It was deposited over millions of years as marine fossils decomposed at the bottom of a shallow inland sea which covered most of the present-day Midwestern United States during the Mississippian Period.
The sculptural group atop the main façade of New York City's Grand Central Terminal — known as Glory of Commerce — is made of Indiana Limestone.
(A work by Jules-Félix Coutan, it includes representations of Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury and, at its unveiling in 1914, was considered the largest sculptural group in the world.
The Neo-Gothic campus of the University of Chicago is almost entirely constructed out of Indiana limestone; in keeping with the trend of post-Fire buildings using the material.
The campus of Washington University in St. Louis – both for new construction and original buildings – makes use of Indiana limestone in its collegiate gothic architecture.
[8] Many of the gargoyles on the buildings of Princeton University were carved from Indiana limestone, including "Flute Player", located on the exterior of Firestone Library.
[10] Because of the awareness of acid rain, which wears Indiana Limestone relatively quickly, the stone is not as often used in monuments today as it was in the 19th and early 20th centuries.