BARRE GRANITE ASSOCIATION

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The Barre Granite Association

Granite, the earth's most plentiful and durable stone, finds new and surprising applications in a modern world millions of years after it was formed deep within the earth.

Traditionally used for beautiful memorials, today granite is making its place in homes and businesses as more and more people are discovering the beauty and versatility of this natural product.

Granite can be used to achieve a warm or cool look; it can be rustic or refined, casual or elegant. Because it is one of the hardest materials available, it is also virtually maintenance free.

Inside the home or office it is the medium of choice for kitchen and baths, floors, foyers, furniture and for a host of accent pieces. For example much of the new terminal at Burlington International Airport is composed of granite, including this elegant washroom counter.

Outside, it enhances any setting - be it a birdbath or bench in a quiet garden, a corporate sign in a busy metropolitan area, or a grand stair case in the hills.

On our web site you'll be introduced to some of the granite products manufactured by the outstanding members of the Barre Granite Association, a trade association of Vermont granite manufacturers and quarriers established in 1889. These products are available through your local supplier of nature's stone products.

Explore our site, and discover more about the
beautiful world of Barre Granite.

www.barregranite.org

A Bit about The Barre Granite Industry

Our Story

The story of Barre and of the Barre granite industry, is a story of true Americanism, a story of pioneers, immigrant artists and craftsmen, and of an art form born of Old world tradition and New world ideals and methods. When, in 1778, John Gouldsbury and Samuel Rogers obtained their grant to the territory which now includes Barre, they little realized that the picturesque hills would bring world wide fame to their settlement.

It was not until the days of the War of 1812, however; that the commercial production of Barre granite is mentioned in historical essays and documents. Prior to that time Barre had been occupied with agriculture, lumbering and dairying. True, the hardy farmers had utilized granite out-croppings for house foundations and millstones. But according to records, it was not until Robert Parker, a veteran of Bunker Hill and the War of 1812, returned to Barre that his high-grade granite was utilized for other commercial purposes. Robert Parker and one of his associates, Thomas Courser, opened the first quarry in the town. The quarry was later known as Wheaton's.

Barre Granite Monuments Are Everywhere

It has been estimated that one-third of the public and private monuments and mausoleums in America -- and they are millions in number -- are products of the Barre quarries and Barre's "international" community of sculptors, artisans, mechanics and laborers. All this has been largely accomplished since the closing decades of the last century. It has made Barre one of the most unique industrial art centers of the world.

Former President Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess, Walter Chrysler, John D. Rockefeller, Harvey Firestone, F.W. Woolworth, Sidney Colgate, Booth Tarkington, Julius Fleischmann, Phillip B. Armour and many, many more are but a few of the innumerable celebrities in government, science, commerce and the professions who are commemorated by monuments and mausoleums quarried and finished in Barre. These memorials constitute but a fraction of the Barre granite memorials erected by the American people because someone lived.

It is the millions of smaller or less pretentious markers, tablets, monuments and war memorials erected by the American people that have given the Barre quarries and producers their enviable reputation with memorial dealers, cemeteries and the nation. These memorials range from the modest headstone at the grave of Stephen Foster, the composer, to millions of monuments to unsung heroes and individuals and families in America.

The First Contracts

The first of the contracts awarded to these enterprising quarriers and stone cutters was the State Capitol building in Montpelier, completed in 1838, an outstanding example of early American classic architecture. Pessimistically, they predicted it would be their last contract. The huge blocks of granite were laboriously transported to the Capitol site by means of drays drawn through muddy roads by thirty or more oxen. The heavier operations were left for winter when the blocks could be drawn over the snow with sleds. The facilities for shaping and carving the unyielding granite were likewise primitive. Other problems also presented a discouraging outlook. But their skepticism proved to be unjustified.

When the beautiful new capitol was completed, public response and praise gave these pioneer quarriers new courage, soon fortified by an order for ten million paving blocks for the City of Troy, New York. It was a contract, which brought many stone workers into the community. Barre was rapidly gaining a reputation in the stone industry that was attracting the interest of businessmen in the community. Among the earliest of these enterprising citizens were J. Parker and E. Hewett, the father-in-law of Emory L. Smith, the first mayor of Barre and one of the earliest manufacturers of Barre granite.

