Historic Stony Creek Granite Returns To NYC

Some day soon, a family walking in Lower Manhattan’s Battery Park might pause to relax on the unique granite wall benches. When they notice the pink granite with specks of quartz sparkling in the sunlight, they might think it came from some prestigious place.

It did — - the Stony Creek Quarry in Branford.

Right now, the granite needed to create those wall benches is being quarried in Stony Creek, continuing a heritage that began in the 1850s. By the turn of the century, some 1,800 immigrants were quarrying granite that would become world famous.

The pink granite has been used in countless projects, including the base of the Statue of Liberty, New York’s Grand Central Terminal, Boston’s South Station, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; and Chifley Towers in Sydney, Australia. Closer to home, the Willoughby Wallace Library in Stony Creek, and the Connecticut Hospice on Double Beach Road in Branford are both constructed from Stony Creek granite, as is the 70-ton pedestal for the Torosaurus statue outside the Yale Peabody Museum.

Quarry operations have been under new ownership in recent years, and company personnel are working to inform people that the ownership is new but the historic granite is the same.

“Part of the new mission is to go out and reach the designers and the architects, as well as some of the civic entities. Mostly we have been reaching out in New York City to update them on the quarry, the new ownership, and to put a new face on the quarry,” said Darrell Petit (pictured), who is in charge of business development at the Stony Creek Quarry Corp.

Petit said the company has been targeting areas that have historically used the pink granite. ​“More and more of these locations in New York City and Boston are trying to match an existing condition … which often includes Stony Creek granite.”

This was the case in Battery Park, where the pink granite can already be seen in adjacent areas. The current project is one of the largest for the new company, which recently finished a project at Columbia University. Petit said until he reached out to Columbia, officials hadn’t known that a quarry was still operational in Stony Creek. ​“Columbia has used Stony Creek granite since the turn of the century. They are specifically interested in maintaining this continuity of the legacy.”

The quarries that span the Branford/Guilford border have changed ownership over the years, and there were times when operations ceased. But the granite remains as resilient as when it was formed 600 million years ago.

“The quality of having been in process for millions of years is daunting to me,” said Petit, who is also an internationally known sculptor. ​“The sheer power of its endurance. It’s an endless source of fascination.”

“Granite is a natural material that has lived and has potential,” Petit said, noting that some people see a quarry as a void. ​“We don’t see loss here; we see blocks that will be transformed into architecture. I don’t think you can get closer to the essence of things than working with stone.”

INSIDE THE QUARRY

The Town of Branford holds the trademark for Stony Creek Pink Granite. In 1978, the town, aided by state and federal funding, purchased about 400 acres of quarry land, which now serves as an open space preserve.

A separate 50-acre site is owned by the town for the specific purpose of leasing as an active quarry. For the past several years, the land has been leased to Doug Anderson, president of Anderson-Wilcox Inc., a Branford development company. Anderson formed the Stony Creek Quarry Corp, which has completed about 20 significant projects since 2008, including work at Columbia University, and Peter Minuet Plaza in New York City. They are currently working on six projects and four others are pending.

The crew consists of five people, including one woman. ​“It’s quite an agile workforce. We are trained to pretty much do everything,” Petit said. ​“We are clearly reflective of the times — it’s a lesser workforce, but knowledge and technology have increased.”

Anderson, who is president of the Stony Creek Corp., said the company has been reaching out to prospective clients and to the community to let them know that the quarry is making a comeback. ​“It has such a great pedigree and history,” he said in regard to the granite. ​“We’ve been promoting the stone and doing a lot of tours,” Anderson said. Click here to read about a tour last summer that attracted 400 people.

“Our mission is to go out and carry the torch for Stony Creek granite,” Petit said. ​“This is a very important part of our outreach, to bring people into this unique place.”

Petit says there are some misconceptions about the scope of the work being done today at the quarry. ​“We are still quarrying Stony Creek block,” he said. ​“This is what has been done since the beginning, and this is what we continue to do today, for projects that we feel are significant and important and lasting and enduring.”

The project for the Battery Conservancy in New York City requires quarrying 10,000 cubic feet of Stony Creek granite dimensional block that will be used to create 1,050 linear feet of wall benches. The project also includes specialized pavers for a bikeway that will connect to a bikeway project completed by the company in 2009 at Peter Minuet Plaza. Stony Creek granite was also used to create benches in 2001 at the nearby Battery walkway.

“We wanted to continue the use of the same material that the stone benches along the Battery promenade were made of, which is the same material as the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty,” said Pat Kirshner, director of operations and planning at the Battery Park Conservancy.

That sense of continuity is important to Petit and to Doug Anderson, who leases the quarry from the town. 

“This permanent public project for the Battery waterfront continues the legacy of Stony Creek granite within the urban fabric of Lower Manhattan,” Petit said. ​“With this project, we regain our rightful turf in the City of New York.”

