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| Title | Type | Subject | Creator | Date | Place | Rights | |
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| Hall Quarry Northeast Harbor Library |
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|  Hall Quarry Northeast Harbor Library Description: The settlement of Hall Quarry in located in the town of Mount Desert on Mount Desert Island and was home to a granite quarry. The quarry's location alongside of Somes Sound proved very beneficial, as it allowed the schooners to land very close to the quarry to load the granite and transport it to various ports. | |||
| Nubble Quarry Southwest Harbor Public Library |
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|  Nubble Quarry Southwest Harbor Public Library | ||
| Granite Quarries of Mount Desert Island Southwest Harbor Public Library |
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|  Granite Quarries of Mount Desert Island Southwest Harbor Public Library Description: Granite quarrying began as early as 1870 on Mount Desert Island at Hall's Quarry. “The list of public buildings, libraries, state capitols, city halls, churches, and residences built with Maine granite is a lengthy one. Not only building stone but paving and curbing stone and rubble were in such demand that many schooners and larger vessels were kept busy. As in other trades, the quarry owners often owned and operated their own fleets. It was rough and heavy work and the last resort of many an old vessel that had seen her best days. For example, the famous old “Bloomer” launched on the west shore of Mt. Desert Island was still carrying stone out of Penobscot Bay eighty-two years later…” - “The Maritime History of Maine: Three Centuries of Shipbuilding and Seafaring” by William Hutchinson Rowe, published by W.W. Norton and Company, 1948, p. 263. "In 1901 the State of Maine ranked first in the nation in terms of the value of granite produced [$2,689,300]… Maine granite was used for many purposes – literally from tombstones to paving blocks. Maine firms profited from lucrative government contracts for buildings in Washington and customs houses and post offices throughout the country. The pillars of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and Grant’s tomb in the nation’s capital were easily visible monuments to the skill and ingenuity of Maine craftsmen. Less obvious were the thousands of tons of stone from the Pine Tree State that went into cemeteries, dry docks, breakwaters, bridge abutments, cellars, fencing, hitching posts, curbing and paving along the eastern seaboard and beyond." “The granite industry in the Pine Tree State, built on the sweat of native and foreign labor and nurtured by the infusion of outside capital, began to retreat from its economic zenith in 1905 as the changes in architectural styles, competing materials, and rising costs swept up the nation.” – "Tombstones and Paving Blocks: The History of the Maine Granite Industry" by Roger L. Grindle, A Courier of Maine Book, Rockland, Maine, 1977, p. xi, p. 183. [show more] | |||
| Hall Quarry McMullen Quarry Southwest Harbor Public Library |
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|  Description: This quarry was "in the town of Mount Desert, southeast of the village of 'Hall Quarry' and four-fifths mile north of the Robinson Mountains." The operator was the Booth Bros. & Hurricane Isle Granite Co., 208 Broadway, New York. The granite was reportedly a light-buff grayish color with a coarse to medium texture. Accessory minerals: Apatite and a little secondary calcite within the oligoclase. Granite quarrying began as early as 1870 on Mount Desert Island at Hall's Quarry. Four major companies operated at Hall's Quarry from 1870 to 1965, the first being the Standard Granite Company, followed by McMullen Granite Co., Booth Brothers and Hurricane Island Granite Company and Grenci and Ellis Granite Co. All shipped stone for major building contracts all over the United States. In 1905 the quarry measured 250 feet north to south by 250 feet from east to west. The quarry had a depth of 50 feet at the west side. Transport of the granite was by track 800 feet to the wharf, which was accessible to schooners of 20 feet draft. Granite from this quarry was used in the following examples: the United States Mint in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the basement of the New York Customhouse; the Brooklyn anchorage to the Manhattan Bridge; and the bridge over the Potomac at Washington. The Commercial Granites of New England, Bulletin 738 By T. Nelson Dale - Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey - Government Printing Office, Washington, 1923. - p. 222-223 [show more] |