Written by Brother Matthew Redabaugh, “The Man on the Wall,” is a short piece detailing the origin of the famous Green Man marble piece found at our Training Center located in Bowie, Maryland.
“The Man on the Wall”
The origin of the IUBAC’s logo referred to as ‘the man on the wall’, appeared on the cover of the BAC Journal for decades, is not known. Checking the IUBAC website produced nothing; it would be interesting if they would put the entire collection of Journals online, complete with photos, graphics etc. For now, we can/and or will assume I know what I am talking about.
The logo, a silhouette of a bricklayer at work laying to the line; is immortalized here in stone. With two different green marbles; the light green Apian Green and the very dark Verde Antique were fabricated by Wolverine Stone Company of Detroit, MI in the 1970’s. Wolverine stone a great Union contractor, (the owner and founder Ben Capp was a third generation stone mason) was one of the first companies to utilize a water-jet CNC machine for cutting stone in the USA. The circular piece was set in a field of Verde Antique on the 3rd floor at the entrance to IU President John T. Joyce (1979-99) in an historic trophy building, the Bowen Building at 15th and Eye, NW in Washington DC. This beautiful building was built in the 1920’s and named after the current BAC president at the time William Bowen; BAC later sold the building in the 1990’s to relocate.
This unique and very popular piece was hung here in 2007 by IMI instructors. The stone Verde Antique will warp when exposed to moisture, such as when being set in fresh mortar making it very difficult to work with. This piece was brilliantly designed to avoid that problem, by incorporating a lamination of slate across the back of the entire piece. Slate is impervious to water which facilitated the installation, by removing the potential for warpage and to add additional strength to the piece as required during installation.
