MDI museum to honor Maine’s men of granite

MOUNT DESERT – Steven Haynes and Juanita Sprague will realize a dream this week when they open the state’s first museum dedicated to Maine’s lost granite industry.

After spending nine years scouring the state for old photos, tools, logbooks and other unique artifacts – not to mention samples from 400 abandoned quarries – the Mount Desert couple is ready to tell the story of how Maine men helped build a nation with nothing but crowbars, chisels, hammers and raw physical power.

“A lot of this history has been buried for 125 years,” said Haynes, who fell in love with Maine’s granite quarries as an 11-year-old growing up on granite-rich Mount Desert Island.

“The men who struggled with the stone – their stories have never been told,” he said, “and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Haynes and Sprague have reconstructed the 19th century history of the industry by piecing together scattered facts and photos into a comprehensive exhibit featuring some of Maine’s most productive quarries.

Maine granite, believed to be the strongest anywhere, was used to construct such renowned buildings as the Library of Congress, the interior structure of the Washington Monument, the New York State Office Building, the foundation of the Pentagon, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

For the church, stonecutters crafted 65-foot-tall columns from granite; for the New York office building, they created huge lion’s heads that grace the balconies of the towering building.

Haynes and Sprague, with the help of friends and strangers, collected logbooks from granite companies that show how many men worked in particular quarries, who bought their stone and for what reason, from where it was shipped and how much they were paid.

“This industry brought our great-great-grandfathers to Maine, from places like Scotland, Finland and Wales,” Haynes said. “Most came for the money, which was $1.25 a day in the late 1880s. It was dangerous work, yes, but our labor records show that milling, cotton and paper were the most dangerous industries at the time.”

Several years ago, Haynes visited Lou Grenci, who long before had owned the Mount Waldo Granite Works in Frankfort. Before he died, Grenci told Haynes everything he could recall about the early days of the industry, one of eight living histories that Haynes has recorded for the museum collection.

When Grenci died, he left Haynes all of his original photos, which hang from the museum wall.

Haynes said MDI is the best place for the museum because it’s centrally located in the granite-rich coastal region of Maine, and because no other quarry he has found – in or outside of Maine – contains as many different colors of granite.

Haynes’ father, Blaine, who has operated an engine repair shop off Route 102 for decades, invited his son and Sprague to use half of his building to display the collection until a more permanent space can be created. A state directional sign will be posted soon near the Beech Hill Crossroads, where the Haynes building and homestead are located, about a mile south of the Somesville Fire Station.

Haynes and Sprague say they couldn’t have come this far with their “project” without Blaine Haynes and numerous friends who have helped them locate quarries and other industry memorabilia over the years.

Bill and Liz Ducharme of Hancock were invaluable in helping Haynes and Sprague. On weekends, they would go in one direction looking for abandoned quarries while Haynes and Sprague would go somewhere else.

At each quarry, they asked for permission to take a sample of the granite, which Haynes polished and labeled for exhibit.

Bill Ducharme’s father, who lives in Portland, has helped the couple by getting photos of Portland buildings made of granite, along with the history of the projects from library archives.

“So many people are working on this with us,” said Haynes, who credits Sprague with being “the driving force” behind the collection.

Haynes is the one who speaks to groups and gives slide shows around the state, most recently as part of the Maine Geology Symposium. He has learned from old-timers how to cut and shape stone; and has worked full-time on the project for nine years. Sprague, meanwhile, earned money to pay their bills and to buy almost $10,000 in memorabilia for the museum.

“It’s a fever with us that we can’t control,” Sprague said.

The Maine Granite Industry Historical Society Museum will officially open Saturday. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, year-round. A donation of $1 a person will be requested, with the money going to buy more artifacts and to improve the exhibits.

But if you don’t have a lot of time, you might consider holding off until you do. Haynes is considered an expert on the industry and its stonecutters, and he has been waiting a long time to tell their histories.

“Come on in,” he’ll tell visitors, “and let me tell you a story … .”