Oswegatchie Hills Quarry...
Stone Silent Now, but with a Storied Past
By Greg Decker, Stewardship Chair
Quarries are locations where minerals, rocks, and sand are easily extractable and technically are 'open-pit mines.’ Throughout human history, quarries have been used to extract stone to be used as building materials and monuments. The great pyramids of Egypt were built from limestone and granite that was hand cut from quarries.
In New England, colonist could not depend upon supplies from overseas and needed to provide building material, including stone, for themselves. As the country grew, the demand for sturdy and durable quality material for homes, building, street pavers and monuments was the impetus for stone cutting immigrants to start quarrying rock on an industrial scale. This paved the way for Connecticut’s granite industry, which included famous quarries in nearby towns, including Niantic.
Tectonic plate movement has left CT with some of the finest granites. But cutting and removing granite was a slow and time-consuming process where all holes had to be drilled by hand. Technological advances like the steam engine and later the pneumatic rock drill (1880s) made extraction more efficient and easier.
In New England, colonist could not depend upon supplies from overseas and needed to provide building material, including stone, for themselves. As the country grew, the demand for sturdy and durable quality material for homes, building, street pavers and monuments was the impetus for stone cutting immigrants to start quarrying rock on an industrial scale. This paved the way for Connecticut’s granite industry, which included famous quarries in nearby towns, including Niantic.
Tectonic plate movement has left CT with some of the finest granites. But cutting and removing granite was a slow and time-consuming process where all holes had to be drilled by hand. Technological advances like the steam engine and later the pneumatic rock drill (1880s) made extraction more efficient and easier.
What did the Great September Gale of 1815 have to do with the OH Granite Quarry?
Stonehouse built in 1819 on Smith Cove
On September 23, 1815, the first major hurricane to impact New England in 180 years made landfall near Old Saybrook at 9AM. Historians believe the hurricane was somewhere between a Category 3 or 4 with winds of 111 mph - 156 mph. The fierce winds and storm surge nearly decimated the little Smith Cove cottage of Simon Smith and his aristocratic wife Mary. She was so frightened by the experience, Mary threatened Simon with leaving and returning to her Massachusetts home of Ludlow, unless she had a more secure house to live in. Simon assured her he would build her one, and he did!
Finished in 1819, Simon built a sturdy house out of granite that he cut and extracted from the nearby eastern hillside of the Oswegatchie Hills, thus starting one of the first quarrying operations in CT. The two-story Stonehouse with its 18-inch-thick blocks still sits in what is now the Three Belles Marina on Smith Cove and should withstand any hurricane.
In 1831, the Oswegatchie rock was also used to build the old Stone Church on Society Road. It wasn’t until 1850 that the business, managed by Simon’s son Eli, began to boom with steady work. At that time several houses were built near the quarry, along with a stone dock where schooners could tie up and load the granite. Quarry Dock Road near Smith Cove is named after the structure. Much of the stone shipped out was used for street pavers, curbing and manholes.
Sometime in the late 1860s, ownership of the quarry was transferred to John Beattie and his partner, Adam Dawson. Beattie and Dawson operated several quarries in New England. In 2016, a researcher gathering information about the Cape Hatteras lighthouse discovered 22 “reference slips” from the National Archives, dated December 1868 through June 1869, related to the Beattie & Dawson Co. of Niantic Connecticut. These documents referenced the shipment and receipt of “rough stone” for the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Though there is some debate on where the granite that makes up the base of the lighthouse came from, he believes the stone came from the Oswegatchie Quarry because these documents reference Niantic, and not their other quarries. Check here to see copies of the Reference Slips from the National Archives.
Activities at the quarry from around 1877 to 1903 remain unclear, but during this period it may have been inactive.
Quoting from an article in ‘STONE,’ vol XXVII, #1, Nov. 1903:
“It is reported that John Tank will reopen the large granite quarries at Oswegatchie, CT this spring. There is a fine stone dock in good condition where two or three large vessels can load at the same time on the Niantic River near the quarries. An extensive business was carried on at the quarries 35 years ago by Beattie, Dawson & Company and later by Dawson & Tank. The houses were all torn down and the quarry abandoned several years ago it was said on account of the difficulty in getting through the two drawbridges at the mouth of the river.”
Finished in 1819, Simon built a sturdy house out of granite that he cut and extracted from the nearby eastern hillside of the Oswegatchie Hills, thus starting one of the first quarrying operations in CT. The two-story Stonehouse with its 18-inch-thick blocks still sits in what is now the Three Belles Marina on Smith Cove and should withstand any hurricane.
In 1831, the Oswegatchie rock was also used to build the old Stone Church on Society Road. It wasn’t until 1850 that the business, managed by Simon’s son Eli, began to boom with steady work. At that time several houses were built near the quarry, along with a stone dock where schooners could tie up and load the granite. Quarry Dock Road near Smith Cove is named after the structure. Much of the stone shipped out was used for street pavers, curbing and manholes.
Sometime in the late 1860s, ownership of the quarry was transferred to John Beattie and his partner, Adam Dawson. Beattie and Dawson operated several quarries in New England. In 2016, a researcher gathering information about the Cape Hatteras lighthouse discovered 22 “reference slips” from the National Archives, dated December 1868 through June 1869, related to the Beattie & Dawson Co. of Niantic Connecticut. These documents referenced the shipment and receipt of “rough stone” for the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Though there is some debate on where the granite that makes up the base of the lighthouse came from, he believes the stone came from the Oswegatchie Quarry because these documents reference Niantic, and not their other quarries. Check here to see copies of the Reference Slips from the National Archives.
Activities at the quarry from around 1877 to 1903 remain unclear, but during this period it may have been inactive.
Quoting from an article in ‘STONE,’ vol XXVII, #1, Nov. 1903:
“It is reported that John Tank will reopen the large granite quarries at Oswegatchie, CT this spring. There is a fine stone dock in good condition where two or three large vessels can load at the same time on the Niantic River near the quarries. An extensive business was carried on at the quarries 35 years ago by Beattie, Dawson & Company and later by Dawson & Tank. The houses were all torn down and the quarry abandoned several years ago it was said on account of the difficulty in getting through the two drawbridges at the mouth of the river.”
