granito , or grained, in reference to the interlocked grains of minerals that make up the stone.
In a hand specimen and particularly in the wall of a building where they have been polished, granites resemble no other building
stone. Minerals range in size from a peppercorn to a plum. Some minerals have a glassy appearance. Others twinkle. Most are
dull. Granite can be pink or red, infrequently green to black, and commonly white to gray. Rarely will you find any layering,
consistent orientation of the grains, or swirls. You will never find fossils.
The Quincy Granite fits this general description, albeit with idiosyncrasies. Most granites contain two types of the mineral
feldspar, broadly called plagioclase feldspar and alkali feldspar. In contrast, Quincy contains only alkali feldspar, a result
of solidifying at a high temperature. Alkali feldspar gives the rock its characteristic green-tinted, dusky gray color. (One
Quincy quarry owner called himself the “Extra Dark Man” because of the particularly dark stone excavated from his property.)
Further darkening results from Quincy’s nearly black quartz, as opposed to the more common clear or white varieties. 7 High temperature also sapped the Quincy Granite’s magma of another typical granite mineral, mica, and led to the formation
of an unusual mineral known as riebeckite. Because riebeckite is harder than mica, it allows the Quincy Granite to take a
high polish. Riebeckite also contains a very stable form of iron, which means that Quincy Granite doesn’t rust and stain when
it weathers.
Dark and hard, polishable, and weather-resistant, and with Tarbox’s plug and feather cutting technology in place, the Quincy
Granite was an ideal stone for the incipient building trade. All it needed was a signature building.
Little was done with granite for the twenty years after Tarbox ventured south to Quincy. Workers completed Bulfinch’s State
Prison in 1805, although not with Quincy Granite. Instead, Bulfinch used Chelmsford granite, which could be floated twenty-six
miles down the recently completed Middlesex Canal. Granite also went into the Boston courthouse, University Hall at Harvard,
several Boston churches, and Massachusetts General Hospital, but these, and a few others, were the only notable granite buildings
to appear by 1825. 8 Although made from granite, all were built in a traditional style using conventionally sized blocks.
This interlude between 1803 and 1825 was granite’s incubation period. Architects were experimenting with how to design with
granite, and transportation was a problem. In Quincy, stonemasons were learning better how to take advantage of the plug and
feather technique and still primarily working with rocks they found on the ground. What would become the Granite Railway Quarry
was still a forested knob known as Pine Hill when incubation ended.
In 1825 an architect-engineer named Solomon Willard arrived in Quincy. Legend has it that he had walked three hundred miles
across New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts in search of the perfect granite for what would become his most famous building,
the Bunker Hill Monument. Willard found that granite at a ledge in a wooded area about a mile from the King’s Chapel “quarry”
site. 9
Born June 2, 1783, in Petersham, Massachusetts, Willard spent his youth on the family farm and in his father’s carpentry shop.
He moved to Boston when he turned twenty-one “to seek, not his fortune (as is the object of so many), but his own intellectual
improvement, and the means and opportunity of doing greater good,” according to the official history of the Bunker Hill Monument. 10
When not helping his fellow man, Willard studied architecture and drawing. He relied on carpentry to make a living. Willard
carved columns for the steeple at Park Street Church, an eagle for the pediment at the old Custom House, and a model of the
U.S. Capitol for Charles Bulfinch.
In a hand specimen and particularly in the wall of a building where they have been polished, granites resemble no other building
stone. Minerals range in size from a peppercorn to a plum. Some minerals have a glassy appearance. Others twinkle. Most are
dull. Granite can be pink or red, infrequently green to black, and commonly white to gray. Rarely will you find any layering,
consistent orientation of the grains, or swirls. You will never find fossils.
The Quincy Granite fits this general description, albeit with idiosyncrasies. Most granites contain two types of the mineral
feldspar, broadly called plagioclase feldspar and alkali feldspar. In contrast, Quincy contains only alkali feldspar, a result
of solidifying at a high temperature. Alkali feldspar gives the rock its characteristic green-tinted, dusky gray color. (One
Quincy quarry owner called himself the “Extra Dark Man” because of the particularly dark stone excavated from his property.)
Further darkening results from Quincy’s nearly black quartz, as opposed to the more common clear or white varieties. 7 High temperature also sapped the Quincy Granite’s magma of another typical granite mineral, mica, and led to the formation
of an unusual mineral known as riebeckite. Because riebeckite is harder than mica, it allows the Quincy Granite to take a
high polish. Riebeckite also contains a very stable form of iron, which means that Quincy Granite doesn’t rust and stain when
it weathers.
Dark and hard, polishable, and weather-resistant, and with Tarbox’s plug and feather cutting technology in place, the Quincy
Granite was an ideal stone for the incipient building trade. All it needed was a signature building.
Little was done with granite for the twenty years after Tarbox ventured south to Quincy. Workers completed Bulfinch’s State
Prison in 1805, although not with Quincy Granite. Instead, Bulfinch used Chelmsford granite, which could be floated twenty-six
miles down the recently completed Middlesex Canal. Granite also went into the Boston courthouse, University Hall at Harvard,
several Boston churches, and Massachusetts General Hospital, but these, and a few others, were the only notable granite buildings
to appear by 1825. 8 Although made from granite, all were built in a traditional style using conventionally sized blocks.
This interlude between 1803 and 1825 was granite’s incubation period. Architects were experimenting with how to design with
granite, and transportation was a problem. In Quincy, stonemasons were learning better how to take advantage of the plug and
feather technique and still primarily working with rocks they found on the ground. What would become the Granite Railway Quarry
was still a forested knob known as Pine Hill when incubation ended.
In 1825 an architect-engineer named Solomon Willard arrived in Quincy. Legend has it that he had walked three hundred miles
across New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts in search of the perfect granite for what would become his most famous building,
the Bunker Hill Monument. Willard found that granite at a ledge in a wooded area about a mile from the King’s Chapel “quarry”
site. 9
Born June 2, 1783, in Petersham, Massachusetts, Willard spent his youth on the family farm and in his father’s carpentry shop.
He moved to Boston when he turned twenty-one “to seek, not his fortune (as is the object of so many), but his own intellectual
improvement, and the means and opportunity of doing greater good,” according to the official history of the Bunker Hill Monument. 10
When not helping his fellow man, Willard studied architecture and drawing. He relied on carpentry to make a living. Willard
carved columns for the steeple at Park Street Church, an eagle for the pediment at the old Custom House, and a model of the
U.S. Capitol for Charles Bulfinch.
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