Including this chapter seems important to me because so many of our early and well-known landmarks were constructed of granite furnished from the Granite Railway quarries and hauled by the Railway.

To cover all the places where granite has been used for various purposes would fill a book of its own. Therefore, I will only deal with some of the better-known places.

According to the records which show that they started using stones and boulders at once in Boston and its environs, it says: "On October 30, 1630, a stone house, which the governor was erecting at Mystic, was washed down to the ground in a violent storm. The walls being laid in a clay instead of lime." This is the first mention of stone being used for houses. Next about 1650, Johnson says of the city. . ."The buildings are beautiful and large, some fairly set forth with brick tile, stone and slate."

According to Brayley in his book, History of the Granite Industry in New England, he states: "There existed until 1864, a house of stone, built about 1650, which was early known as the stone house of Ebenezer John Phillip, a worthy baker of the town, which stood on the east side of Cross Street, between North and Hanover Streets. It was built chiefly of the common rocks found in the native soil of the peninsula which were broken into various shapes and sizes and laid into place. The Foundation work were four feet thick, the walls above the ground were two feet thick, and built entirely of small quarried stones unlike anything to be seen in that neighborhood, and which were probably brought as ballast from some part of Europe. They were laid in clay throughout. The stones which formed its walls, during its demolition, were removed to form the underpinning of the Methodist Church on Saratoga Street in East Boston."

Some of the other homes in Boston built of stone, brick, slate and granite are the Jeremiah Allen house that stood on the corner of Tremont and Somerset Streets, the John Lowell house next below King's Chapel on School Street where the City Hall now stands. I have been unable to locate any pictures of the above-mentioned houses. Another well-known house is the Hancock house which stood for many years on Beacon Hill. Figure 93 shows this house, while Figure 93A is a picture of an early sketch.

The State Prison in Charlestown is another building constructed of granite as well as the dry docks at the Charlestown and Norfolk, Virginia Navy Yards, the one at Charlestown being the first and largest dry dock in the country. The granite for these was all furnished by the Granite Railway Company. Figure 94 is a picture of the State Prison, while Figure 95 shows the Charlestown dry dock.

The construction and picture of King's Chapel I have covered previously, this building being the first to be recorded as using granite from Quincy. As for the Bunker Hill Monument, Figure 96 is from an early sketch, while Figure 97 is a more recent one.

Minot's Light is another well-known landmark constructed of Quincy granite, and is considered one of the finest engineering feats of its time. Figure 98 shows the completed light, while Figures 99 and 100 show the light during its construction.

An interesting article appeared in the Quincy Ledger of September 11, 1958 which made reference to one of the Granite Railway Company boats or sloops that was used in transporting the granite blocks from the wharf on the Neponset River to the lighthouse during its construction and later played a very important part in the Civil War.

In Quincy, the First Church, Figure 101, and the Town Hall, Figure 102. opposite each other in the square were built in 1825 and 1844 respectively, the granite for both being from the quarries in West Quincy. The pillars for the church were quarried from the well-known Wigwam quarry. William N. Gardner, who did the construction work on the first railroad, also built the Town Hall as well as many other buildings constructed of granite.

The Custom House, Court House, Merchants Exchange Building and the City Hall are other well-known buildings in Boston all constructed of Granite Railway stone. Figure 103 shows the Custom House as originally built while Figure 104 shows it as it looks today. Figure 105 is a picture of the old Court House, long since gone, and Figure 106 shows the Merchants Exchange Building on State Street, torn down many years ago. Figure 107 shows the old City Hall.

Granite has also been used extensively from the first for cellars, walls, curbings, paving blocks for streets and buildings too numerous to mention. When more modern methods were developed for cutting and polishing the granite, it was in great demand for monuments. Figure 108 shows the evolution of a round ball which was to be presented to the City of Quincy by the Granite Manufacturers Association during its 300th Anniversary in 1925. It first shows it as a rough block of stone, then as the monument and ball in its first location beside City Hall, later being moved to the rotary south of the Fore River bridge in Quincy Point. Figure 109 shows the ball in this location.

Before concluding this chapter there are two pictures that I feel should be included. The first, Figure 109A, is an early picture of Fort Independence, located on Castle Island overlooking Boston Harbor, this fort being constructed of Quincy granite. Figure 109B is a picture of the Merchants Exchange Building in New York City. During the quarrying and finishing of the columns shown in front of the building, one of them broke off and was rejected. Two of these columns were also quarried from the old O.T. Rogers quarry on Willard Street which was originally the old Bunton quarry, the rest coming from the Wigwam quarry owned at the time by Willard. Solomon Willard had it carted to the Hall Place Cemetery in West Quincy, which he had laid out and publicly opened. He erected the rejected column, preparing a suitable base, and deposited at its base a complete set of stone cutting tools. He designed the monument for the public, but when he died, the citizens of West Quincy dedicated it back to him. See Figure 86.

The Granite Railway Company, even though non-existent, has every reason to be proud of the job it has accomplished, beginning with the first railroad down through the years, furnishing granite from its many quarries to be used all over the world.