreed to execute the Temple of Light in architectural concrete. on a cost-plus basis.
Since the architect was not living. the trustees gave Earley wide discretion to interpret
Bourgeois' plans -- a discretion that he would exercise with deep feeling and restraint in the
months to come.
Louis Bourgeois had envisioned a Temple of Light with a great pierced dome through
which by day the sunlight would stream to enlighten all within and through which by night
the Temple light would shine out into a darkened world. On the dome he inscribed the
orbits of the stars and planets in a marvellous pattern of ovals. circles and endless flOWing
curves To symbolize life. he wove tendrils. flowers. leaves and fruits into the design.
creating one of the most intricate architectural patterns ever conceived by man. It was the
Earley Studio' sjob to translate this tangle of interwoven ornament into concrete form. John
Earley has left us a description of some of the problems the Studio faced:

Were we to treat the exterior surface of the dome so that the perforations were too large Detail of precast concrete tracery for a panel of the dome. The black specks
they would destroy the architectural continuity. Were they too smaU they would not are actually particles of translucent quartz. (Earley Studio)
40 41
 appear to be perforations. If the surface were simply perforated without further treat-
ment the decoration would be inadequate, the theme would be lost. there would be no
pathways of the stars nor movements of living things. All of this must be modeled into
the surface of the dome with care and good judgment, so that at no place will the
intertwining of this complicated grille escape from the configuration of the hemisphere.
The interior surface of the dome is the subject of another group of considerations. If the
solids between the perforations are too large the dome will appear as a dark surface
spotted with bright dots. It would be like looking into a colander. If the solids be too thin.
the light which enters will seem to bend around them and the bright spots will resolve
into a confused blur. The pattern would be lost. And so with time and the greatest care
every ornamental detail must be adjusted to the unity of the architecture and the
sequence of the story, as words are made to tell a story in the cadence of a poem.'
The technical problems of fabricating such a perforated shell were formidible. It took
very little study to convince Earley that his process could not be adapted to cast such a huge
and thin (relatively thinner tha n an eggshell) hemisphere in place. What he feared most was
shrinkage cracking. From Pearson's earlier experiments, and his own experience, Earley
knew that shrinkage could be kept within safe limits by using stiff concrete, made with very
little mixing water, or by using somewhat more water and withdrawing part of it before final
set. His own process depended on using fairly fluid concrete that would easily flow into the
crevices of complicated molds, and then extracting some of the water with a "capillary
system" of absorbent materials. This technique could best be applied in the studio, where it
could be closely controlled.
However. even with the closest control of shrinkage, some small amount would still
remain, and in addition, the shell would be subject to movements due to thermal expansion
and contraction as the dome heated up during the day and cooled off at night. These
movements. Earley thought. almost certainly would burst the shell unless it were divided
into rather small sections. He therefore recommended that the dome be divided into panels
of dbout 100 square feet area, which could be precast in the Studio and then attached to the
steel skeleton. leaving a half inch open joint around each piece to accommodate move-
ment.
Louis Bourgeois had often said that the great dome should be the whitest thing possible
to make. yet not have the dead chalky appearance of a plaster casting. To get this effect,
Earley chose a white opaque quartz from South Carolina that would reflect light from its
broken faces, and mixed with it a small amount of clear translucent quartz to provide
brilliance and life. From certain angles the particles of clear quartz looked like dark specks
on a white background. but from slightly different angles they reflected light like tiny
mirrors, imparting an amazing brilliance to the surface. The trustees approved this mixture
of aggregates and also the plan to precast the shell in sections.
The Baha'i Temple dome was the biggest job yet undertaken by the Earley Studio
When added to the work already under way it greatly exceeded the capacity of the original
Earley Studio on G Street in Washington. Fortunately, Earley had already felt the need for
more space and had acquired a suitable site in the industrial area of Rosslyn, Virginia,
across the Potomac River from Georgetown.'" Here he built a modern new plant with direct
access to the railroad, and here he also installed the most modern and efficient crushing and
screening machinery to produce aggregates to his exacting specifications.
The trustees' approval of the materials and the precasting of the dome in sections
cleared the way for the Studio to concentrate on production. Here Basil Taylor could
exercise his genius for practical engineering. In John Earley's words:
Intermediate between the artistic and the practical there is a zone of transition where the
aesthetic is translated into the practical and where the complex is made simple. One who
• The decision to move the Studio was prompted. in part at least, by the refusal of the District of
Columbia to grant a permit to operate a larger crushing plant in what was, after all, a residential area.
42
makes this translation must be thoroughly versed in theory and in practice. He must be
able to understand the abstract form of a project and the means by which it may be
determined in material by the operation of craftsmen. Such a translation has a real
economic value, for it brings to the execution of the work many pairs of skillful hands
which would not be available if the pure form of the project were not determined in the
medium of the craftsmen. This work was undertaken by my associate, Mr. Taylor. It
required a perfect understanding of aUthe factors of the problem and unusual resource-
fulness. It was necessary to express the forms, relations and measurements in terms
which our craftsmen could understand and use. In my opinion it was one of the most
important factors in the execution of the work. Imagine translating such a theme into a
practical operation, which would not involve anything new in the technique of the
Studio; spherical measurements must become bits of wood of certain length cut to a
given radius; complicated angles became jointed boards; skewed solids became simple
framework with internal bracing. The pathways of the stars were just clay models of
ornamental grilles, plaster casts were just plaster casts, and piece molds remained
unchanged. The work of the craftsmen was as yesterday and the day b'?fore. It
interested them. It was their medium. They understood it. Formulas became pieces of
wood and of plaster: We have men who can do nothing with formulas but who can do
wonders in wood and in plaster. This translation was brought about by means of a
full-sized model of one ninth, forty degrees, of the dome."