Emory L. Smith, a veteran of the Civil War, established his company in the spring of 1868. He was an alert and resourceful executive whose vision, enterprise and ideals inspired associates and contemporaries alike to anticipate the enormous demand for granite from the pioneer quarries on "Millstone Hill."

Transportation Problems Resolved

Barre was the first to install permanent derricks, the first to utilize the steam drill, the first to use the electric battery in blasting and the first to introduce many innovations which revolutionized quarrying and production of granite in many lands. But there was a missing link: efficient transportation.

Despite remarkable progress in perfecting quarrying and production economies, Barre remained handicapped by transportation problems. The cost of moving heavy stones from the quarries to the "shops" and then moving the finished work to the nearest railway was a burden upon the industry and upon the purchasing public. In 1875, the Central Vermont Railroad extended a branch from Montpelier to Barre. Barre in turn, in 1890, established a railroad called the "Sky Route," with a grade of 250 feet per mile from the Barre Terminus to the quarries on the "Hill." This all-rail route from the quarries had a tremendous economical and psychological effect upon the community. New quarries and new manufacturing establishments followed. Barre was fast becoming, in truth, the "granite center of the world."

The Word Goes Forth

The news of what was going on in Barre reached master artists and artisans in foreign lands and many of these craftsmen emigrated to Barre. They came from Italy, Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Spain, Germany and other European stone centers. It is easy to understand why these artists and artisans in the new community were not long in exercising a direct and profound influence upon their fellow workers, upon their employers and upon one of the most important industrial arts in America -- the art of commemoration.

Centuries of ancestral training and experience constitute the antecedents of Barre's granite men. Many of the Italian designers, sculptors, carvers, artisans and manufacturers can trace their ancestry back to Medieval times, when Michaelangelo and other immortals of the era relied upon the superb traditional skill of the marble workers and carvers in famed Cararra, Italy, for accurate interpretation of their models or drawings. So likewise the Scotch artisans who located in Barre take pride in their heritage in the art of working stone, dating back to the earliest days of the 11th Century.

Great Changes Take Place

But a great change took place in the industrial arts during the 20th Century. Mechanical means of production have gradually replaced the more laborious and therefore costlier "handwork" or manual craftsmanship. The advent of mechanical laborsaving machinery at first created resentment among these artist-craftsmen. But this resentment soon gave way to a more practical viewpoint. A pneumatic tool in the hands of an expert carver, for example, is more efficient--and far more economical--than the old hammer-and-chisel. The same is true of modern abrasive shaping and carving of granite. But these machines and methods are useless without the master-hand of the artisan. And that is the reason why these skilled artisans of Barre, old and young, led the way in perfecting the technique of using these modern devices to produce art in stone.

As in all other industrial art centers of the nation, the veteran artisans of Barre at the turn of the century, were skeptical of the tendency toward mechanical production. Like other artists they deplored the machine age in Art. They were fearful that machines would break down the high ideals and traditions of their craft. But as in other industrial art centers, these men of Barre became reconciled to the value and importance of laborsaving machinery. They not only became reconciled but they became the most ingenious, resourceful and successful creators in the field of design and in the techniques of modern production. They opened new vistas and brought the expression of beauty within the reach of a vast public, which could not afford the cost of hand carved memorials.

Workers Health Protected

Barre has established a precedent in American stone production for safeguarding the health of its workers. Stone working had always been a hazardous vocation. Inhaling stone dust generates the dreaded disease known as silicosis, and the machine age multiplied the danger before it solved the problem. Barre was among the first of the mineral industries to install dust-removing equipment for combating silicosis. Barre was in the vanguard of those who adopted other innovations to safeguard the health and increase the efficiency of the worker.

In these and in other corrective programs, Barre has consistently led the industry with a policy of humanitarian interest in the welfare of the employee. Just as Barre has lead the industry in progressive industrial policies so likewise "the memorial art center of America" has been the dominating influence in American memorial design.

In all industries identified with the arts and crafts, the professionally trained designer-- schooled in the technical and commercial problems of his field--is a cardinal factor in the success of sustained progress of this industry. Barre was the first industrial art center in the memorial crafts to establish a comprehensive course of professional training in design.

www.barregranite.org

Barre Granite Association

PO Box 481

Barre, Vermont 05641

802-476-4131

Fax 802-476-4765

Email: [email protected]