Fall River granite
Fall River granite is a Precambrian bedrock underlying the City of Fall River, Massachusetts and surrounding areas along the eastern shores of Narragansett Bay. It was formed 600 million years ago, as part of the Avalon terrane.[1]
During the 19th century, the City of Fall River, Massachusetts became famous for the granite rock on which much of the city is built. The ridge extends approximately 20 miles (32 km) from the village of Assonet in the north through Fall River and into Tiverton, Rhode Island in the south, along the edge of the basin that forms Narragansett Bay. The eastern edge of the underlying granite is the Hixville Fault near Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
Description
From a distance, the rock exhibits a distinctive tan-gray color. Viewed up close, it is more pink. The granite is very hard and durable, but cannot be polished very well.[2] As a result, its appearance on a building is almost always somewhat rough, rather than the sharp lines of other types of building stone.
Edmund Hitchcock, of the 1841 Geological Survey of Massachusetts gave the following description of the granite:
But no rock can be finer for architectural purposes than the granite of Troy[Fall River]...The feldspar of this rock is a mixture of the flesh red and light green varieties; the former predominating: the quartz is light gray, and the mica, usually black... it works easily and has a lighter and more lively appearance than Quincy granite.[3][4]
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.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8]
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.
Examples of use
Many of the cotton textile mills in the city were built from this native stone, and it was highly regarded as a building material for many public buildings and private homes alike. Examples of the stones use within Fall River include St. Mary's Cathedral, The Fall River Historical Society Mansion and the base of St. Anne's Church. The first floor of the former B.M.C. Durfee High School building in Fall River is also constructed of native granite. Another fine example of the use of this material was the Notre Dame de Lourdes Church, Fall River Massachusetts. The entire lower portion of this structure below the roof and steeples was constructed of Fall River granite. Unfortunately this building was destroyed by fire on May 11, 1982.
The Chateau-sur-Mer mansion in Newport, Rhode Island is perhaps the best example of Fall River granite being used for private home construction.
See also
- Fall River, Massachusetts
- Chateau-sur-Mer
- Israel Picard House
- Milford granite (Massachusetts)
References
- ^ Roadside Geology of Massachusetts, James W. Skehan, 2001
- ^ "Herald News article, 1978" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2008-08-02.
- ^ Johnson, Rossiter; John Howard Brown (1904). The twentieth century biographical dictionary of notable Americans. Boston Biographical Society. OCLC 6182270. (1841 Google Books)
- ^ Massachusetts Geological Survey; Edward Hitchcock (1841). Final Report on the Geology of Massachusetts. J.H. Butler. pp. 147–148. OCLC 2032204.
- ^ "History of Fall River, 1841, Orin Fowler" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
- ^ 2003 Herald News article on Fall River granite
- ^ South Coast Today "Quarry days: Fall River built with granite"
- ^ Herald News, May 15, 2011
External links
- Vintage Photo of Beattie Granite Quarry
- History of Fall River, Massachusetts
- Fall River Historical Society
- v
- t
- e
- American Printing Company
- Battle of Freetown
- B.M.C. Durfee High School 1886 building
- Bradford Durfee Textile School/Bradford Durfee College of Technology
- Corky Row Historic District
- Downtown Fall River Historic District
- Fall River Railroad
- Fall River Iron Works
- Fall River Line
- Great Fall River fire of 1928
- Highlands Historic District
- Lower Highlands Historic District
- Historic Places
- Oak Grove Cemetery
- Pocasset Manufacturing Company
- Slade's Ferry Bridge
- The Skeleton in Armor
- Truesdale Hospital
- USS Fall River (CA-131)
- Watuppa Branch
- Fall River granite
- Freetown-Fall River State Forest
- Mount Hope Bay
- Quequechan River
- Taunton River
- Watuppa Ponds
- Mariano S. Bishop
- Lizzie Borden
- Nathaniel B. Borden
- Richard Borden
- M. C. D. Borden
- Charlie Buffinton
- James Buffington
- Robert Correia
- Jasiel Correia
- John W. Cummings
- Orin Fowler
- Chris Herren
- Emeril Lagasse
- List of mayors of Fall River, Massachusetts
- Humberto Sousa Cardinal Medeiros
- Joe Raposo
- Jerry Remy
- Melvin Zais
- Academy Building
- Al Mac's Diner-Restaurant
- Battleship Cove
- Braga Bridge
- Copicut Woods
- Fall River Government Center
- Fall River Heritage State Park
- Interstate 195 (Rhode Island-Massachusetts)
- Marine Museum at Fall River
- List of mills
- New Harbour Mall
- Old Colony & Fall River Railroad Museum
- Quequechan Club
- Route 24
- St. Joseph's Orphanage
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- Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River
- St. Anne's Church and Parish Complex
- Notre Dame de Lourdes Church
- St. Patrick's Church