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Monuments...
For More Information On The Granite Industry:
Rock of Ages Quarry Tours
Granite industries and artistry have been a mainstay of the Central Vermont community for more than a century. Local cemeteries are more than a resting place for generations of stonecutters; they are also outdoor museums containing some of their finest works. Visitors to the area can follow the flow of granite from the quarries through the processing plants to monuments, building façades and cemetery memorials.
Shortly after the War of 1812, area residents discovered stone in the hillsides that could be used for doorsteps and millstones. Architectural uses gradually increased, and after the Civil War, stone sheds began popping up in Barre, Montpelier and surrounding communities. A steady migration of workers began in the 1890s, bringing more than 5,000 quarry men and stonecutters seeking a better life. Most were Scots and Italians.
Some 150 years of extraction at the Rock of Ages quarry have created the largest and deepest monumental granite quarry in the world. It is 450 feet deep, 550 feet wide and a quarter-mile long. The top opening spans 27 acres. To see the quarry itself, one must visit the site. However, derricks and piles of grout can be seen from miles away. Coming off Interstate 89 at Exit 6 on the outskirts of Barre, visitors take a long exit ramp down a hillside. Hilltops across the valley appear snow-covered even in the midst of summer. Actually, these hilltops are man-made mountains of Barre gray granite. More than 80 percent of the granite taken from the quarry has some imperfection that fails to meet the company's demanding standards of stone and color quality. Grout, the Scottish word for waste, is piled near the quarry. Some of these blocks of waste granite weigh up to 100 tons.
Blocks are lifted from the quarry floor by a network of derricks and miles of wire that criss-cross the quarry. The derricks, 115-foot-high stalks of timber, routinely lift 50-ton blocks. An adjacent visitors center explains how nature created the underground pockets of granite that fuel a $200-million-a-year industry employing roughly 1,500 workers in Central Vermont.
Blocks can be sculpted to produce public monuments like those immortalizing the area's Italian-American heritage, the Scottish poet Robert Burns or "Youth Triumphant" in downtown Barre. But most are cut with diamond saws, polished, and elaborately etched for cemetery memorials.
The grandeur of statues cannot overshadow the artistry found in Hope Cemetery, just north of downtown Barre on Route 14. Here many of the industry's finest artisans buried their families. Here they left some of their finest work, on display for all who visit.
Although Hope Cemetery is the most well-known, it has no exclusive claim to exquisite carvings. Elmwood cemetery east of Barre and Green Mount cemetery west of Montpelier as well as many smaller cemeteries boast the same quality memorials.
Granite block and carved granite façades are prevalent in building architecture throughout the region. Many downtown buildings are more than 100 years old, and most have granite somewhere in their structure.
Of course, the Vermont State House is by far the most dominant granite structure in the region. Whether viewed from a nearby hillside, across the large State House lawn, or from within touching distance, its granite walls and pillars are an imposing sight that should not be missed.
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Monuments...Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce © 1996 - 2011.
All rights reserved.
33 Stewart Rd. / P.O.
Box 336 / Barre, Vermont 05641
WebMaster: (802)-229-4619
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