Touring the Quincy Quarry with the Quincy Quarry & Granite Workers Museum historian and president

A walking tour discussing the history of the Quincy Quarry in Quincy, Massachusetts with Al Bina (grey shirt with red cap), President, and Tom Bonomi (red shirt, doing most of the presentations), Historian of the Quincy Quarry & Granite Workers Museum.

The railroad built in 1826 to haul quarried granite was the first commercial railroad in America. More information on the history is included below

This walking tour is one of the monthly "behind the scenes" events organized as a part of History Camp Boston. You don't have to have attended the annual event in order to participate. Learn more about upcoming monthly outings and sign up to receive alerts at HistoryCamp.org/boston.

Our thanks to Al and Tom and the folks at the DCR.

Learn more about the Quincy Quarry & Granite Workers Museum at www.quincyquarrymuseum.org/

Find more historic sites and events at https://www.thehistorylist.com

THE HISTORY OF QUARRY

From a publication that the company put out in 1926, "The Quarries of the Granite Railway Company, The First Railway in America":

“The Granite Railway Company wishes to call to the attention of architects and others the preeminent qualities of dark Quincy granite which make it a most desirable building material. For more than one hundred years the quarries of the Granite Railway Company have been in continuous operation, and for the first fifty years of that period the principal use of the stone quarried was for buildings. Gradually the enduring characteristics of the stone and the increasing cost of labor led to its use almost exclusively in monumental work. With the advent of steel frame buildings and the development of improved methods in granite manufacture, the desirability of this particular stone for certain architectural purposes has again become recognized.

In 1826 the Granite Railway Company was organized under the guiding hand of Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins and chattered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the dual purpose of quarrying stone and transporting it by railroad to the Neponset River, whence it was taken by vessels to all parts of the Atlantic coast from Maine to Louisiana. The railroad which it built in 1826 was “THE FIRST RAILROAD IN AMERICA”

For half a century the company operated both its quarries and its railroad, then it gave up its railroad and devoted its entire energies to the quarrying side of the business, relying for its transportation on the great network of railroads teaching to all parts of the United States. From the quarries of the Granite Railway Company came the stone for many notable buildings. Bunker Hill Monument was built of stone from its Bunker Hill Quarry. The Boston Custom House, converted into Boston’s loftiest building by the addition of a tower which serves as a landmark for many miles around, was built of stone from its Pine Hill Quarry. From the same quarry came the stone for Minot’s Ledge Light, one of the famous light houses of the world, rising from the water near the entrance to Boston Harbor at one of the most dangerous points on the New England coast.”