The dome consisted of nine identical triangular areas, or fields, between nine identical
ribs. Because of this symmetry, Taylor needed to make only one set of molds and use them
nine times. To form the basic spherical shape for the molds the workmen hollowed out a
saucer-shaped basin of the right contour in the floor of the casting shed. On this they laid
out the edges of each panel. Leander Weipert, the studio sculptor, working from
Bourgeois' full-scale sketches then made a model of the panel in clay from which the
craftsmen made a plaster reproduction. Weipert and his assistant hand-carved this plaster
model to sharpen up the detail and make the lines of the design as true as possible. After this
operation each cast appeared as a curved plaster slab four to five inches thick with from one
quarter to one third of its total surface perforated.4
As these plaster slabs were completed, the workmen assembled them on the full-sized,
forty-degree model, where Earley and the staff could study the decoration to make sure of
the continuity of the pattern from segment to segment, and verify that there was the proper
balance between the perforations and the total area. This check also insured that the
segments would fit the steel superstructure after they were cast in concrete.
After the plaster models were checked in this manner the Earley Studio artisans made
plaster molds from them in which the final concrete castings would be made. These were
among the largest plaster molds ever made by the Earley Studio, but they presented no
unusual problems to the Studio's experienced workmen. The molds were lined with metal
foil and the casting began.
The first casting was one of the smaller pieces, about six feet high and eight feet long.
.The workmen filled the mold from the back or concave side and then vibrated the mold by
tapping the edges with wooden clubs to make the concrete run into all the crevices. Then
they applied the "capillary system", consisting of burlap and rags, to extract the surplus
water. As the water was drawn out, the concrete in the mold stiffened noticeably; the
workmen rapped the forms again with their clubs, causing more water to rise to the surface,
and this also was blotted up by the capillary system. This operation was repeated several
times, until the concrete would yield no more water, and the casting was then left to harden
overnight.
The next morning, approximately 18 to 20 hours after filling the mold, the casting was
demolded, and leaned on edge in a vertical position against posts so that the workmen,
using wire brushes, could brush away the soft surface mortar and expose the quartz
aggregate. This was an operation they had performed hundreds of times on previous work.
and they anticipated no trouble with it. But trouble there was. The green concrete of the
43
 fragile, perforated casting was not strong enough to hold up its own weight, and a number
of ominous cracks appeared during the wire brushing.
This situation was very similar to the one that had faced Earley and Taylor fifteen years
earlier when they were casting the balusters for Meridian Hill Park. They had met that
situation by discovering that a capillary system applied to the fresh concrete would so
greatly accelerate the development of strength that their green casts could be safely
demolded in 18 hours after casting. Howerver, it now appeared that something additional
would be required to achieve the strength needed to handle these huge Temple castings.
This something additional proved to be a change in the size of the concrete ingredients
which enabled the capillary system to extract more water. The story is best told in John
Earley's own words:
The casts for the dome of the Baha'i Temple weighed as much as three tons each. The
nature of the molds in which they were cast made it necessary to turn them over within
twenty hours and to remove the mold so that their surface might be treated to expose
the aggregate. Frankly. we were impressed. We felt the necessity for increased stability
in these casts and we reasoned that it could be obtained by further decreasing the
quantities of water in the concrete at the time of set. The difficulty was that we had been
in the habit of extracting as much water as we could. We knew from experience that a
properly designed capillary system when applied to wet concrete would extract all free
Precast panel for one of the nine water. that is. water which is not restrained in concrete by some force equal to or greater
identical main floor facades, than the force of the capillaries. We also understood that this restraint is exercised
ready to ship to Wilmette. (Ear- principally by the surface of the aggregates and of the cement. to which water attaches
ley Studio) itself with ever increasing tenacity as the particles become smaUer. From this we
reasoned that if surface could be brought under control a predetermined quantity of
water, either more or less, could be retained in the concrete against the pull of a
capillary system. We learned that control can be exercised to a remarkable degree.
Concrete can be designed from which water will run freely or in which water will be
retained against the force of capillarity.
Our concrete is composed of materials generally grouped in three sizes. the large
aggregate, the small aggregate and the cement. We applied our theory to the small
aggregate because the surface of the large aggregate was insignificantly small and
because the surface of the cement was too tightly covered by water to afford us much
hope of success. Changes in the size of the small aggregate produced the exact result
desired. We extracted the additional water. obtained the increased stability in the
concrete. turned over the three-ton casts in twenty hours. removed the mold and
exposed the aggregate. Exactly what we did was to increase the mean diameter of the
small aggregate. 00 15 inch by changinQ the opening of a sieve from .0125 to .014 inch.
Considered casually it seems ridiculous that so small a change to but one of the
ingredients should make so great a difference in the character of the concrete.
The application of this theory clearly proves that less water makes better concrete.
But it should be remembered that water means practically nothing to a concrete product
in its first phase. When concrete is being mixed and placed. water is only a vehicle
carrying the solid particles. But water is of great importance in the second phase when
the concrete is at rest in its mold and beginning to set. Further. our experience teaches
that the new technique will control not only the strength of concrete, but its density.
There is no need for elaborate tests to establish this. It is perfectly apparent to one
watching the concrete in the mold while the water is being extracted. and to one
handling and studying the casts after they have been made.'
With the completion of the molds and the solution of the cracking problem the
fabrication of the Baha'i dome left the realm of science and art and became a manufactur-
ing and production operation. As rapidly as the panels were completed and seasoned they
were shipped by rail to Wilmette, there to be hoisted into place and bolted to the steel
framework.'" Erection continued through the summer and fall of 1933. and was completed
in the spring of 1934.

