Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back. It's always a thrill when Al Bina stops by from the Quincy Quarry and Granite Workers Museum to bring us up to date on what's happening. And what's happening is they actually have a museum, a structure, a permanent building in place. Al, this is a really historic moment for the museum.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Like I say, I say to people, people used to come by and say, you know, you get your little museum. When are you going to build a bigger museum? I used to say, well, when something drops out of heaven, and lo and behold, this stone house dropped out. It was like dropping out of heaven.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Pretty much, right? Pretty much, yeah.
I remember asking you long, probably 10 years now, right, that you've been pursuing this dream, what it would take, you know, to make this dream come true. And you said it would take about a million dollars. And that's about what it took, Right. To make this happen. Right.
Give us a little background, a little history, if you could.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Well, like I say, the Stone house was located on the corner of Robinson and Willard Street. It was the last of actual stone houses in Quincy. Originally, there was four stone houses.
And when they built the expressway, naturally, three of them were demolished. This was the last standing stone house again, when they were going to build a six story 130 unit, a popping unit. It was an outcry in the city of Quincy here.
We got involved, the mayor got involved, and we got preservation money to actually moved the stone House up to the Museum of Chern.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Right. Almost a million dollars. Almost a million dollars as the McDonnell family donated it to the city with the caveat that the city move it, move it. Right. And that's what happens. Yeah. We have actually a picture of it as it originally looked, not how it looks now, not how it looks as it originally looked. And this was sitting over there in West Quincy.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. That's a picture of the stone house.
Like I said, it's all historic Quincy granite. They actually built that house.
Like I say, it's two stories.
Unfortunately, it was cost prohibitive to do the two stories up at the Turney Mill. Now, we had to get stone masons, there was a contractor to get the stonemasons in to put it together. And it's amazing the work that these stonemasons did.
They were all Brazilian stonemasons.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:02:17] Speaker B: And I tell you, I watched them and we documented just the procedure, building the whole house. And it was amazing how they could split the rocks and fit them in and then build this stone house.
We did one story. We couldn't do this Two stories. It was cost prohibitive. But what we did is we enlarged the footprint of the building, which gave us a little more room inside.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: Okay. And then we started with a wood frame, right?
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Started with a wood frame. Yeah. You know, people say. They come by and say, oh, yeah, you just had just granite. Well, no, it was actual house. So you actually have to. You have to actually build a house and then put the granite around it.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: Is that how the original one was built?
[00:02:56] Speaker B: The original one was framed on the inside as a house. And then granite blocks around the perimeter.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: You had to clear the lot. You had to lay a foundation.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Clear the lot, lay the foundation.
This particular site had no significant historical artifacts. So that's why we were able to use this particular site to the south end of the actual turning mill to build. To build the building.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: And it's right there.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: Right there.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Not separated at all. It's all one kind of compound.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Compound.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just its own separate.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: There's nothing historically on this footprint of the building, so that's why we were allowed to build it right there.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Okay. And there we see the process.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Process. Yeah, yeah. You can see.
You can see the actual window was actually boxed out. Because you remember, these granite blocks are about, you know, a foot and a half. Some of them are foot and a half thick. So they actually had to box the windows out.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I see.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: And put the granite around the building.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: So the granite is like a shell around the wooden structure. Yeah. Okay, interesting.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: So we got plenty of insulation. We got those granite blocks. We got an interior. It's been framed. It's been sheetrocked, it's been insulated. So it's a pretty well built building.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: It's solid. Yeah, yeah.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: I kind of joke and say, you know, the mayor says about the police station and fire administration. You know, this is a 100-year-old building you're looking at right now with the granite blocks, the way they built this building. This building will be here for a thousand years. I don't know what else will look like in Quincy, but this building will still be there a thousand years from now.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Well. And it's already been here, what, over 200 years?
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Over 200 years, right.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: It's on the National Register, wasn't it?
[00:04:34] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: And the also state register Historic places.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Now, does it stay on the register?
[00:04:41] Speaker B: That's a question.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Now that we've actually changed the.
Change the actual building itself, I don't know whether it's going to qualify, but it's all a historic Quincy granite Right, yeah.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: That doesn't change.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: That doesn't change. So that'll be a good point. We've got to kind of research now, put this building back on the register.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Because we see the final product here. Now, it looks different than the original.
It's, as you say, one story.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: And the great thing about this is the roof almost looked like it's slate. It was an architectural type shingle. And it almost looks like a slate shingle, which is great.