ANOTHER WORLD

On a recent brisk January day, Petit talked with the Eagle about the quarry and the company’s new mission. ​“You come through those gates, and you’re in another world,” Petit said as he walked toward the quarry.

Petit believes in reaching out to prospective clients in the early stages of projects, and then bringing designers and architects to the quarry so they can see the granite in its natural setting. 

“This is critical, that we have this type of open dialogue with the designers at the earliest stage of the process so that they completely understand the nature of Stony Creek granite and its qualities and characteristics,” Petit said.

He pointed to the pink feldspar and the specks of quartz in a piece of granite. ​“Look at what happens with the sun. It’s vibrant.”

Bringing clients to the quarry is important to the company. ​“We have identified this as one of the most critical parts of our new mission,” Petit said. ​“We feel that when people want a specific material, a natural material from the earth, that they should first and foremost qualify that material and make sure it is authentic.”

Petit began meeting with people involved with the Battery Conservancy project about four years ago. Key personnel traveled to Stony Creek, including architects from Quennell Rothchild and Partners, who selected one particular area of the quarry as the source for their project.

The first shipment of dimensional block is now ready for transport. It will take about five months to quarry all the blocks for Battery Park.

The blocks will be transported by truck from Leetes Island Road to Polycor Inc., a fabricating company in Quebec.

Fabricating is the process of turning a block into a finished product. Both quarrying and fabricating were done at the Stony Creek quarries in their heyday. Although some finishing work is currently done on site, the large projects are done in collaboration with a fabricating company.

For the Battery Park wall benches, Petit said the Quebec fabricators will hand-craft the granite using traditional metal tools to attain a roughly-hewn split-face finish. ​“This kind of surface appears to be natural, but it is attained by splitting the stone with traditional wedges and shims. It’s split-face on the sides and the top which is quite a tricky hand-crafted type of technique.” Each wall bench will be 8 feet long, about 2 feet wide and about 2 ½ feet high. 

“More and more we’re seeing projects like Battery Park …heavy, roughly-hewn hand-crafted elements that make up public plazas and public places in the urban environment,” Petit said. ​“It’s exciting for us because they’re permanent and they’re publicly accessible.”

OLD AND NEW TECHNIQUES

“This is the bread and butter of our operation — the dimensional block,” Petit said. The blocks, which typically measure 10 feet by 6 feet by 4 feet, are the primary unit for architectural cut-to-size projects. Petit said blocks are quarried for specific projects, not stockpiled as was the custom years ago.

The Stony Creek Quarry Corp. uses a combination of old and new techniques. ​“We still use ancient techniques that date back to Egyptian times, like using traditional wedges to sculpt the stone, and we use advanced technology, such as hydraulic drilling machinery,” Petit said. ​“We still use sledge hammers to hammer in the wedges much as they did at the beginning of this quarry’s life.”

The workers drill under and around a section of granite to procure a block. Equipment varies from a hand-held hammer drill to the Italian-made Performa hydraulic drilling rig that can be positioned and then operated remotely with a computer motherboard. A small amount of explosives may be used to loosen the block before it’s hoisted by the front-end loader.

Petit credits Richard Atkinson, the quarry supervisor, for his expertise which spans more than 30 years at Stony Creek. He said clients often ask if Atkinson is still at the quarry.

Stacy Mancini, one of the industry’s few female quarriers, was trained by Atkinson and Petit. For the past seven years, she has done everything from quarrying stone to meeting with architects and suppliers. ​“We all multi-task,” she said, adding that she loves the work. ​“It’s impressive and it’s awesome to be involved in this. You’re taking a piece of granite from its raw form and you’re able to see where it goes, like this project for Battery Park.”

Petit’s fascination with Stony Creek granite began in 1990 when he visited the area and decided to stay and learn quarrying techniques. He had previously earned a Bachelor’s Degree in urban planning from Brown University and a Masters Degree in art and sculpture from the University of Iowa. His sculptures have attained worldwide acclaim. 

Petit worked as a quarryman at Stony Creek for a few years, and still does quarrying for select projects. One of Petit’s local projects was crafting a granite pedestal for the bronze Torosaurus that was created by Michael Anderson, an artist and preparator at the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven.

“It was a very rewarding project for me personally,” Petit said. ​“It was certainly one of the largest projects I’ve done as a sculptor, but also a unique type of challenge.” The pedestal and Torosaurus were installed in front of the museum in 2005. Petit recently crafted the granite benches that are part of the Peabody’s Cretaceous Garden.

Anderson said the company is developing new marketing techniques and working to create a new Web site. Click here to see their current site.

Anderson signed a new lease with the town in 2011, which resulted from lengthy (and sometimes contentious) dialogue with town leaders. Click here to read a story about the lease. Anderson said they are keeping in close contact with town officials to help resolve any concerns. ​“It’s working well, and it’s generating revenue for the town,”he said.

Anderson said taking over quarry operations during the economic downturn was ​“a bit of a challenge, but we’re starting to see the fruits of our labors.”

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