*The attachment was made by means of stainless steel bolts cast into the corners of the panels. This is
probably the first use of stainless steel in this manner, and was adopted by Earley and the Temple
The completed facade, October 1941. (Earley Studio) trustees to obviate any possibility that rust might damage or stain the concrete.
44 45
 The Bah~'i House of Worship at WiJmette, III., shol·t1y after completion of
the exterIOr decoration by the Earley Studio in 1942. (Earley Studio)

John Earley, left, and Basil

Taylor atop the mockup of The
Baha'i Temple dome (an exact
full scale model of one ninth of
the dome) on July 29, 1932.
(Author's Collection)

The completed dome, clerestory and gallery ofthe Temple of Light, the most
intricate building ever constructed of concrete. (Earley Studio)
 After a short pause, the trustees told Earley to start the fabrication of the exterior
ornament for the next level below the dome, called the clerestory. Thereafter, as funds
became available during the next eight years, the work proceeded downward, story by
story, with increasing complexity. finally reaching the main floor level in the spring of 1942.
The last operation was the casting of two miles of gleaming white steps and setting them In
18 concentric rows around the great building
The Polychrome House
By this time the United States was engulfed in war, and construction had. to be Between 1929 and 1938 the Federal government razed an II-block area in downtown
suspended without completing the elaborate interior decoration LO~ls BourgeOIs had Washington and built on it a complex of monumental neoclassical office buildings known
planned for the Temple. John Earley was destined never to see thIS Intenor. as the Federal Triangle. The Department of Justice Building. surrounding an open court.
Beginning in 1933. when the first castings for the dome were revealed to a~ astonished occupies an entire block between Ninth and Tenth Streets. Two wide driveways through
world. the Baha'i Temple generated an immense amount of Interest In archItectural and the building give access to the court from the streets on either side. To the amazement of
concrete circles. and also with the general public. Contemporary artIcles descnbed the visitors. the ceilings of these passages blaze with intricate. vividly-colored patterns of blue,
tracery and interwoven ornament as "concrete lace," "gossamer" or "a fabnc of cob- red, jet black and gold.
webs." One writer rhapsodized: To achieve the brilliance and permanent color they desired for these ceilings. the
architects. Zantzinger, Borie and Medary of Philadelphia, planned that they be made of
Structure. as usually understood is to be concealed. visible support eliminated as far as Earley concrete mosaic. However. they were mistrustful of applied finishes. and so they
possible. and the whole fabriC is to take on the airy substance of a dream: It IS a lacy wrote in the specifications that. "The mosaic finish and the structural concrete connected
envelope enshrining an idea. the idea of light. a shelter of cobweb mterposed between
with it shall be one. They shall be made at the same time and by the same contractor. The
earth and sky. struck through and through with Light which shall partly consume the
finish shall in no way be applied to concrete previously constructed." J
forms and make it a thing of faery."
In 1933, during the early planning for the Justice Department Building, the architects
The Baha'i Temple was only the latest of Earley's revolutionary contributions to came to John Earley for advice on how such a monolithic finish could be applied. Still very
concrete technology. In 1934, the American Concrete Institute recognized these contnbu- much convinced that structure and ornament should be separated, Earley tried to talk them
tions by awarding John Earley its highest recognition, the coveted Henry C. Turner. Gol~ out of the idea of a monolithic finish. The architects, however. held their ground and asked
Medal "for outstanding achievement in developing concrete as an architectural medIum. Earley to give the problem further study.
Further richhl-deserved recognition came in 1936 when the Amencan lnslitute of Ar-
Each ceiling was supported by two great horizontal concrete beams, each 60 feet long,
chitects awarded Earley its Craftsmanship Medal "for meritorious and onglnal work In the
four feet wide and four feet deep. Crosswise to these were smaller beams, with the ceiling
application of color to masonry and the development of a new technique for the decoralive
slabs bridging between them. In the past, the Earley Studio had executed monolithic
use of concrete. " finishes (as distinguished from applied or stucco finishes) only on walls and concrete objects
Earley received these honors for past achievements with self-effacing modesty, but such as plaques that could be demolded within 24 hours. This was patently impossible for
already he was working at new frontiers of the art, and on a revolutionary new techmque. the two great main beams, which would have to be supported at least a week to gain the
strength necessary to hold up their own weight. This left the Studio only one alternative: the
References ornament must be precast and used as a form liner, and the structural concrete must then
be poured against it. The shop drawings were prepared on this assumption.
'John J. Earley. "The Project of Ornamenting The Baha'i Temple Dome" Journal of John Earley has left us a description of the sequence of events which followed:
the American Concrete Institute, Proceedings. Vol. 29. Detroit, Mich. 1933. pp. 403,
Our first shop drawings made for the approval of the architect. showed typical wooden
404;Allen Boyer McDaniel. "The Spell of the Temple". Vantage Press, N.Y.. 1953, p. forms with precast slabs of mosaic concrete about one inch thick laid against them and
65.66. with structural concrete placed in the usual manner on top of these. This scheme
'Earley. op. cit., p. 405, 408. permitted us to cast.the entire surface of the ceiling in the studio in whatever sized pieces
seemed best to us and to complete the process of exposing and cleaning the aggregate
4McDaniei. op. cit., p. 6t\. "
before placing the structural concrete. This method allowed the reinforcement and the
'John J. Earley. "Architectural Concrete of the Exposed Aggregate Type Journal of
structural concrete to be placed in a leisurely manner and to harden thoroughly before
the American Concrete Institute. Proceedings, Vol. 30. Detroit. Mich., 1934. pr· the removal of all supporting forms.
253-255. But this plan was never executed. The shop drawings made it apparent that we were
('Sibilla Skidelsky. "Temple of Light. Tremendous Memorial To Bahaism in Illinois. planning to build two systems of forming in one -- namely, wooden forms to support the
Erected By Two Capital Men" Washington Post. March 7,1937, p. 7. weight of the structural concrete and mosaic concrete forms for appearance. Then an
idea came to us. If we were to strengthen the mosaic concrete slabs we might use them
as forms to support the structural concrete while setting and thus discard the conven-
tional wooden forms and supports. The idea opened up an entirely new approach to the
problem and led to a very satisfactory solution.
The shop drawings were remade. The mosaic concrete slabs were increased in
thickness from one to two inches. They were reinforced with electrically welded steel
wire mesh designed for the load of structural concrete to be supported and for the
49

