On a hot July day in 2008, Bob Denesha headed into the overgrowth covering a large portion of a 42-acre piece of property in Westerly, R.I. Denesha knew there were abandoned quarries in the area left from Westerly's heyday in the granite industry, and he was setting out to find them.
It didn't take long tramping through the brush, cutting vines, and stepping over stones, before he came to an old roadway. Encouraged, he followed the roadway farther until he came upon a site that took his breath away. Thousands of tons of the once famous Westerly pink granite lay strewn on the ground, harvested from the nearby quarry years before and now abandoned.
"There were just piles and piles of it," Denesha said. "The overburden from the quarry. Back then they only wanted monument size blocks, but their trash is our treasure."
The property is owned by United Builders Supply Co., where Denesha has worked in the masonry division for 20 years. He knew architects and builders would love to be able to work with authentic Westerly pink and blue granite in restoration and new projects. So United Builders took this treasure and has made it available in full bed and thin veneer squares and rectangles and a few other options.
Westerly granite can be found in monuments, buildings, walls, and other projects all over New England. That's because in the mid-1800s and early 1900s, Westerly was one of the monument capitals of the world and its granite was some of the most expensive and sought-after in the industry.
The history of Westerly granite begins in 1845, with a discovery not unlike Bob Denesha's in 2008. Stone mason Orlando Smith stumbled across a small outcropping of granite on Westerly's Rhode's Hill, land that had once been the prosperous farm of Joshua Babcock, Westerly's first physician and first postmaster. Recognizing the value of the granite, Smith quickly purchased the farm and began a granite quarrying operation.
"It really is a Jed Clampett kind of story," Denesha said, "him tripping over the granite, then going on to become such a huge success."
Within twenty years of the discovery, more quarries had opened on "Quarry Hill" and other areas of Westerly and surrounding towns. The treasure they were bringing out of these quarries was the exceptional Westerly granite, known for its blue, pink (buff), or red tint, very fine grain, and immense strength - qualities that made it ideal for carving.
"This is the finest granite in the world - like 220 sandpaper," Denesha said. "You can carve it down to the tiniest detail, like leaves or fingernails or pages of paper. It's also one of the hardest in the world. You'll see monuments carved a hundred years ago that look like they were done last week - no weathering, no staining." Continued on page 2 Below: The Babcock-Smith House as it appeared circa 1860. It was the home of Orlando Smith, who discovered the outcropping of granite. Fine grain, uniform color, great strength and easy workability made this stone famous throughout the country.
Below: The Babcock-Smith House as it appeared circa 1860. It was the home of Orlando Smith, who discovered the outcropping of granite. Fine grain, uniform color, great strength and easy workability made this stone famous throughout the country
Left: 2nd Ohio Infantry monument at Chickamauga National Military Park, Fort Oglethorpe, GA. The acorn appears on Ohio memorials in the park. Acorn is polished red Westerly granite, the cap of the acorn is rockface. The acorn sits on two bases of blue Westerly granite. It was produced by the Smith Granite Company of Westerly, RI in 1894 for the princely sum of $1,500.
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