Yeah. To blend in.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: So. And I would think too, with one story, you don't have to worry about accessibility. Right. For a second floor, for handicap accessibility. Right.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: We wouldn't have to put. We did the two stories. We had to put an elevator in there.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: And that would take up so much room, so much space.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: And money.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: And money, yeah. Yeah. So again, one. One story. Enlarge the footprint, Give us much more room. 100% handicap accessible.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: The interior, right now we're working. We're waiting for the contractor to do the landscaping, which will. All the walkways will be all handicap accessible.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: Make it all pretty, right?
[00:05:52] Speaker B: All pretty, yeah.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: But it's fully, as you say, insulated. You have H vac system.
Restroom facilities.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: Restroom facilities. All handicap accessible.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: So fully plumbed and.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Fully plumbed. Yeah. Ready to go.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: So does that mean to be open year round now?
[00:06:09] Speaker B: It's a possibility.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: When you get heat?
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Well, I was just gonna say, yeah, as long as the road's plowed, you
[00:06:15] Speaker B: know, as long as Quarry Hills Drive is plowed, you know, we might be there.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: Okay. All right. So you're planning for that in the future. Is that something down the road maybe?
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you know, it's great. Now we got the area.
Eventually we will line the walls with the artifacts.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Similar to the ones we have in the little small museum with this grid wall. Grid wall.
Grid wall displays. Displays, you know. And then we're going to leave the center open for presentations.
You know, we're going to bring presenters in there and different presenters in this new building. In the new building.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: The new building.
The new old building.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: New, old stone building.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Okay. And we'll bring presenters in on all subjects of history. Sure. You know what I mean? For anybody that's interested in giving us our presentation, we'd love to have them in there once we're completely handicap accessible.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: All right. All right. So you really could expand your programming and I would think, I know that you have many artifacts in storage, so an opportunity to maybe bring those out and show those off, too. So will the original it was basically a shed, right?
[00:07:19] Speaker B: It's a shed.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Will that stay open?
[00:07:21] Speaker B: That will stay open.
We'll design something that will leave. We'll be able to expand, like our sculptors. We could have that as a. Just all sculptors, you know what I mean? And we got a lot of artifacts, a lot of the plastic models that they would have used that they did use from some of the stone sheds. You know, we can use that one building and then we can change that every once in a while, you know, do a railroad display in there.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. Because I remember when you first opened the. The shed, we said, oh, now. Now the museum has a real structure now. It has a real.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Now it has a real home.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Real home, Yeah, a real home. There was a ceremony recently with the mayor handing the keys over to you.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: The mayor kind of handed the keys over. It was kind of an informal. But now we.
The building is completely completed now, so we kind of handed the keys over. Along with Granite City Partners. They had one of their representatives there, too.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Yeah. If you can maybe talk about all the people involved in this process, Al.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, like I say again, it started when the McDonald family were gonna build a six story unit. And then again, you know, it was outcry in the city of Quincy. We saved it along with help from the mayor Preservation committee.
And then it was constructed up there, like I say it, and now we're there.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Who were the companies involved?
[00:08:46] Speaker B: John Folson. The Folson Construction Company. They were the main contractors on it.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Because you couldn't just pick it up and move it as you had to break it down.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: They actually had it block by block and then reassemble it block by block. What they did is they actually numbered the corner, the four corners of the house with numbers. And then when they reconstructed it up at the Turney Mill in the museum, they used those four corners first. They constructed the four corners using those.
The numbered blocks, and then they work from there in.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: I see. Okay. It was quite a process. How long did it take?
[00:09:24] Speaker B: It took about six months for the.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Pretty quick, when you think about it.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Actually, they had a crew there of. There was probably five or six stonemasons there at one point, putting it all together.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Yep. They had to wait for the wood frame to be completed.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Wood frame first.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
And then have the blocks added.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: And the blocks added. Yeah.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: And remortared, I'm assuming.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Oh, they remorted everything. Yeah. Yeah. It was a heck of a process. I mean, like I say, it was almost a million dollars.
But when you think of the labor cost, just to put that together, you can see how it was justified.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And you mentioned Granite City Partners. How were they involved?
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Granite City Partners? They were kind of the. They oversaw the whole project.
Joe Shea and his group, which they did a great job.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Excellent. Okay. And I know that you requested, you know, when the discussion about the Quarry Hills lease extension was brought up, you requested that the museum be taken out of that process, right?