Concrete mosaic ceilings for
Department of Justice building
I
in Washington, made by the
1_ ._~~ Earley Studio in 1935. (Earley
Studio)
"'--
1RIUY.PH OF BEAUTY IN CONCRETE - E...q,rley polycnrOTne House No.1 1ft lOCf1t~d .on the
Col"'~ville Pike. ':)oposite the Indian Sprin6 Count!"y Club, just north of \.ashinr.ton,
D.C: Its brill1flntiy colored prefabricated wells wer~ i"\">.dc of ~:'ley M~S3iCrConcrete.
SAFLSY PROCESS CORPORATION, IIATIONAL PT1~".SS ;n':lLDING. WAS~IHGTOl,.
The Polychrome House, 1934. (Earley Studio)
50
handling to be undergone in the processes of prefabrication and shipment. Steel loops
protruded from the backs of the slabs. These were so arranged that the slabs could be
temporarily supported by hangars from the floor above so that the structural reinforce-
ments could be threaded through the loops mechanically to attach the surface slab to
the structure.2
John Earley and Basil Taylor were confident that these thin-shelled forms of mosaic
concrete would not only support the plastic structural concrete until it hardened. but would
also help to support the structural load afterward. In effect. the surface decoration would
provide a firmly-bonded layer that would be much stronger than the structural core.'"
The architects approved this scheme. but because of its novelty. they would not credit
an~ structural value to the two-inch thickness of mosaic concrete. Rather. they counted it as
adClitional liveload and increased the depth of the structural beams to carry it.
John Earley continues:
And so the ceilings were built. The precast slabs were made in our studio and taken to
the building and set in place. Into them as into a mold the structural concrete of the
second floor was poured. A strange thing had been done. The decorated surface of a
concrete structure was its mold. The concrete had. if I may use the figure. been poured
into its own skin.2
The Department of Justice ceilings were a stunning success architecturally. artistically
and technically. They were also. to use Earley's expression "the die in which a new idea
was cast" -- the idea that concrete. properly employed, might so lower the cost of small
houses as to put one within the reach of every American family. In 1935 he wrote:
The present social movement is a levelling one and it is entirely possible that we all will
come to understand that the security which we desire for ourselves and our dependents.
lies in the nation's ability to provide food and shelter for everyone. It seems to me that
the simplest way in which such security can be achieved is to enable everyone to
procure a small house and a plot of ground. which can be cultivated and which will
produce sustenance.
We have developed a new architectural medium. which we call mosaic concrete. It is
our contribution to the construction of small houses. We know it very well. We are not
deceived about its value relative to other materials, nor about the probable extension of
D.v. its use. It will make strong and beautiful walls, which we are sure will receive popular
approval. They can be prefabricated with high perfection and great economy and they
can be assembled in place by any practical builder. . .Our experience in the execution
of many interesting problems indicates that our type of architectural concrete may best
be applied to small houses in the form of thin precast slabs or panels. made in the Studio.
taken to the building. and erected in place.4
To implement these ideas John Earley and Basil Taylor built an experimental house on
Colesville Pike in suburban Maryland. Designed by architect J.R. Kennedy of Washington.
it was on·e-story. five rooms. with a detached garage. in a pleasing modern architectural
style. The foundations and floor were of concrete. poured in place, and the exterior walls
were two-inch-thick panels of precast mosaic concrete. All the rest of the house including
the roof. was of conventional construction.
Up to this point. the little house does not sound very exciting. but what made it unusual
was its unique structural system and its unusual coloring. The walls, constituting the largest
*At a time when structural concrete was commonly designed for a compressive strength of 3000
pounds per square inch. the Earley Studio was routinely making concrete castings with a compressive
strength of 5000 pounds per square inch. Earley's customary mix was 94 pounds of Atlas white
cement, 110 pounds of fine aggregate. 300 pounds of coarse aggregate and 5 gallons of water. Some
of this water was removed after the concrete was placed in the forms.3
 area of the exterior were a pinkish rose -- a color imparted by crushed Oklahoma jasperite
rock. The fluted Corners and the pillars flanking the door were of buff Potomac River gravel.
and beneath each window was a corrugated panel of vivid cobalt blue crushed ceramic. All
around the building just below the eaves was a band or frieze of abstract pattern in brilliant
red, black and gold ceramic.

