Mount Desert Island Quarries

The quarrying of cellar stone on Mount Desert Island began as early as the 1790's.   Cyrus J. Hall of Belfast Maine came to Mount Desert Island in 1871, opening the first commercial quarry at Otter Creek, on the east side of Mount Desert Island. 

         From the Quarry at Otter Creek  

                                             The Board of Trade Chicago                                       Bridge at Back Bay Fens Boston                     American Baptist Pub. building Phil.

                                                                                                                                                                           Belfast Free Library Belfast Maine 

                                                                                                              

 

        

In 1883 Cyrus J. Hall began quarrying granite on the west side of Somes Sound.  First called 'Quarryville',  Hall's Quarry became one of the major quarry towns operating on the coast of Maine.  This small coastal town became a booming community almost overnight with several general stores, a number of boarding houses and blacksmith shops.  Commonly know as "Somes Sound Pink" granite, Mr. Hall traveled nationwide promoting his new stone, gathering contracts from  major cities in the U. S. including Philadelphia, New York, Washington DC, Boston, Hartford, Indianapolis and many others.  Perhaps the largest of these contracts was for the Philadelphia Mint job which employed as many as eight hundred men for eighteen months.  Stonecutters, quarrymen and stone carvers traveled  great distances to work on this contract.

 

                                  

               The Standard Granite Company store at Hall's Quarry       Receipt for 10 kegs of black power sold to Fernald Bros. and Higgins

                                                                                                                           Granite Company which operated on the east side of Somes Sound              

          Philadelphia Mint                      Quarrymen and stone wagon at Hall's Quarry during the Phil.                       Philadelphia Mint

                                                                                Mint  contract ~ note pillars laying behind horses  

 

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