BARRE - VERMONT'S GRANITE CITY
Paul Wood

Barre is the site of the largest deposit of high-quality monumental granite in New England. However, only after the building of the "Sky Route" railroad to the quarries in the late 1880s and the introduction of pneumatic tools in the early 1890s could this magnificent granite deposit be commercially exploited on a grand scale. This presentation traces the development of Barre from a sleepy farm town into a booming granite center.

Paul Wood is a graduate engineer with a lifelong interest in the history of technology and industry – especially the tools and techniques of the granite industry.

Paul spent many happy boyhood hours hiking around the old Bunker Hill Quarry and Railroad in Quincy. His further granite education came through the Connecticut granite business of his father-in-law who sold mostly Barre granite. He lives next door to Hardwick, Vermont (at one time the building granite center of the US) and is currently researching its granite industry.

Since 2002, he has been associated with the Vermont Granite Museum, helping to research Vermont’s granite industry and to organize and display the museum’s archives and artifacts. He is a long-time member of the Early American Industries Association.