The Jacobsville Sandstone was quarried extensively in the Keweenaw, and the red stone was used all over the midwest and eastern US as a building material. The beds of sandstone had very thick homogeneous layers which facilitated quarrying of very large blocks.  Other buildings feature the varigated coloration of the more irregular layers.  The rock is cemented sand grains and the variable types of cement, including water soluble calcium carbonate (calcite) cement, means that the Jacobsville blocks can weaken if they are subject to moisture over long time periods. In our local buildings we see the effects of dissolution of this calcite cement.