Stones of Wilbraham: The Town’s Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Quarries

Throughout the nineteenth century, the Connecticut River Valley became world-renowned for one of New England’s most distinctive natural building materials, brownstone. Created over 200 million years ago from layers of sediment deposited in an ancient rift basin, this reddish-brown sandstone was quarried extensively from Portland, Middletown, East Longmeadow, and dozens of smaller sites along the valley. Its warm color, durability, and ease of carving made it a favorite material for churches, gravestones, civic buildings, bridges, and homes from Boston to New York City. By the mid-1800s, trains and river barges steadily carried Connecticut Valley brownstone into booming urban centers, where it shaped the architectural character of entire neighborhoods.

While Portland, Connecticut, produced the largest and most famous supply, Wilbraham quietly played an important role of its own. Nestled along the valley’s eastern uplands, the town was home to two brownstone quarries, each contributing to the building of Wilbraham.

The best-known and most productive of Wilbraham’s quarries was the Burt Quarry, located off Main Street. Active through much of the mid-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it provided the majority of the brownstone used for the town’s foundations, steps, sills, gravestones, and structural stonework. Many historic homes in Wilbraham and some in South Wilbraham still rest on solid Burt Quarry blocks, a lasting testament to the quarry’s influence. Shortly after the Civil War, the Burt family sold the land to the Merrick family, and the quarry operations were managed by the McGregory family. Early maps indicate that a blacksmith shop on the site was owned by S. F. Merrick, a vital business for the quarry, as iron tools and equipment were essential for cutting and shaping the stone.

The arrow indicates the area of the original Burt quarry. Digital Commonwealth

Part of the original brownstone quarry off of Main Street. DFB

An old mid-1800s boiler, likely used for drilling, was once part of the Main Street brownstone quarry operations. DFB

The Burt family and local laborers cut stone by hand in the early years, using chisels, wedges, and black-powder blasting to free the brownstone from the ledge. Oxen and later horse-drawn wagons hauled the heavy blocks to job sites throughout the town. For Wilbraham residents, the Burt Quarry became a reliable local industry, small but steady, providing not only materials but also work for farmers and tradesmen during slower agricultural seasons.

Using brownstone quarried from his own property, Samuel Fisk Merrick III announced in 1856 that he was “going to show the men of Wilbraham how to build a barn.” His ambitious plan resulted in a large, two-and-a-half-story structure made entirely of the reddish-brown stone that had been cut from across the road. Sadly, the barn no longer stands. An old photograph of unknown date shows the building after it was destroyed by fire, and the house that once stood in front of it had already been removed. The site of this remarkable construction was located just south of the Merrick farm, at 651 Main Street.

The Barn of Samuel Fisk Merrick III after is was destroyed by fire. Merrick Family

Wilbraham’s second brownstone source, a smaller quarry off Stony Hill Road near Hitchcock Road, operated only briefly and was abandoned before 1885. Though less productive, it supplied stone for several early homes and farm foundations on the western side of town.

Today, traces of the old workings, cut rock faces, scattered debris, and shallow pits- remain hidden beneath forest growth, a quiet reminder of Wilbraham’s industrial past. While Wilbraham relied heavily on its own Main Street quarry, some foundations, especially in South Wilbraham, were built with stone brought in from nearby sources.

One frequent supplier was the McGregory Quarry off Somers Road in East Longmeadow, another important brownstone producer in the region. Builders often chose stone based on proximity, cost, or personal ties with quarry owners, resulting in a mix of local and regional materials throughout the area. Though small compared to the great Portland quarries downriver, Wilbraham’s brownstone industry left a distinct mark on the landscape.

The Burt Quarry shaped the foundations of countless homes, barns, gravestones, and civic structures, anchoring the town’s architectural identity in stone drawn from its own hills. The Stony Hill Road quarry, though short-lived, speaks to the broader pattern of early local industry, practical, resourceful, and responsive to the needs of a growing community.

Today, as Wilbraham looks back on its nineteenth-century history, the town’s quarries remind us that even modest enterprises contributed to the character and craftsmanship that define the community. Each block of brownstone tells a quiet story of labor, geology, and the people who shaped Wilbraham from the ground up, literally.

South Wilbraham (Hampden) was the home to several granite quarries. Some of these quarries were on family farms that were not commercial operations and supplied granite to the owner and nearby neighbors. Other quarries such as Dwelly Quarry on Ames Road, the Flynt Quarry on Chapin Road, and the Morris Quarry further south on Chapin Road were much bigger operations. There are little to no brownstone deposits in South Wilbraham, which is why most of the foundation stones are made of granite in this part of town. Other areas in Wilbraham, especially the mountain area, have foundations made of granite from these nearby quarries.