Bob Brennan’s field in Troy isn’t for haying or planting crops. Instead, pieces of aged granite in various sizes and shapes that Brennan has salvaged from Maine’s churches, homes, businesses and farms are planted throughout the acreage.

Brennan has been giving new life to Maine’s old granite for the past 12 years by rescuing it from structures that are being renovated to remove original granite slab foundations and replace them with new concrete. His stock also includes traditional Maine granite pieces such as millstones, hitching posts, steps and well covers.

The rectangles, squares and circles of stone skew every which way across a span of 3 to 4 acres, but all are arranged in rows that Brennan says he has “a little bit organized.”

A former teacher and antiques dealer, Brennan stumbled into the granite business mostly by accident.

He used to sell antiques out of the barn attached to the 1830s-era farmhouse in Troy he shares with his wife, Barbara.

When the Troy church’s foundation was being changed in 1996 from old granite slabs to concrete, Brennan bought 12 pieces of the stone.

“I call it my holy granite,” he said.

Brennan used two of the pieces to make benches – one in front of the antiques shop and the other near his garden beside the house.

One day, an antiques dealer from Massachusetts was at the shop and asked Brennan if he could buy the granite garden bench. Brennan declined to sell it, but took the dealer – whose last name just happened to be Stone – out to the field to see the small stockpile he had.

“I gave him a price and he bought the whole load,” Brennan said. “That’s how I got started – holy granite and Mikey Stone.”

Looking across the field, Brennan said his wife often tells him he has enough granite.

“I don’t feel that way,” he said. “The more stock the better. The more likely you’ll find something you like.”

Now in his 12th season, Brennan, 62, said he doesn’t intend to give up the granite business anytime soon.

“This job is unbelievably special,” he said. “I get to meet all kinds of incredible people.”

Most of those incredible people are what Brennan refers to as “old Mainers” who aren’t afraid to tell you exactly what they think and have remarkable stories they love to share.

“Sometimes you can make a deal on a handshake,” Brennan said.

Upon entering Brennan’s granite domain, a handful of slate and soapstone sinks have an area of their own.

“They’re very fragile,” Brennan said as he began giving a tour.

The first row is invisibly labeled as the “step section,” which consists of more finished pieces often used for front steps. These pieces come mostly from homes located in Maine’s cities, such as Lewiston, Bangor or Augusta.

“Some people like a more formal look,” Brennan said.

Beyond the more polished granite are what appear to be hundreds of slabs primarily from old farmhouse and barn foundations.

“That’s my best-seller,” Brennan said.

He sells primarily to architects and landscapers for use as patios and walkways.

Moving down the line, old hitching posts – at least one that still has the ring in it – stick up like landmarks.

A small stash of millstones, which Brennan says have pretty much disappeared from Maine – can be found tucked among other stones.

“They’re one of the hardest things to find,” he said. “Whenever you get a call for one, you get very excited.”

Millstones are popular for use in Massachusetts as outside shower basins. They also can be used as outdoor tabletops when a granite block is placed underneath. Once in a while they get placed flat on the ground as the focal point of a patio or stood on end as decorations.

He also has a few well covers. They are made of a thinner slab of granite and have either a round or square hole that Mainers used to place a bucket through to fetch water. Some homes had two wells, one for the house and one for the animals.

In later years, a wooden box would be placed on top of the hole and a pump was added, Brennan explained. On some of the covers, the box marks still can be seen.

Maine used to be filled with granite quarries that would mine the state’s abundant stone.

“It seems like almost every small town had some sort of a quarry,” Brennan said. “It was all done by hand.”

Then oxen and wagons would be used to move the pieces.

As for pricing, Brennan’s method is more of a personal science.

“You have to sort of just get a feel for the stone,” he said. “There’s really no way you can put the right price on a piece of art. You have to love the stone.”

He gave the example of a millstone, which he typically sells for $2,800 to $5,000.

“When I first started buying granite, I’d buy everything,” Brennan said.

But over the years, he has learned that granite that has been through a fire usually turns to powder when you try to move it, and said a lot of factors play into what he buys.

“When I buy a stone, I usually buy it for a particular customer I have,” he said.

With gas prices on the rise, Brennan said he tries to make the most out of a trip to pick up a load of granite and attempts to have two or three locations to visit at a time.

What’s remarkable is that Brennan’s pieces have few, if any, new scratches or dings that often result when the stones are carelessly removed or transported.

Once a building is down, he goes to the site with his hauler, a local truck driver named Jeff Lindsey from Albion.

“We’d rather pick it up ourselves and avoid scuffs and dings,” Brennan said.

He purchases the majority of his granite within 100 miles of Troy, and 99.9 percent of his stock is Maine granite – something he is very proud of.

Standing atop a slab, Brennan surveyed his granite kingdom.

“I love my granite,” he said.

adolloff@bangordailynews.net

990-8130

Bob Brennan

62 South Mitchell Road, Troy, ME 04987

Phone: 948-5952

E-mail: bobcat1@uninet.net

www.mainegraniteking.com

What is granite?

Granite is a light-colored igneous rock made up of fine- and coarse-grained crystals of quartz and feldspar.

Often dark crystals of mica or hornblende are mixed in the rock giving it a salt-and-pepper look. The color of granite, often important in its value as a building stone, is mostly determined by the color of the feldspar.

Feldspar colors can be white, salmon-colored, tan or pink. The quartz crystals in granite are generally clear, milky or smoky in color.

Granite forms as molten rock called magma deep within the earth. When magma solidifies, the resulting rocks are called intrusive or plutonic rocks. The grain size of the granite is determined by how fast or slow the molten rock solidifies.

Fast-cooling magma forms small crystals, while slow-cooling magma forms large crystals. The erosion and uplift of the overlying rock exposes these plutonic rocks to the atmosphere.