Carving and Dealing Granite

in 19th & 20th Century Belfast, Part 1

by Tom Seymour

Belfast Granite Quarry, like the the Oak hill Quarry. The quarrymen have paused for the camera. The man in the center may be holding a heavy hammer and the star drill, used to drill the vertical holes seen at the edge of the piece he is standing on. Wedges were pounded into these holes to break off smaller pieces. The horse behind the man at the left provided the muscle to lift the granite pieces. Photo courtesy of Belfast Historical Society

The signs remain, though few know how to read them. A bit of carved granite, obviously fashioned by the hand of man, lies unceremoniously tossed in as a part of a small breakwater recently constructed in Belfast Harbor.

On a corner by the shore in Belfast, an old building, once a granite products showroom, looks somewhat out-of-place amidst its more modern surroundings. It serves as a silent reminder of the activity that once made this coastal Maine town a known entity nationwide. Indeed, the granite industry and more specifically, the monument industry that attended to the larger aspect of the trade, once played a major part in Midcoast Maine’s industrial identity.

Local Material

In any business, availability of raw material plays a major role in determining future prosperity. It was no different in the glory days of the granite industry in Maine. For local stonecarvers, the raw material, granite, often came from local sites. And far from familiarity breeding contempt, the local nature of Maine granite was a major selling point. Dressed granite from Maine gained fame as it was used in construction of such grand structures as the Philadelphia Mint, Grant’s Tomb, The Washington Monument, The Smithsonian, the Congressional Library and the Brooklyn Bridge. Also, Maine granite monuments, cut, carved and lettered in Maine, sit in cemeteries across the nation as well as in other countries around the globe.

One major promoter of Maine granite, C. J. Hall, toured the country touting the unrivaled qualities of granite from his quarry in Somes Sound. In 1885, this led to Hall landing a contract to supply granite for the new state capitol in Springfield, Illinois. In order to fulfill his contract, Hall set up a cutting and polishing facility in Belfast. Granite from the Somes Sound quarry was shipped to Belfast, there processed and from thence on to Springfield by railroad.

By 1892, Hall’s company, now The Standard Granite Company, was exporting Maine granite to points nationwide. Three-masted schooners, resting at anchor, waiting to pick up a load of Hall’s granite, were a regular fixture of Belfast Harbor.

Shoreline protection. The long straight lines from modern hydraulic granite drills lower left. The massive, monumental granite buildings in nearly all east coast cities and many inland cities, were built with large pieces of precision cut granite block. Those pieces were cut and shaped with hand tools skillfully used. Fragments of carved pieces are among the rubble. Photo courtesy of Belfast Historical Society

Not all Maine granite is created equal. Quarries in Hallowell, Deer Isle, Vinalhaven and Sullivan held huge veins of fairly coarse stone, which was the easiest to cut and fashion. Granite form the Oak Hill Quarry in Swanville, on the other hand, gave up a hard, fine-grained product that was harder to cut and polish, but yielded a most beautiful end result. And because of that, Oak Hill granite was preferred for the manufacture of granite monuments.

Oak Hill granite also had other, local applications. In the 1860s, during construction of the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad (a euphemistic name indeed, since the line only reached Burnham Junction in Burnham, a town in northwestern Waldo County), Oak Hill granite was the source of bridge abutments for railroad stream crossings. These granite blocks are in plain evidence today.

The Oak Hill Quarry gained more than ample outlets and as such, attracted stone workers from around the world. These men lived at a boarding house located at the foot of the mountaintop quarry. One of them, James W. Mollison, came from Scotland to work at the quarry with his father, who had emigrated to America earlier and had paved the way for James. Also, James’ brother Allen preceded him at the quarry. James, “Jim,” the last of the Mollisons to participate in the Maine granite industry, was a personal friend of the author of this article and had many interesting period tales of life in and around the quarry.

While James Mollison came to the Oak Hill Granite Quarry in the late 1920s, his employment there was relatively short-lived. The quarry ceased operations in 1930, but reopened in 1934 when WPA contracts gave the company a new lease on life. At the end of the WPA projects, the quarry closed again because its granite was no longer being used as paving stones. Concrete, along with asphalt, had supplanted granite for road construction.

However, the quarry saw some limited use in 1946 when a Massachusetts company extracted granite for monument use. And in 1950, some Oak Hill Granite was run through a rock crusher for use in local roads. But that was the signal end of the Oak Hill Granite Quarry. For years later, nearly until the present time, the quarry was a favorite hiking, swimming and picnicking destination for local residents. Now it is in private hands and access is prohibited.

Black Granite

A 1909 article in the Belfast, Maine newspaper The Republican Journal, read, “Among the natural advantages and wealth of Waldo County is the Lincolnville Emerald Black Granite quarry owned by Mr. A. O. Richards. This stone takes a beautiful polish and some of the finest work may be seen at the marble and granite workers’ places of business in this city.”

The article continued to say that lettering on this granite “stands out boldly” and that there were about six acres where the granite formation crops out in different sections.”

Shoreline protection. The long straight lines from modern hydraulic granite drills lower left. The massive, monumental granite buildings in nearly all east coast cities and many inland cities, were built with large pieces of precision cut granite block. Those pieces were cut and shaped with hand tools skillfully used. Fragments of carved pieces are among the rubble. Photo courtesy of Belfast Historical Society

Amasa S. Heal

One of the last of Belfast’s major granite operations was the A. S. Heal Marble Works. Heal was a granite carver and did carving and lettering on gravestones and mausoleums that his company sold. Heal was also a marble dealer, one of the primary ones in Midcoast Maine.

Amasa Heal began polishing and lettering of granite sometime around age 20, when he went into business with George Rankin, a Lincolnville resident and stone cutter. Rankin cut the granite and Heal carved and lettered it. In the beginning, the team used Lincolnville granite (no doubt the black granite mentioned above), but later went to something called, “block granite,” from a quarry in South Thomaston. Probably the South Thomaston granite was coarser and thus, easier to work with. And perhaps it was cheaper.

And then in 1891, Heal set up shop in Belfast along with Llewellyn Wood and Charles Harrison. Heal outlived both his partners and continued on in business on his own, but in 1937 took on his son-in-law, De Witt C. Brewer.

As late as 1938, Amasa S. Heal kept regular hours at his Belfast granite operation.

Maine granite has seen a renewal, of sorts. Small businesses use native granite to manufacture a number of products. But in its heyday, Maine boasted of 152 quarries, employing 3,500 workers. From the beginning of the industry around 1830 and throughout the 19th century, Maine reigned supreme in the granite industry. In 1901, Maine led the nation in granite sales.