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: It stays in city purview.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Quarry Hills is now negotiating this new 50 year lease. And I asked the mayor, I said, take this historical portion of the lease out and put it back into the city under the Department of Natural Resources. So they've agreed to that. So when this new contract that's working through the state legislature right now, this portion will be taking out the stone house, the Alliance Journey Mill, Alliance Quarry, and all our little incendiary buildings we got there will all come under the Department of Natural Resources, which will be great for us.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Stays under city Purview.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Stays under city Purview.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Talk about the.
Your volunteers, the folks that actually greet folks when they come to the museum.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: We got some five Dawsons docents that actually volunteered through a program that Bob Damon ran through the city of Quincy here. You know, so we got them coming, you know, when we're opened. They're not five of them there at the same time. You know, two or three will be there at the same time. You know, so they'll learn. And they're very interested in learning the history of the granite industry.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Nice. Okay, so I know that the. The tours are kind of self guided, right?
[00:11:34] Speaker B: They're self guided.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: The docents are there if you have questions.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Questions.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah, we've got over.
I want to say we got about 125 interpretive signage that are located all around the mill, in the mill, outside the mill, around the quarry area. And now a blacksmith shop. You got a new little blacksmith shop?
[00:11:53] Speaker A: A functioning blacksmith shop.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: Functioning blacksmith shop.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Do demonstrations there.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: We'll bring. Kind of trying to bring blacksmiths and give us demonstrations. So that'll be another one, a program that we're gonna do in the fall.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: Okay. Because there would have been a blacksmith shop in the time of the quarries, right?
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And actually the Lions tournament had three working blacksmith shops there to keep that whole operation going.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Sure. They had to make their own tools, fix their own tools, shop in their own tools. Yes. Yeah. Okay. It's not. You just run down to the hardware store and buy what you need.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: There was no carbide Tools back then. So there was a blacksmith who were very busy back then.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: They were a major part of the granite industry.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it doesn't get talked about a lot either. Why is this so important to you personally, Al?
[00:12:36] Speaker B: Well, personally to me both my grandparents worked in the granite industry. One worked as a foreman of the granite railway quarry and the other was a blacksmith. One of the sheds in South Quincy here. And when I retired I said I gotta be doing something, you know, I says I'd either be down bagging your groceries and stop and shop or let's see if we can start this history. And so I said, well, starting history is a lot better than bagging your groceries. So that's my retirement job.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: There you go. It probably kept you busier than when you were working.
What did you retire from by the way?
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Actually I retired from Northeastern University in chemical engineering.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Is that right?
[00:13:15] Speaker B: I was a technician. I had a nice little machine shop. I built all their research equipment and also worked with the students on all their projects.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: That was one of the greatest jobs I had, Joe. It wasn't a morning I got up for 23 years and said, gee, I don't want to go to work because it was so great working with the kids and working with the research people.
So when you can say that about a job, you had a great job.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you try and inspire young folks of today to learn about the history of the quarry industry?
[00:13:47] Speaker B: That's what we try to do. We try to get more young people involved in this history. You know, so we're trying to, we're going to try to get into more of the school. You know, the fourth and fifth and fourth and fifth graders are really, you know, they're starting to study, I think the history of Quincy. So we're going to try to retract them. We're going to approach the public school system to say, hey, you know, bring up and we'll put on demonstrations. Stone splitting. We'll let the actual kids split the granite. You know, we pre drilled rocks and put the feather and wedges. They put the feather and wedges in and then they split the granite. So, so we're going to offer that to the school kids at the city of Quincy.
Hopefully the school administration will say gee, that's a great idea, let's try it. Okay, so we've got to reach out.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: It's a non electronic and it's history of their city, history of their city that they live in. We have a little video you want to show folks.
Just kind of the inside and outside of the granite house to give the them a sense for what it looks like.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: What it looks like. Yeah. Great.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: And it looks beautiful. It really does. I mean, they just did an amazing job making it pretty.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Right. That's the actual main entrances.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Beautiful day there. When they were shooting this video.
The city provided this, I should mention. Yeah.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: This is the actual interior. What I've done is all of these pictures, like two by three foot pictures.
Temporary. They're just temporarily in there until we get the grid wall system.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: There's the leftover.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: There's our leftover granite. We're going to do the amphitheater with.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Ah, there's the original museum.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: Here's the new blacksmith shop.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Oh, okay. There's the forge right there.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Yeah, the forge right there. Donated by the Cantelli family.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Oh, very good. And all that looks like the tools as well.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Tools, yeah.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Did they donate those as well?