Earley and Taylor made the structural system so simple that an average small home
builder could erect the precast walls with no more complicated equipment than an A-frame
and a chain hoist. The key element in this system was a poured-in-place concrete column
that locked each precast slab to its neighbor with an airtight and watertight joint that was
flexible enough to permit slight movement to take place in all directions as the slabs
expanded and contracted from temperature changes.'" After all the slabs Were in place and
thus locked together the precast exterior walls were rigid and weatherproof.

This little building Soon became known to Washington builders as the "Polychrome
House." The Earley Studio built four more prefabricated concrete houses in the same
neighborhood, no two of which were exactly alike, and three of which were of two stories.
Precast colored concrete Earley also built one or two houses for private owners in the Washington area. Apparently,
mosaic fireplace and mantel in however, the Earley system did not become really popular for residence construction, and
the Polychrome House, 1934. the making of panels for small houses never became a significant part of the Studio's
(Author's Collection) output. The important thing about these prefabricated houses was that they pioneered a
new principle of construction that was later to have a tremendous impact on the building
industry. Earley was well aware of this importance, as he wrote in 1935:

This principle of construction -- the free attachment of prefabricated thin slabs to a

reinforced concrete skeleton -- is another step forward in the development of concrete
as an architectural medium. It was suggested by the small house problem. but the
principle is larger than the problem itself and we may expect to see it applied to major
construction when major construction will again be important.
Prefabricated thin slabs used for forms for structural reinforced concrete. as was
done for the ceilings of the United States Department of Justice Building in Washington.
or fleXibly attached to reinforced concrete skeletons as in our small house. offer an
architectural medium. the like of which has never been known. and the limits of which
are the limits of human ingenuity.'

The splendid realization of this prophecy is visible today in every large city of the world
in the hundreds of high-rise office buildings, apartments and other structures made of
precast
on Concrete
Colesville wall panels. They are all lineal descendants of the little Polychrome House
Road.

'John J. Earley, "Mosaic Ceilings. U.S. Department of Justice BUilding" Journal of

the 2Jbid,
American Concrete
p. 562, 563. Institute. Proceedings. Vol. 31. Detroit. Mich .. 1935. p. 560

3William M. Avery. "Earley's Mosaic Concrete Opens Limitless Vistas in Products

Field" The Concrete Manufacturer,
September, 1944, p. 133.
a Special Section of Pit and Quarry,

'John J. Earley, "Architectural Concrete Makes Prefabricated Houses Possible"

Journal of the American Concrete Institute, Proceedings, Vol. 31. Detroit. Mich ..
1935, pp. 513, 514, 517, 518, 524, 525.
Erecting the walls of one of the Colesville Pike precast concret~ h~u~es,
Silver Spring, Maryland, 1935. The completed Polychrome House ISvIsIble
in the background. CReniPhotographers) "John Earley and Basil Taylor were granted a U.S. Patent on this method of tying precast slabs
together. (U.S. Patent No. 2,050,290, August 11, 1936.)
52
At Ipft, a completed wall of one
of the Colesville Pike concrete
houses, showing crisp detail
and even texture typical of all
Earley Studio work. Below, a
close-up view of architectural
concrete wall of one of the
Colesville Pike houses. (Both,
Two story prefabricated concrete house in Silver Spring, Maryland, built in
Richard Averill Smith)
1935 by the Earley Studio. (Joseph W. Molitor)

John Earley and Basil Taylor at

the Rosslyn Plant of the Earley
Studio, about 1935. (Earley
Studio)
 The Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower
In the late 1930' s a few architects cautiously began to use "architectural concrete slabs"
for industrial and office buildings. The Earley Studio did the slabwork for these early
buildings. notably the Squibb Laboratories in New Brunswick, N.J., and the Normandy
Building in Washington, D.C. However, Earley and Taylor soon came to realize that the use
of thin precast slabs could never become general until more manufacturers entered the
precasting field. They hoped "to see the studio become a center for the training and
inspiration of other craftsmen with the vision and the tenacity and the courage to carry on in
a field whose potentialities seem unlimited." 1 With "true artistic prodigality", Earley
licenced other firms to use the Earley Process, and brought their craftsmen into his plant for
training. This licensing and training policy was so effective that thin slabs became generally
available throughout the East by 1939, and some of the new producers became formidible
competitors of the Earley Studio.
Thin slabs received a further boost in the 1930's from an intensive advertising cam-
paign by the Universal Atlas Cement Company, which bought two-page advertisements in
full color in all the major magazines to extol the Department of Justice ceilings, the
Polychrome House and other works of the Earley Studio. One of these advertisements
proclaimed:

