Click here to skip to the content

Hampstead Quarry

In places like historic Uptown Saint John buildings were constructed on foundations of granite (Evandale Granodiorite) quarried from Hampstead. The stone quarries at Hampstead on the St. John River opened in the 1840s. Newspaper stories record how huge blocks were transported by oxen and wagon or loaded on steamers for the trip to Saint John. Thousands of curbstones and cobblestones were shipped to Saint John to line the streets of a growing city. Much of the granite arrived in the City after the Great Fire of 1877 that destroyed the city’s south end and commercial district. New buildings were erected quickly over the next few years, made from stone to meet new regulations. Buildings like the new post office on the corner of Prince William and Princess Streets are a fine example of the stonework characteristic of the rebuilding.

S.J. Daily Sun - Jul. 26, 1888 Central Hampstead. - Mr. Joshua Cameron has taken from the Spoon Island granite quarry a stone eight feet square and two feet thick, for F.C. Burpee of Carleton. He had fifteen pairs of oxen engaged hauling it to the landing for shipment yesterday, but failed to reach its destination. Today he will use some of his hoisting apparatus for moving it."

Carleton Sentenil - Jan. 25, 1890 Central Hampstead. - Mr. Harvey Walton has a crew of men working in his Granite Quarry getting out curb stones for the streets of St. John, principally on the street leading from the North End to the city proper; it has been favourable for them except the few cold days of last week which they did not work."

S.J. Evening Gazette - Apr. 28, 1890 - The first cargo of granite curb stones for use along Dock, Mill and Main streets, in connection with the pavement to be laid this summer, is now being discharged in York Point Slip. The stones are from the Spoon Island quarries and measure about 6 or 7 inches thick by 16 deep and from 5 to 13 feet in length. They are being hauled and left at the side of the streets on which they will be used."

Gazette - Aug. 3, 1896 A block of granite weighing twenty eight hundred weight was brought to the city today on the steamer Hampstead. It came from Appleby's quarry and was consigned to the city granite worker."