ClimbFest 2007
September 22, 2007 - 9:00am to 4:30pm
(Rain date: September 23)

More Quarries History and Cool Photos: Thomas Crane Public Library site - Quincy’s Granite Legacy

The Rise and Fall of Quincy Granite

by Richard Doucette

The large-scale granite quarrying industry began in West Quincy. The major milestone in the development of this industry occurred in 1826 in Quincy. Revolutionary innovations developed at Bunker Hill Quarry (found at the end of Bunker Hill Lane in the Blue Hills Reservation) to transport the cut stone precipitated fundamental changes in granite quarrying. These innovations included the invention of the lifting, pulling and hoisting jacks and the application of a derrick. The Bunker Hill Quarry is referred to as “The Birthplace of the Granite Industry in America”.  

Bunker Hill Quarry was the site of such advances due to the need for a tremendous amount of stone for one project - the Bunker Hill Monument – which was to erect a monument to commemorate the Revolutionary War battle fought in Charlestown in 1775. Dramatic changes in quarrying techniques were needed to extract this amount of building stone. In West Quincy, Bunker Hill Quarry lies almost 3 miles from the nearest waterway, the Neponset River. To get the granite to markets, a relatively new technology was employed – the railway. The Granite Railway in Quincy and Milton is sometimes referred to as the “First Railway in America”.

Sailing ships heavily laden with stone sailed Quincy Granite around the world. Soon Quincy became known far and wide as the Granite City. Quincy Granite was highly valued for its hardness, dark color, and its ability to take a fine polish. It was used in the construction of some of the most impressive granite landmarks in the nation. These include Custom Houses in Boston, Savannah, New Orleans, Galveston and San Francisco. Many of the most impressive structures included massive monolithic (one piece) columns. The Custom House is ringed with 32 fluted columns, each weighing over 40 tons. A 25 story tower of Cape Ann granite was added in 1917, making this the first skyscraper in Boston.

The largest columns were turned at the Lyons Turning Mill, which may have been the largest turning mill in America. Remnants of several quarries and the Lyons Turning Mill now lie quietly in the woods on the edge of the Blue Hills Reservation and Granite Links Golf Course.

The demand for Quincy granite (particularly as a building material) peaked some time in the late 19^th century. Concrete and steel proved to be much cheaper building materials. The growth of the labor movement in the 1920s/30s had a dramatic impact on the granite industry also. Skilled laborers, immigrant or otherwise, were unwilling to work in unacceptable conditions for low wages. The growing awareness of the debilitating effects of inhaling quarried stone dust, was a deadly blow to the granite industry. The Great Depression and WW2 may have been the final blows to local granite quarrying.  Granite Railway Quarry closed in the early 1940s and Swingles Quarry closed in the early 1960s, after the death of 3 quarrymen.

But as the granite quarry industry was failing, a new use of the granite cliffs was on the rise. Vacationing Bostonians brought modern mountain climbing techniques from the Alps to the local area in the 1920s. The granite outcrops were quickly discovered as the ideal training ground. The first climbing guide to the area was written in 1922, and included a description of the West Quincy Quarries. This is one of the first places in America where rock climbing was pursued as a sport. Since those early days of climbing, the Quincy Quarries have been an important training ground. The Metropolitan District Commission, now the MA Dept. of Conservation and Recreation, purchased Granite Railway Quarry in 1985. It is now managed as part of the Blue Hills Reservation. The Appalachian Mountain Club, as well as many university outing clubs, public and private schools and guide services regularly use the last remaining granite cliffs. It will be an important recreational and historic resource, for generations to come.