Facing materials are the shock troops in Building's perpetual battle with the elements.
and must bear the brunt of the repeated assaults of sun. wind and water. as well as
extremes of temperature. . While natural and semi-natural substances may have a
fortuitious combination of such properties which in the main meet such stringent
requirements. only a scientifically conceived synthesis of several substances can possess
each desirable property to exactly the required extent. Architectural concrete slabs are
such a synthesis: an intimate combination of cement. stone. and steel with the virtues of
all three. Factory fabricated. they combine the density. plasticity. and strength of The Edison Memorial Tower, Menlo
reinforced concrete made under controlled conditions with the wearing properties and Park, N. J., 1938. (Portland Cement As-
attractive appearance of crushed-stone aggregates. Shaped in the mold to any desired sociation)
profile and the surprising thinness of a bare two inches. they may be used in almost any
size without fear of weakness or excess weight. Midway in price between brick and
To make the bulb appear an integral part of the monument,'to obtain more scale and
stone. they have the former's versatility while bettering the latter's variety.
dignity, the treatment of the two materials -- glass and concrete -- was studied so as to
More than any other, the man responsible for the development of the slabs is
make them blend together as much as possible.
Washington craftsman-in-concrete John Joseph Earley.'
The choice of concrete as the material for expressing the design of the monument
was determined because it afforded the best facilities for building around the steel tower,
The most rapid development of the thin slab was for flat. undecorated panels that could
and because It was appropriate in view of the many improvements in the manufacture of
be attached to a skeleton to form the outer shells of rather plain buildings, such as factories. portland cement contributed by the inventive genius of Mr. Edison. The natural grey
garages and store buildings. However, Earley's real interests were in more excitingarchitec- color of the matenal, however. was considered inappropriate, hence the problem was
ture that offered some challenge to the imagaination. A project offering such a challenge solved by using precast facing units whose aggregates, mostly quartz, were carefully
came to the Studio in 1936 in the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower at Menlo Park. selected to make a gradation in color from buff at the base to white at the top where it
New Jersey, for which Massena and DuPont of Wilmington, Delaware, were the architects blends With the Pyrex bulb. . . The facing must be considered an integral part of the
Their concept of the Edison Memorial was that of a huge reinforced concrete candlestick structure since It has a practical function and is not applied for the purpose of giving a
114 feet high surmounted by a 14-foot Pyrex glass globe in the shape of Edison's first false ImpreSSionof nchness, as ISoften the casewith the use of strictly facing materials. 3
successful incandescent lamp. This shaft was to be octagonal and tapered, with eight great
ribs rising from a dark-colored base to the dazzling bulb above. However. there were some . Earley attacked the color problems presented by the Edison Tower with enthusiasm. In
hiS 1938 account of it for the American Concrete Institute he wrote:
esthetic problems which are best described in the words of Gabriel Massena:
56
 The color scheme was developed as an academic problem of design. The colors were
carefully graded in value. that is in brightness, from bottom to top. They were not
blended continuously from bottom to top but were changed progressively in ten foot
lifts. Each lift was uniform in color but differed in color from the lift immediately above or
below. The colors were dark at the bottom but bright at the top. The surface had a
double texture, a texture resulting from the granular arrangement of the aggregate and a
texture resulting from differently colored stones arranged in another pattern on the
surface. The base of the tower was black. and above that yellow blending into white, but
at the top the white was tempered with cobalt blue to soften the lines of the tower against
the sky and to harmonize it with the cast glass lamp set on top.'
To obtain these subtle variations in color Earley used a wide variety of colored quartzes,
crushed glasses and ceramics, all from American sources. The precast panels were fabri-
cated at the Rosslyn plant and then taken to the site, where they were used as the exterior
forms for the structural concrete, which was then cast behind them in ten-foot lifts. One lift
was placed after another until the tower was finished in the fall of 1937. It stands today a
striking and colorful memorial to two great Americans -- one known to all the world and the
other only to a privileged few versed in the esoteric mysteries of concrete.
References
'William M. Avery, "Earley's Mosaic Concrete Opens Limitless Vistas in Products
Field" The Concrete Manufacturer. A Special Section of Pit and Quarry.
September, 1944, p. 134.
2"Products and Practice -- Architectural Concrete Slabs," Undated brochure attached
to advertisement of Universal Atlas Cement Company circa 1937.
'Gabriel Massena. "The Edison Tower" Architectural Concrete. Vol. 4, No.2, The
Portland Cement Association, Chicago, circa 1939, p. 28.
'John J. Earley, "On the Work of the Committee on Architectural Concrete of the
Exposed Aggregate Type and the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower" Journalofthe
American Concrete Institute. Proceedings, Vol. 34, Detroit. Mich .. 1938, p. 594.
,uir~.·~ [}H EF (~(6teij'
..J ,n .ur~ •..
,,.r•. t r r(~ Pri fI ~
I •.... 1••••• ,
.:iil~i: ""\1'\11'' ' ' ' 1
ill:~m Im,o:l!UlrHl
.,: ~,'I••••••
:.
iL"-~~
The American Concrete Institute
The period from 1932 to 1939 was the busiest, most fruitful and creative in John
Earley's entire career. Yet during this same period he found time not only to direct his own
business, but also to make important contributions to the American Concrete Institute. a
technical society dedicated to improving the design and manufacture of concrete products
and structures. Earley had joined the Institute in 1917 while he was working on Meridian
Hill Park and was just beginning to experiment with concrete finishes. Concrete fascinated
him and he saw in the Institute an opportunity to enlarge his knowledge of it. and later, a
forum for his ideas.
Earley threw himself into the Institute's work with the same enthusiasm and energy he
displayed in running the Studio. He was a diligent committee member, serving as chairman
of one committee* and helping to organize another '" '!'. He served as a Director for six years
and was twice elected Vice-President of the Institute. In 1938. he was elected President.
bringing to that office for the first time the viewpoint of the craftsman and fabricator of
concrete rather than that of the scientist and engineer.
Although writing was painful and difficult for him, John Earley meticulously
documented his discoveries in a dozen elegant papers presented before the Institute at
various times over a 20-year period. His writings, even today, stand as models of clear,
forceful English, uncluttered by jargon, expressed in the active voice, and aimed directly at
the listener or reader. The first of Earley's papers to attract wide attention was "Building
The Fountain of Time" presented at the 1923 Annual Meeting, for which he was awarded
the Institute's Wason Medal for the most meritorious paper of the year. His last paper was
his address of March 2, 1939, as retiring president, in which he pleaded for a more
adequate recognition of the place of practical craftsmanship in the Institute's work.
As Past President, Earley continued to serve the Institute as a member of the Board of
Direction for four more years. In August, 1943, he received the American Concrete
Institute's highest honor -- election to honorary membership -- as a fitting climax to a