[00:15:34] Speaker B: They donated all the tools there. All the blacksmith tools were donated. Their grandfather worked, and he was a blacksmith.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: Okay. Here's your rail car. Rail car.
It's interesting. In the new landscaping, there's going to be a platform built for the rail car and also like a post and beam covering over the rail car.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: There's the inclined plane right there.
And one of the quarries.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: One of the quarries. Yeah, one of the early quarries.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Now, this is a replica, right?
[00:16:03] Speaker B: This is a replica built in 1825 for the 100th anniversary of the Granite Railway. 1826-1820-1926. On 1925, it was built by the scamble company here in Quincy. They used to build. Eventually ended up building truck bodies, but they used to build wagons, and they actually built that replica back in 1925 for the Granite Railway Company for the 100th anniversary.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: I was going to say it's old already.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Already.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: But it's not the original.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Not the original replica.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: And that'll be on display.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: That's on display right now as well.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: So rail enthusiasts might be interested.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: That's what we're trying to reach out to the rail enthusiasts.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: What's the history of that? The inclined plane, Al, the inclined plane.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: Well, the incline plane was built in around 1826 to actually bring Rana down from pine hill ledge down to the first commercial railroad. People get confused. They think the incline plane was the first railroad that was just the.
To bring granite down from the pine hill ledge to the actual first commercial railroad in America. The granite railway first incorporated commercial railroad in America.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: So the incline plan was just like a spur. Basically.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: It Was like a spur. They brought granite down from the hill to the granite railway, the original granite railway.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: And from there it went off to.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Off to down in the plence of river to build. To build a bunk hill monument.
All the buildings.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: Yeah, all kinds of things. Yeah. Okay, so that's going to be part of the history as well.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
We're documenting the whole history of the granite dentistry, including the deaths, including the recreational end of it. Eventually the quarry filled in with water and now it became a swimming pool.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: A lot of deaths. But we're actually recording those and saving those because it's all part of the granite history here in Quincy. That's the unfortunate part of the granite history because there was a lot of lives lost in quarrying. And actually in the recreational end of
[00:18:01] Speaker A: it, it was very dangerous.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Right, it was a dangerous job. Yeah.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: And then the aftermath as well, as you mentioned too. So that's all part of it.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Part of it, yeah.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Life magazine I think captured a famous image of kids diving into the quarry.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: That 1938 cover of the Life magazine.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: That quarry was located off of Quarry street, up with a high point of high point apartments are located, right?
[00:18:24] Speaker A: Oh yes, yes.
So right now the museum is open first weekend of every month. Is that right?
[00:18:29] Speaker B: First full weekend each month and also the third Saturday each month.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Which is tomorrow.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Which is tomorrow.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Okay, so open tomorrow.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Open tomorrow.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: And then so that'll be Labor Day weekend.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Actually the next probably Labor Day weekend.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: Yes, weekend. Okay.
And just free, right? Free admission.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Free, free admission. We just love to get people in there and just let them learn the history of the granite industry.
What really built Quincy turn of the century, it was the largest industry in the city of Quincy.
Brought all those wave of immigrants over here.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Doesn't get talked about as much as like the shipbuilding history, you know, but it certainly came well before that. Before that probably led to part of it as well.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Definitely.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
You mentioned an amphitheater in the future.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Well, like I say, we had a lot of granite blocks.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: I saw the pile there.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
And we're proposing, we're going to try to. Once it's landscape, we'll have the contractor work. We're going to try to make like an amphitheater, an outdoor amphitheater, replacing all those nice square blocks that people can sit on in kind of a semicircle.
And again, that's why, you know, I mentioned to you earlier, they're demolishing the old compressor building here in Quincy. The DCR is demolishing it and there's some historic granite along the base and also the lentils over the door and also the stairs. We want to see all of that granite here because it's all Quincy historical granite.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Good reason to have you come back, Al, and bring us up to date on how that's going.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Definitely.
We're gonna have to stay right on top of that.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Hey, I always enjoy talking to you. And you don't deserve. You deserve more credit than you get for what you've done here, for sure.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: Well, Joe, you know I enjoy coming on here every time with you. You know what I mean?
[00:20:13] Speaker A: Our pleasure. And we'll see you soon.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Yes. You know what? I say, go ahead.
Don't take. We're chipping away at it, but don't take it for granted.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: I'll leave it there.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Leave it there.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Thanks a lot. Alright.
