Visiting the Pine Quarry
by Bill Dusty
In the town East Longmeadow, MA, residents go about their business much the same as folks in any typical American town. In the town’s center, a brand-new plaza features such well-known names as Spoleto’s Restaurant, Starbucks Coffee and Rocky’s hardware & home improvement. But the little town nestled next to Springfield has another part of it that isn’t so readily seen by too many people: It’s history.
Working the quarry in East Longmeadow – Photo: Howes Brothers
And a big part of East Longmeadow’s history is its forgotten sandstone quarry, the Pine Quarry. This little historical gem is hidden away in a patch of woods surrounded by residential neighborhoods in the southern reaches of the town. You can get there via Pease Road, then taking a left at Old Farm Road. Visitors can park at the end of the road or find a curb on High Meadow Circle. See map here. It’s a quiet neighborhood, so mind your manners if you go – and please do not litter!
HISTORY:
Pine Quarry is the resting place of a quarry complex that delivered sandstone to building projects all over the northeast and beyond. According to this archived New York Times story, the Norcross Brothers Company, headquartered in Worcester, MA, quarried there in the years surrounding the turn of the Twentieth Century. The company, originally started up in Swampscott, Massachusetts in 1864, went through a bankruptcy just a year after they were incorporated in 1902, according to the archived story.
From the story:
The firm has offices in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. It employed thousands of men and carried contracts with steel mills which enabled it to do business on an enormous scale. The firm had many Government building contracts, and had constructed Custom Houses and Post Offices all over the country.
At least one officer of the company, a Mr. Thomas O’Reilly, flew the coop after word reached him of his company’s bankruptcy, according to the Times archived story:
John M. Carrère of the firm Carrere and Hastings, 28 East Forty-first Street, architects of the library building, said yesterday afternoon that as soon as Mr. O’Reilly received word of the appointment of receivers for the company he was greatly distressed and left the city, not saying to Mr. Cerrère where he was going.
The Norcross Brothers Company reportedly recovered from receivership later in 1903 via bond issues. See that archived NY Times story here. According to the Norcross Brothers Wiki page, they completed over 650 building projects. A listing of their projects from 1864 to 1924 is here.
The East Longmeadow quarry was discontinued by the Norcross Brothers Company in 1918. (Quarrying in East Longmeadow apparently went on before Norcross’s arrival, and may have gone on afterward.) The quarrying going on, though, appears to have had a major role to play in the Longmeadow/East Longmeadow split. Back in the late 1800s, the “East Village” of Longmeadow – as East Longmeadow was then called – was busily quarrying for sandstone, and the infrastructure to support that commerce apparently took up much of the town’s tax expenditures. The “West,” meanwhile (modern Longmeadow), still paid half of the tax bill. An accommodation apparently could not be worked out, and the divorce was finalized in 1894 with East Longmeadow’s incorporation as a separate town.
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Walking along the high stack of stone slabs pictured above this photo.
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This photo was taken at the very tip of the stacked slabs of stone. Rods embedded into the slabs help keep the stack in place. A comforting thought.
A hundred years ago, none of these trees were here.
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Watch your step as you walk along the scattered slabs of stone.
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LINKS:
- The Norcross Brothers
- NY Times: Norcross files for bankrupcy (1903)
- Norcross Co. postcard (east Longmeadow)
- The “East Village” of Longmeadow
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5 Responses for “Visiting the Pine Quarry”
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I grew up on Newhouse Street, off Allen by the McDonalds. At the very end of Newhouse, far back in the woods, you could walk a ways and run into a redstone quarry protected by a high chain link fence. I remember the face of the quarry was quite high and they had dug so deep they had hit water. Anyone know what quarry I am talking about?
I do indeed.
I know the guy who currently owns that land. I believe it’s for sale for any interested takers. Problem is, that large flooded quarry is right in the center of the property.
I remember as a teenager, a few friends and I hopped the fence to go fishing there. An old guy came out of the house on the other side (the father of the guy I know, I presume), and – if my aging memory serves me – fired at us with a salt gun or something. None of us got hit, but we high-tailed it outta there like the wind!
Some of my most treasured childhood memories are of scaling the walls of Pine Quarry and playing in those woods with my friends. It was a blessing growing up right next to that quarry.
Wow, who knew? Cool! IT reminds me of the quarry in Wilbraham off of Soule Road.
That’s Redstone Quarry, I grew up on the other side of you, on Corcoran Blvd. We used to play there a lot. When we were older we swam there.