As to the the effects of the freeze-thaw cycle on stone: my front steps are sorry evidence of that process at work. And so, if I remember correctly, are the pot-holed streets of many Utah cities in the springtime. And don’t get me started on New York City’s streets–the potholes are deadly for my current vehicle, a Specialized Tricross bicycle.

Once the foundation was inspected after it was uncovered in the winter of 1861-62, the foreman reported that “the morter [sic] is decidedly bad.” Upon removing that top layer of badly mortared stone upon which the basement walls were to have been built, the workmen discovered that the fill had not been properly compacted, that “the main portionn of the beds are holow, as well as the joints,” and that the foundation stones were resting upon “cobils and spalls” [cobbles and spalls; i.e., loose, small rubble and trash). "Appon the hull [upon the whole],” wrote the foreman, “I think it would be unwise to build so great a structer appon it.”

Walls built on that foundation would have been at risk of cracking, or worse, as the weight of the building caused rubble to collapse and settle, so some amount of the pre-Utah War foundation stone was removed and replaced in 1862, before the basement walls were built.

Second. 211 workmen dug an excavation sixteen feet deep and twenty feet wide for the footings and basement. Fifteen million pounds of sandstone from Red Butte Quarry filled that excavation almost half-way–about seven and a half feet. That was up to the basement story. From that point onward, the workers began installing the walls. That’s when too much mortar and rubblestone were used.
I can assure you that the fifteen million pounds of sandstone were not damaged and they are still in place!

Building a granite temple (with walls 16 feet thick at the base) entirely with hand tools seems like an impossible task to gentiles on the American frontier and many of us today (and it probably would be). But to converts from Europe, it was commonplace. All of the great cathedrals in Europe have massive stone walls and symbolic carvings, shaped with hand tools and placed with horse-drawn cranes. The builders were used to the idea that houses of worship would take HUNDREDS of years to finish. 40 years is short compared to Notre Dame (1160-1345) or the Bern Munster (1421-1893).

Regarding the mineral inclusions on the conference center stone, it’s interesting that the temple masons were able to avoid showing a single inclusion on the entire exterior.(perhaps because the former is veneer while the latter is solid?) In any case, I’m afraid that level of talent has gone the way of the Dodo bird.

Some great comments and stories have been added overnight. Thanks for them all.

I had an experience with granite inclusions in 1967 when I was construction manager on the new United States Mint next to Independence Mall in Philadelphia. Eva Adams, Director of the Mint, came from Washington to see the progress, She saw a similar situation with several of the large sections of the pink granite placed on the front of the building showing darker inclusions. She wanted us to take them off and put them on the back of the building. I had a tough time explaining the value of naturalness in the stone taken from Mother Earth as it came from the quarry. I was not very successful until I told her my guess at the cost of doing so as each slab was cut for its place in the building and the could not be swapped without cutting new pieces and fitting them individually.
I don’t think she was ever happy.

I had visited the quarry in West Chelmsford, Mass. to see the mockup wall placed in the quarry before shipment. The Fletcher family, quarrymen going back almost to the Revolutionary era, invited me to “dinner” during my first trip. It was really lunch, in today’s language. We got together in the old family house on the edge of the quarry. Before the meal was served, wine glasses were filled. I declined the service by turning my glass upside down. Nothing was said. After the large meal, coffee cups were filled. Ralph Fletcher, the patriarch of the family said: “You’re a Mormon!” I said I was and he said: “We granite men have a great respect for you Mormons, (What a relief.) you Mormons have the largest single shaft of granite in the country at your shrine in Vermont at the birthplace of your Prophet. We are all proud of that obelisk.” Then the conversation went to the challenge of cutting the piece and getting up the muddy road and the providential frost of the night before. He seemed to know all about the history. When the project was finished and I was transferred back to our company’s California office, he sent me a nice book about fly fishing with an expression of friendship and good wishes. That is one of the best memories of my 40-year engineering career.

(Sorry for the long story, but it seemed to fit here.)