Vermont Marble

The Vermont Marble Company was once the largest marble company in the world.

As an amalgamation of existing quarries and marble companies, the Vermont Marble Company was incorporated in 1880 by Redfield Proctor. During its heyday over the following fifty years, the company would become not only the largest marble manufacturer in the world but one of the world's largest companies.

Employing more than 5000 people at its peak and owning the rights to quarries in Vermont, Tennessee, Colorado, and Alaska, the Vermont Marble Co. is responsible not only for the industrial heritage making up so much of the towns in the marble belt, but the material behind notable memorials and buildings in the United States including the Lincoln Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, District of Columbia War Memorial, Arlington Memorial Amphitheater, U.S. Supreme Court building, U.S. Capitol, and many more.

Workers at marble yard in West Rutland, VT (1900-1915)

The Quarrying Process

The Industry's Development

Marble's Uses

Historic Maps

See How West Rutland Has Changed

Stereograph of quarries at Proctor, VT (Keystone View Company, B.L. Singley 1903)

Working for the Company

Learn about life as a quarryman, millworker, and member of the community in the Rutland region during the Vermont Marble Company's heyday.

Vermont Marble Artifacts

Visit "Vermont Marble Industry Artifacts" as put together by the Vermont State University Digital Archaeology Project to see 3D scans of marble workers' tools, stone works, and billy clubs from the 1935-1936 marble strike.

Historic Postcards

See this map to view historic postcards of West Rutland's quarries and mills located at their approximate viewpoint.

References

U.S. Bureau of Mines. The Technology of Marble Quarrying. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1916. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=kb8kjgYH26UC&pg=GBS.PR10&hl=en.

U.S. Geological Survey. The Commercial Marbles of Western Vermont. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1912. https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0521/report.pdf.

Vermont State University Digital Archaeology Project. 2025. “Vermont Marble Industry Artifacts.” Sketchfab. https://sketchfab.com/VTSU3D/collections/vermont-marble-industry-artifacts-f1144df3275a4c4195236836986c7471.

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