Smith Granite Company In 1845 Orlando Smith discovered a granite outcrop on the property owned by Joshua Babcock in Westerly, Rhode Island, and a year later purchased the site from him. He established a granite quarry shortly thereafter and by the 1850s was cutting granite monuments. In 1887 the Smith Granite Company was incorporated, with family members holding all the stock.
The company's sculptors included James G. C. Hamilton, Edward Ludwig Albert Pausch, Robert D. Barr, and Stanley Edwards.
Works
The firm is best remembered for creating Civil War monuments.
- Gettysburg Battlefield, at least 57 monuments.
- Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, at least 16 monuments.
- as well as numerous other Civil War monuments including ones in:
- Norfolk, Connecticut, 1870
- Galena, Illinois, 1883
- Danbury, Connecticut, 1894
- Gardner, Massachusetts, 1885
- New Haven, Connecticut, 1887
- Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1891
- Big Rapids, Michigan, 1892
- Ypsilanti, Michigan, 1895
- New London, Connecticut, 1896
- Norwalk, Connecticut, 1900
- Wallingford, Connecticut, 1902
- Norwich, Connecticut, 1902
- New Haven, Connecticut, 1905
- Griswold, Connecticut, 1913
- Firemen's Monument, New London, Connecticut, 1898
- World War I monument, Templeton, Massachusetts, 1922
- the bases or granite components of many public monuments including:
References
- "Babcock Smith House Museum".
- "SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System".
- "SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System".