Embedded Files
This website was put together in the summer of 2025 by Claire Puckhaber, a Master's of Science in Historic Preservation student at the University of Pennsylvania, under the guidance and resources of the Center for Architectural Conservation and with the help of the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation as well as the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center and Gawet Marble and Granite in West Rutland.
Young quarry worker in a finishing shop
Why should we care?
Why should we care?
Though the Vermont Marble Museum in Proctor is now closed, it does a good job of describing the impact of the company and the things we may learn from understanding the marble industry:
"The Vermont Marble Company had an enormous impact on the built environment of our nation. Largely quarried or carved locally, marble from The Vermont Marble Company was used in the Jefferson Memorial, the US Supreme Court Building, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as well as hundreds of other monuments and memorials all over the world."
Resources like those attached to this website and this website itself ensure that the story of the communities built by the Vermont Marble Co. and their people will remain local, and alive. For the people of towns like Proctor, Rutland, and West Rutland today - many descendants of the Italian, Swedish, Polish, German, Hungarian and other immigrants brought in to work in the factory - the history of this company is their history.
Much of the information contributing to this website is also thanks to the Vermont Marble Industry Artifacts project by Vermont State University Digital Archaeology, the Vermont Marble Museum, the Vermont Historical Society Archives in Barre, and the Rutland Historical Society Quarterlies.
Though the aim of the work done over the summer of 2025 was to produce a digital resource illustrating this narrative and providing context to the amount of material available in both the collection and Vermont's archives, there is much more to learn from and better understand. The hope is that other students and preservationists will continue to explore the story of the Vermont Marble Company; a story of land use, company towns, and rural industry with impacts felt throughout the region today.
Learn more about the process through which this website was made.
Visit the Slate Belt website also made by the Center for Architectural Conservation to see how the Vermont Marble website may be expanded over time.
Abandoned Barnes Quarry in West Rutland (2025)
Recommended Literature
Recommended Literature
"The Commercial Marbles of Western Vermont" by T. Nelson Dale
"The Technology of Marble Quarrying" by Oliver Bowles
Images of America: Vermont's Marble Industry by Catherine Miglorie
Stories from Vermont's Marble Valley by Mike Austin
Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape by Jan Albers
Complete References For This Website's Information Listed
Complete References For This Website's Information Listed
“An Inclined Quarry Railway.” Stone Magazine, 1895. https://quarriesandbeyond.org/articles_and_books/stone_magazine/stone_magazine.html#incline.
“Drilling machinery | Types, Uses & Benefits.” Britannica, July 2025, https://www.britannica.com/technology/drilling-machinery#ref93871.
“From Quarry to Cemetery Monuments.” Stone Quarries and Beyond, Accessed 2025, https://quarriesandbeyond.org/cemeteries_and_monumental_art/quarry_to_cemetery_stone/stone_mills_shops_interior_equipment.html.
"General Condition of the Sheldon Marble Co.'s Property as leased by the Vermont Marble Co. 1892." Vermont Marble Co. Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, West Rutland, VT.
“History.” n.d. Carving Studio and Sculpture Center. https://carvingstudio.org/pages/history.
“Our History.” n.d. Vermont Marble Museum. https://vermontmarblemuseum.org/history-of-vermont-marble/.
“Vermont Marble Museum History.” Preservation Trust of Vermont. June 2012. https://ptvermont.org/vermont-marble-museum-history-today/.
“Vermont Quarry and Related Business Links and Photographs.” Stone Quarries and Beyond. Accessed 2025. https://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/vt/vermont-photos_menu.html.
Bowie, Chester W. “Redfield Proctor Secretary of War, 1889-1891.” Rutland Historical Society Quarterly 29, no. 4, 1999.
Children's Designs. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1910. https://archive.org/details/childrensdesigns00verm/mode/2up.
Epitaphs. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1889. https://archive.org/details/epitaphs_booklet_vt_marble_co/mode/2up.
F.R. Patch Manufacturing Co. trade card, 1893, World’s Columbian Exposition Collection. Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, Winterthur, DE.