l .£-ifi imm.m:m: distingUished career in which he made tremendous contributions to the advancement of
r: ••
'~••
~I
1•.•.·\·.a
r: I - . concrete as an architectural material.

~ i John Earley approached concrete with the artist's sense of color and drama and with a
r: I: I! keen appreciation of its possibilities as a plastic sculptural medium. At the same time. he
,,"": A, realized that concrete must have durability and structural integrity under weathering to win
a permanent place in architecture. This realization led him, in the words of a contemporary
"to penetrate as deeply into the constitution and composition of concrete as man has ever
seen." I Earley's knowledge of the engineering properties of concrete and its physical and
chemical composition was much greater than he would admit. and probably equal to that
of most engineers of his time. However, he prided himself on being primarily a craftsman
and a leader of craftsmen. "In his Washington studio he heads the finest group of craftsmen
yet assembled in this country, a group that would compare favorably with the best bottega
of the middle centuries." I

The Earley Studio workmen had an intense pride in their work and a strong loyalty to
the company. In a real sense, the Studio was just that -- a place where the individual
The Washington Star Parking Plaza nearing completion in 1940.This build· workman could express his craftsmanship in his work without feeling lost in a mass-
ing was constructed of perforated precast concrete panels designed ac- * The Committee on Cast Stone and Architectural Concrete, (1926).
cording to the patented Earley·Taylor system. (Washington Evening Star)
** The Committee on Architectural Concrete of the Exposed Aggregate Type (1937).
58
59
production factory atmosphere. This feeling was zealously fostered by management long
after sculpture and art work had ceased to be the company' s pri~cipal products. Earley and
Taylor knew every employee by his first name. and the Studio. running a union shop.
enjoyed exceptionally good labor relatIons.
Earley himself was an unusual combination of artist. craftsman, .inventor and business-
man __the nearest equivalent in modern times to the medieval gUild master. In his qUiet.
retiring way he was a master salesman. Great works such as the Parthenon and the Sacred
Heart Church were the Studio's show pieces. but Earley brou,ght 111dozens of less
spectacular jobs to keep the Rosslyn plant busy under Basil Taylor s oversight as produc-
tion manager. Up to the outbreak of World War II. the Earley Studio enjoyed not only fame,
but great prosperity.
The United States was at war when the Studio cast and installed the last of the curved
white quartz steps for the Baha'i Temple. As mobilization advanced. the Government so
restricted materials that "non-essential" construction. such as churches and the hlgh-
quality precast concrete work that was the Earley Studio's bread and butter. had to be
suspended for the duration of the emergency. To keep the organization together. John
Earley and Basil Taylor accepted work wherever they could find it. and they contracted for
a wide variety of products useful to the war effort. such as large precast II1let frame~ for
airports. An unusual order was for concrete posts to mark the international boun. ary
between the United States and Canada. The Earley workmen executed these unexCltll1g
contracts with the same painstaking craftsmanship that went into the Edison Tower and the
Baha'i Temple of Light. and this humble work kept the Studio doors open for two long
years.
In the summer of 1945. with the end of the war in sight. restrictions were eased
somewhat and private construction began to revive. The Statler Hotel 111downtown
Washington began work on a parking garage. awarding the Earley StudiO a contract to
supply the precast panels and trim for the exterior. This job was neanng completIon e~r11111
November when John Earley made a routine inspection of the work. It was hiS ast
inspection. While on the job he suffered a massive stroke. and two weeks later, on
November 25. 1945, he died.
John Earley was the last of the concrete pioneers. Others before him had discovered
how to produce the "magic powder" -- portland cement -- how to mix It With stone and
sand to make concrete. and how to use concrete as a structural material. But Earley was the
first to control the exterior appearance of concrete in an important way and to Impart
brilliant permanent color to the surface. His contribution was unique: he was the man who
made concrete beautiful.
'Arthur R. Lord. "John J. Earley" Journal of the American Concrete Institute.
Proceedings. Vol. 28. Detroit. Mich.. November. 1931. pp. 5. 6.
Epilogue
A few weeks before his death John Earley sold the Earley Studio to Basil Taylor for one
dollar. As business picked up in the post-war years the Studio prospered. Two of its most
notable projects were the interior of the Baha'i Temple of Light and the exterior of
Washington's exquisite blue mosque on Massachusetts Avenue. Another notable commis-
sion was two huge battle maps depicting troop movements in World War II. which the
American Battle Monu ments Commission erected at St. James. France. Basil Taylor retired
