Projects
2008 Projects
I am working on the history, names and placement of the York county quarries. I am finding from my research that the information and history of York county quarries are much more hidden then Knox and Hancock Counties, but it's just as much fun finding it, maybe even a little more, because of its obscurity. I hope to present my findings to the local historical societies and a possible lecture and publish a paper by summers end.
Kennebunkport might have been the first commercial quarrying site in Maine, and quite possibly, the whole U.S., not Hallowell or Vinalhaven as presumed. I unearthed a newspaper article stating that there was a quarry on Milk
Island, which doesn't even exist now, the quarry of course doesn't
exist, but neither does the island. Milk Is. was near Goat Island
located just off Cape Porpoise. Needless to say, I am pretty excited about my
findings. It is supported by reading a history of York county of 1837
that talks about the quarry and that the Perkins family owned it. I am
going to go to the Alfred county court house soon to try to find the deed
for it. Also, around the same time, was the commercialization of two
quarries in Kennebunkport, where they began quarrying at least as early as 1826, if not
earlier. This particular quarry was located off the Beachwood Road. I drove by there and
definetly could tell from the road that there used to be a quarry
there, as markings on nearby stones indicated it. When it gets warmer and
the snow has melted I am going to try and get permission from the owners
to walk around the properties, photographing what is left of the
granite. These quarries have not been spoken of since the mid 1800's
when they closed.
York County is hardly mentioned in Roger Grindle's book, since most of the quarries were shut down around the turn of the
century and very little was written about them in earlier books. There were about
seven quarries in Biddeford, one in Alfred, two in Wells, three or four in
the Berwicks and two in Kennebunkport, perhaps one in Kennebunk. The
only quarry working now is the one off the Quarry Rd. in Wells, which I
will be visiting in the Spring for a tour.
Past Projects
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