Thursday is "This Old House Day"`

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Today's old house is located on the corner of Adams and Squantum Streets in neighboring East Milton, not far from the site of the Granite Railway. If you enlarge this picture you will see that this house is largely built of granite blocks from a nearby Quincy quarry. This stone cottage was once the site of the blacksmith and wheelwright who helped to build the railway cars for the first commercial railway in this country.

Click here to see another granite house. This house was modeled after a Granite Railway boarding house.

Granite Railway 2

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This is where the first commercial railway got started: at the end of Bunker Hill Lane. The overgrown rail bed here was once used to move massive hunks of granite from the quarry site to the Neponset River where it would be loaded onto a barge and brought to the building site of the Bunker Hill Monument. It would be a challenge to move the massive blocks of stone specified for this project. Quincy architect Solomon Willard was determined to get it done and enlisted the aid of Gridley Bryant who conceived of the idea for a rail system and got it operating by 1827.

If you enlarge the picture below you can see some of the details in a model of this railbed that is based on work done by Quincy archaeologist, Richard Muzzrole. The roadbed is essentially a dry stone wall three feet deep. The "wall" supported massive granite sleepers that are spaced eight feet apart. The first rails were wooden, but they were eventually replaced with granite ones to help transport stone loads of 21 tons or more for a distance of 3 miles. The horse drawn railway cars were loaded from the bottom so as not to damage the stone blocks. This was a pioneering design achievement which has earned this site a designated National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

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I just discovered an excellent blog post about the Granite Railway: click "Stories in Stone" to see the old rail car and find out more about this fascinating piece of Quincy's history.

The Granite Railway

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This is Vic Campbell, a railroad enthusiast and tour leader with a particular interest in our country's first commercial railroad that was conceived and built in Quincy in the 1820s. Vic is sitting on one of the early metal rails embedded into a block of Quincy granite. These blocks were salvaged from new road and housing construction sites and are located in the back of the Quincy Historical Society building where Vic begins his tours of the Granite Railway historic sites. You can find out more about the "Quarry-To-Wharf" tours by clicking here.

We'll visit the site of the old rail bed tomorrow. Do you know why a railroad was needed? Hint . . . the name of the railroad . . .

Fore River Rail

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The leading line is a shiny rail belonging to the Fore River Railway. This 2-mile freight line operates between Quincy Point and Braintree. It saw lots of action when this was a thriving shipbuilding area which peaked during World War II. Click here to see more rail car pictures. Some tank cars and old shipyard scaffolding can be seen in the background. Much of this 111 acre industrial site is being cleaned up and is not open to the public. I will share more images and history from this famous Quincy site in the weeks to come.

I am also posting this on the "Skywatch Friday" site as this blue sky was a rare treat in Quincy over the past few weeks. Enjoy your weekend everyone!