The building shown above is the First Methodist Church of Elberton, Georgia. Elberton calls itself the "Granite Capital of the World", but the town is built almost entirely of other materials. The First Methodist Chuch is unique, however, in being faced, if not built, with small (ca. 10 -18 mm) quartz pebbles (see below). Such pebbles are the abundant product of the weathering of the Piedmont's high-grade metamorphic rocks, granites, and quartz veins. Stream gravels rich in quartz pebbles are therefore common in the Piedmont, and the church's builders incorporated them as a cheap and long-lasting, if rarely-used, building material. The mortar-rich mixture results in a featureless grey builidng surface with a dreary, if not forlorn, aspect that may be appropriate for a Methodist Church in a land of Baptists.

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