BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 289 



Of the many marble quarries in Vermont, those in East Dorset are 

 believed to have been longest worked, Professor Seely stating one Isaac 

 TJnderhill began operations here as early as 1785, the product being 

 utilized for fire jams, chimney backs, hearths, and lintels. Other quar- 

 ries soon opened, and from 1785 to 1841 nine were in operation at this 

 place. The first marble gravestone ever finished in the State is be- 

 lieved to have been the work of Jonas Stewart in 1790. Prior to the 

 introduction of Italian and Rutland marble, about 1840, the supply 

 of the Dorset stone was not equal to the demand. 



At West Rutland, which is now the great marble producing center of 

 the country, works were first put in successful operation about 1838. 

 At the present time not less than fifteen quarries are in operation, af- 

 fording employment altogether to about 2,000 men. 



The first stone quarried and used in Philadelphia is said to have 

 been the micaceous and hornblendic gneiss which occurs in inexhaust- 

 ible quantities in the immediate vicinity. This was at first used only 

 for foundations and rough construction. The first house built within 

 the city limits, if not the first in the State, that built in Letitia court by 

 order of William Penn, was constructed on a foundation of this stone 

 about the year 1682. The Old Swedes church, built in 1098, Independ- 

 ence Hall, and numerous other structures are said to have had similar 

 foundations. Later, entire walls were made of this material, as in the 

 house of John Penn, erected in 1785, and which is still standing. 



The quarrying of marble in Montgomery County, Pa., is said to 

 have been commenced by a Mr. Daniel about the time of the Revolution.* 

 This stone seems to have immediately become a favorite for trimming 

 purposes, and to have been used in Philadelphia to the almost entire 

 exclusion of other material until as late as 1840. During this time many 

 fine buildings were constructed from it, as will be noted later. 



Sandstone quarrying in the United States doubtless began with the 

 itinerant working of the extensive beds of Triassic brownstone in the 

 vicinity of Portland, Conn. It is statedt that the first quarry here was 

 opened " where the stone originally rose high and hung shelving over 

 the river." The value of the material was early recognized, and it be- 

 gan to be utilized for building and for monuments soon after the settle- 

 ment of Middletown on the opposite side of the stream. The quarries 

 were at this time regarded as common property, and were worked as 

 occasion demanded both by people in the immediate vicinity and by 

 those living at a distance, who carried off the material in scows or boats 

 of some sort, nor thought of giving anything as an equivalent. This 

 system of free quarrying had assumed such proportions as early as 

 1665, that on September 4 of that year the citizens of Middletown 

 assembled in town meeting and voted " that whoever shall dig or raise 

 stone at ye rocks on the east side of the river (now Portland) for any 



* First Geol. Survey Penn a., Vol. 1. 



t Centennial Address and Historical Sketches of Middletown, Cromwell, Portland, 

 Chatham, and Middle Haddam, by D. D. Field, 1853. 



H. Mis. 170, pt. 2 — -19 



