Slippery Rock Gazette

Bob Murrell 

M3 Technologies

Photos by Bob Murrell

Finally, after well over a year, the Candoro Office Building is almost complete, at least for the marble restoration part of the project. This project was especially close to me because my grandpa worked there when I was a kid. I also knew the Craigs, who were the original owners. My stepdad, Vic Green, used Candoro as a testing field for many of the products he developed or brought in over the years, in the beginning years of Vic International Corp. 

Of course, as many in the industry may remember, Vic International went on to become one of the largest suppliers of tools, equipment, and chemicals to the stone industry before ultimately succumbing to the “Great Recession” of 2007-2008. Vic International closed its doors in 2012, and Vic Green passed way in 2019.

In its heyday, Candoro Marble Works was the third largest marble producer and importer in the United States, second only to Vermont Marble Company and Georgia Marble Company. The showroom and garage was completed in 1923 and was designed by local architect Charles I. Barber, in the Beaux-Arts style. The ornamental ironwork decorating the main entrance is by Samuel Yellin, the most notable artisan of iron during the 20th Century.

The Candoro Marble Works complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 and the office and showroom building, along with the garage, were relisted in 2005 to include architecture in their area of importance.

After the Civil War, the East Tennessee area had a quarrying boom of the local stone – Holston Formation limestone, otherwise known as East Tennessee Marble. The John J. Craig Company operated several of these quarries and was very successful. To convert his quarried and imported stone into usable building materials, he started the Candoro Marble Company. The facility used water from a nearby creek for a boiler, and used steam-powered cutting and finishing machinery before switching to electricity after the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) started supplying power to the Tennessee Valley area around 1940.

The Candoro Marble Company supplied varieties (typically pinks or gray) of East Tennessee Marble for the Smithsonian Museum of History and Technology, the National Gallery of Art, and many government and private buildings around the country, along with the Knoxville Post Office building. After World War II, the use of marble began to decline, due to cost of production. Glass, steel, and concrete were much more cost effective until the advent of industrial diamonds helped to make stone more competitively priced again. These new diamond tools made cutting stone much faster, more cost effective, and thinner material (think 12 x 12 x 3/8 tiles) was now possible. Ultimately, the Candoro Marble Company didn’t keep up with the new diamond and equipment technologies and closed their doors in 1982.

Since then, the building was used by local independent fabricators until a group of historic preservationists purchased the office/showroom and made the space available to the South Knoxville Arts and Heritage Center. The group hosted various art exhibitions and community events, until the building was acquired by the Aslan Foundation in 2014.

Through the years, the building suffered from water damage and some neglect. The Aslan Foundation contracted Hickory Construction to restore the building(s) to their original glory, and that is when KMP (Knoxville Marble Polish) was called into action. 

Above, left: Candoro entry hall with travertine walls, frescoes on stucco ceiling, and black and light marble floors all restored. Above, right: The repaired front office corners and walls, which had sustained cracking and separation issues due to water leakage under the foundation.

Above, left: Sign posted by GC, after window sills were completed. Note the decorative sill edge. Above. right: Front entrance. Albert Milani, a master sculptor from Carrara, Italy, carved the exterior ornamentation of the building.

The water damage caused the right front of the building to sink significantly and this caused, as described in a previous article, some walls and trim pieces to actually separate and upheave. This damage was mostly limited to the corner and window frame pieces on the right front. Once the foundation was jacked back up and leveled, the separation remained and had to be filled and ground flat again. Remember that these pieces were at least 3/4 inches or 2cm, and some were even 7/8 inches thick. It was a major undertaking but once completed, it turned out very nice, considering the extent of the damage.

The entrance hall had walls with unfilled travertine, a frescoed stucco ceiling (originally painted by WPA-era mural artist Hugh Tyler), hand-carved marble rosettes, black (Imperial Black, quarried near Morristown, Tennessee) and white (actually light TN pink) floors, and a black and gold Porturo marble base moulding. The unfilled travertine had almost 100 years of soot and dirt, so Knoxville Marble Polish used a latex or waterless product to clean, due to the large quantity of holes in the stone. This product was applied about 1/8-inch thick, allowed to dry, and then peeled off. The dirt and soot adhered to the latex. The process worked very well. The frescoed ceiling was totally restored by Evergreene Architectural Arts, headquartered in New York. Finally KMP refinished all of the floors to their original beauty. Most of the floors were honed using M3 Triple Thick resin diamonds in 220 grit and 400 grit, before polishing using Majestic 5X Gold. 

Restored front office walls and marble floor featuring yet another intricate, distinctive pattern.

The room adjacent to the entry hall was composed of Tennessee marbles in various colors of pink, buff, and gray. The walls and floors were of solid marble. This is the room which had suffered the breakage and separation from foundation-caused damage, resulting from water leak issues. This room required most of the serious detailed hand work. The floor was an amazing chevron or zigzag pattern. This room turned out much nicer than many expected, considering its deteriorated state. 

The main room or hall was also composed of the same flooring as the entrance hall. This floor had some deterioration issues on some of the tiles which required filling before the honing process began. The rear side rooms were composed of similar materials, but both were in different patterns. The floors were honed and polished in the same manner as the others. Also, all of the window sills had to be refinished as well. You don’t really see quality installations like this anymore. Most modern projects use 12 x 12 x 3/8 inch tiles, not slab-thickness material. As you can see from the photos, these installs are quite beautiful. 

In 2000 a group of volunteers and a few investors set out to preserve the Candoro Office/Showroom Building complex. They wanted to make it accessible to the community. They formed what would be eventually called Candoro Arts and Heritage Center. They were able to stabilize the building from years of water damage and vandalism, but lacked the funds to complete a full restoration. The building was used for community programs of which the most popular was Vestival, named for the Vestal neighborhood in South Knoxville. Vestival became a popular, yearly event for arts, crafts, history, food, and music performances.

When the Aslan Foundation came in to the picture, they brought in the needed funds and focus to address the full restoration of the complex. In 2019, the restoration began according to historic preservation standards from the National Park Service.

KMP extends their thanks to many people who helped make this project a reality. 

As always, I recommend submitting a test area to confirm both the results and the procedure prior to starting a stone or hard surface restoration or maintenance project. Also the best way to help ensure success is by partnering with a good distributor, like BBI, that knows the business. They can help with technical support, product purchase decisions, logistics, and other pertinent project information.

I pray you all stay safe and healthy.

Bob Murrell has worked in the natural stone industry for over 40 years and is well known for his expertise in natural stone, tile and decorative concrete restoration and maintenance. He helped develop some of the main products and processes which revolutionized the industry, and is currently the Director of Operations for M3 Technologies.