Fall River Granite - Historical Context

Historical Context

The granite quarry industry in Fall River had been established by 1840, employing 30 people, with the rock being transported to places such as Newport, New Bedford, Providence, Bristol and New York City.

Several granite quarries operated in the area in the late 19th century, the largest of which was the Beattie Granite Quarry, located near what is now North Quarry Street, near the corner of Locust Street in Fall River. Originally called the Harrison Quarry, consisting of fewer than three acres, brothers William and John Beattie purchased the site near the end of the Civil War. By 1910, the pit was the length of three football fields and measured 700 feet wide by 60 feet deep. A 1911 U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin listed an impressive inventory of the plant's equipment, including five derricks, three hoisting engines, an air compressor, 14 air plug drills, two surfacers, three steam drills and a stone crusher with a daily capacity of 80 tons. After its abandonment in the late 1920s, the area began to filling with water from natural underground springs and aquifers. During the 1940s and 50s, the city used the pit as an open dump. In the mid 1960s, the area was reclaimed with the help of clean fill. It was acquired by the Fall River Housing Authority which built Oak Village in 1965, an apartment complex for the disabled and elderly. It may need to be razed. At least two of the buildings' floors have cracked causing the walls to tilt. It has been attributed to settling of the stratified and poorly compacted layers of dirt-covered trash now filling the old quarry.

Another notable source of this granite was from the "Assonet Ledge" Quarry located in what now is Freetown-Fall River State Forest, located in Freetown, Massachusetts. The remains of the old railroad grade used to transport the stone from the quarry are still visible within the state forest.

Other quarries include Major Bradford Durfee's Bigberry Ledge on the shores of the Quequechan near 16th Street, the Earle quarry off Bell Rock Road, Thurston's Ledge east of Freelove Street, the Savoie quarry on Beauregard Street and the Ross quarry on Barlow Street near Watuppa Pond.

During World War I, when both manpower and the gunpowder used to blow apart the rock were in short supply, granite quarrying slowed not only here, but nationwide. In the 1920s, competing with improved structural steel and reinforced concrete construction methods, demand for granite diminished further, leading to the eventual closure of most of Fall River's quarries.