as president of the company in 1952, and was succeeded by his son. Vernon G. Taylor. In
1962. to clear the way for the new interstate highway entering Washington. the Earley
Studio moved its operations to a new and much larger plant at Manassas. Virginia.
In the 1950's and 1%O's the Studio did a brisk business in precast panels and
architectural concrete products and in 1968 was so busy that it had to decline contracts for
over $1.5 million of concrete products. In this period the management licenced the Earley
Process to carefully-selected firms in the eastern United States and Canada. furnishing
training and skilled expertise to the licensees and in some cases crushed colored aggregates
as well.
In the early 1970' s a slow decline in business set in, which so cut into profits that the
owners decided to liquidate the company. In December, 1973, the Earley Studio went out
of business, ending an illustrious existence of 84 years.
In the Earley Studio's later years. pictorial concrete mosaic was only a minute part --less
than one percent -- of its business. Only a few of the oldest employees. including President
Vernon Taylor who had learned the art in his youth under Earley, had sufficient skill and
patience to do this painstaking work. There was not enough mosaic business to make it
worthwhile to train younger men and keep them occupied. With the retirement of Vernon
Taylor and the liquidation of the Earley Studio the Earley pictorial mosaic process may now
be a lost art. and indeed there is reason to believe that some aspects of the art died with its
inventor.
Earley's palette included dozens of pure colors, and from these he could make
hundreds of intermediate shades by mixing pure colors in different proportions. Close up,
these mixtures could be perceived as dots of pure color, but at a distance the hues seemed
to fuse into one composite color of remarkable brilliance. After his death the Studio was
never able to mix colors that could duplicate the "vibration" and "life" of Earley's
formulations. It is possible that during his experiments in the early years of the process John
Earley may have compiled formulas and color codes to guide him in producing these subtle
colors. but if this is so they have been lost. More probably. these effects were arrived at
instinctively from Earley's creative artistic sense and long experience, without written
formulas or guides.
In 1924 Earley wrote. "We have designed surfaces to meet the most exacting require-
ments and to meet the greatest differences in scale, surfaces which lose their texture and
resolve to uniform hue at twenty-five feet; surfaces which hold their texture at five hundred
feet. For these purposes aggregates. measuring from less than one-quarter to more than
one and one-half inches were used. ", Some people have speculated that Earley or Basil
Taylor must have compiled gradation charts linking the size of the large aggregate with the
resolution distance. but if this is so the charts have disappeared. Here again. the most
probable answer is that Earley or Taylor or both carried the answers around in their heads,
settling each question by experienced judgment as it arose.
61
two plastering contractors there may be the only firms in the United States still able to apply
it.
The magnificent Parthenon is in nearly perfect condition after 50 years of exposure.
Here. a few cracks may be seen in the 157 -foot-long exterior walls of the temple. Since the
underlying brick walls were made without expansion joints. such cracking is inevitable. and
inevitably would be reflected through the stucco surface.
Under its coat of grime and graffiti the Fountain of Time appears to be structurally
sound. However. a few of the protuberances. such as noses and ears are beginning to show
signs of erosion. probably caused by solution of the concrete by rainwater impregnated
with acid picked up from the polluted Chicago air.
More than any other Earley structure the Baha'i Temple has suffered from polluted air.
and in 1973 it was partly a dingy gray color and partly gleaming white. the latter being the
color of those parts recently sand-blasted to remove the thick carbon deposits. A number of
the steps have been replaced because of disintegration caused by reinforcement corrosion.
this in turn caused by salting in winter to melt the snow. But by far the greater part of the
intricate surface of this immense building is in perfect condition after 45 years of weather-
ing.
After 45 years of Washington weather the little Polychrome House exhibits no cracks
and its warm rose. buff and cobalt blue walls are as bright as ever. The Department of
Justice Ceilings. somewhat protected from direct weathering. are as brilliant and colorful as
the day they came from the Earley Studio.
Thus. the test of time shows that John Earley and Basil Taylor built not only beautifully,
but durably. Their work is a triumph of craftsmanship in a mechanical age.

'John J. Earley. "What Concrete Means To The Craftsmen Who Are Entrusted With
Interpreting Architectural Design" Substance. Form and Color Through Concrete.
The Atlas Portland Cement Company. New York, 1924, p. 21.

Great Seal of the United States

made by Earley Studio for a
number of American embassies
in foreign countries. (Author's
Photo)