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Photographer: Michael Herrick
Taken: June 22, 2009
Caption: The Quarries
Additional Description: Prospering Through the Years with Roxbury Granite

While the fortunes of the mines at Mine Hill rose and fell over the years, eight granite quarries at the site prospered and have brought a steady income for their owners for close to two centuries. In fact, when Yale University professor Benjamin Sillman visited Roxbury in 1817, he was more impressed by the “light, agreeable gray” stone he found than the iron and silver ore, declaring the granite “singularly perfect.”

It is not clear when quarrying at Mine Hill first began, but it seems likely that stone was being cut by individuals on an informal basis long before 1850 when records suggest the first quarry opened. Oxcarts carried the granite to Roxbury and New Milford for use as door steps and foundations. When the railroad came to Mine Hill in 1871, the granite stones were transported as far away as New York and New Britain for use in building churches, bridges and fine homes.

In 1899, Roxbury’s Charles Hodge and his partners established the Mine Hill Quarry Company to work the Rockside Quarry (lower quarry), which had opened at the foot of Mine Hill nearly a decade earlier. Although the upper quarry closed down around 1905, the lower quarry operated for another 30 years before closing. In the 1950s, quarrying resumed in both the upper and lower quarries with the help of more modern equipment and trucks. Quarrying continues to this day at Mine Hill, with the fine Roxbury granite prized for building hearths, chimneys, terraces and other structures.
Submitted: July 5, 2009, by Michael Herrick of Southbury, Connecticut.
Database Locator Identification Number: p69553
File Size: 0.544 Megabytes

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