History

Stony Creek Granite is part of a Mesozoic era deposit formed between 225 million ad 650 million years ago. Stony Creek granite was first quarried in 1858. Today Stony Creek granite makes up a great deal of New York City’s architectural history, from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty to the walkways of 42nd St. and 34th St to the prestigious college campus of Columbia University. It has also been integrated into the foundations of many of New York City’s landmarks, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Station, and many New York City Parks. Just as we did over 150 years ago, today we continue to provide substance, structure, and enduring beauty that will last a lifetime.

“Walking down any street in New York City even a casual observer cannot help to be impressed by the varieties of granite and marble in the facades, lobbies and even the sidewalks of the city. But these seemingly mute stone speak: they are the pages of earth history and written in them is also the history of the people who quarried, shaped and erected them and the architects that chose them. There are thousands of varieties of stone in the city but one stands out, the focus of my illustrated lecture, Stony Creek Classic Granite. It is a beautiful pink stone quarried in nearby Connecticut and found in many New York City Parks supporting statues, in retaining walls, park pavements and lovely benches to sit on to enjoy the ambiance of the park as week as fountains. Used in such iconic structures such as the base of the Statue of Liberty, many architectural elements of Federal Plaza and part of Grand Central Terminal, not only does this 600 million year material retain in its mineralogy and structure the record of its origin deep in the crust of the earth and subsequent events of continental collisions and monument building, it also has a social and industrial history related to the people who quarried it, the changing techniques used to remove it from the earth and the tools to shape it.”

— Sidney Horenstein, Former Geologist & Environmental Educator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History