Fred Patch Correspondence, Proctoriana Collection. Vermont Historical Society Leahy Library, Barre, VT.
Fregosi, Mary. “The Vermont Marble Company Stores.” Rutland Historical Society Quarterly 40, no. 2, 2010.
Georeferenced imagery. Google Earth. "Aerial Imagery." Color imagery, 2025. Google. 2025.
Guide, Step. 2023. “How is Marble Formed? (A Quick Guide).” Keystone Marble & Granite. https://keystone-granite.com/how-is-marble-formed/.
Highsmith, Carol M. U.S. Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. 1980. Library of Congress, Washington D.C., https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.17863/?r=-0.122,-0.036,1.697,0.879,0.
King, Phillip B., and Helen M. Beikman. 1974. “Explanatory Text to Accompany The Geologic Map of the United States.” U.S. Government Printing Office. https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0901/report.pdf.
Little Pictures of a Big Industry. Vermont Marble Company, 1920. https://archive.org/details/littlepicturesof00verm/page/22/mode/2up.
Marble Goes Modern. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1940. https://archive.org/details/marblegoesmodern00verm/page/n17/mode/2up.
Miglorie, Catherine. Vermont’s Marble Industry. Arcadia Publishing, 2013.
Modern Marble Memorials. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1920. https://archive.org/details/ModernMemorialsInMarble/page/n51/mode/2up.
Non-georeferenced imagery. Vermont Imagery. "1962 Aerial Imagery." Black and white imagery, 2019. Vermont Center for Geographic Information. 2025. https://vcgi.vermont.gov/data-release/1962-aerial-imagery-now-available-statewide-non-georeferenced.
Safety Rules for Workers. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1934. Proctoriana Collection. Vermont Historical Society Leahy Library, Barre, VT.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from West Rutland, Rutland County, Vermont. Sanborn Map Company, Aug, 1910. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn08959_001/.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from West Rutland, Rutland County, Vermont. Sanborn Map Company, Jan, 1922. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn08959_002/.
Skerrett, Robert G. “Vermont’s Varied Marbles: Origin of These Age-Old Deposits and the Splendid Industry that has Developed in Exploiting Them” in Compressed Air Magazine, v. 31, 1926, Proctoriana Collection. Vermont Historical Society Leahy Library, Barre, VT.
Speaking of Marble. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1920. https://archive.org/details/speakingofmarble00verm/mode/2up?view=theater&ui=embed&wrapper=false.
State Plane. Vermont Imagery. "VT 1974-1992." Black and white imagery, 1974-1992. Vermont Open Geodata Portal. 2025. https://geodata.vermont.gov/pages/imagery?_gl=1*i137yy*_ga*NjU1NjE1MDQ4LjE3NDY5OTMwMDQ.*_ga_V9WQH77KLW*czE3NTMzNzUxODUkbzMxJGcxJHQxNzUzMzc1MjQ4JGo1OCRsMCRoMA.
State Plane. Vermont Imagery. "VT 1994-2000." Black and white imagery, 1994-2000. Vermont Open Geodata Portal. 2025. https://geodata.vermont.gov/pages/imagery?_gl=1*i137yy*_ga*NjU1NjE1MDQ4LjE3NDY5OTMwMDQ.*_ga_V9WQH77KLW*czE3NTMzNzUxODUkbzMxJGcxJHQxNzUzMzc1MjQ4JGo1OCRsMCRoMA.
Purdy, Elaine. “Fred R. Patch: His Personal Recollections of Life at Sutherland Falls and the Founding of Patch-Wegner Company.” Rutland Historical Society Quarterly 23, no. 2, 1993. https://archive.org/details/RutlandHistoricalSocietyQuarterlyVol.23No.21993/page/n3/mode/2up.
Price list of different stones and designs. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1919. https://archive.org/details/pricelistofrutla00verm/page/188/mode/2up.
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. “Building Stones of Our Nation's Capitol.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975. https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/70039206/report.pdf.
U.S. Geological Survey. “Mineral Resources of the United States - Calendar Year 1893.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1894.
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.
U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral Resources of the United States: Part II-Nonmetals. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1913.
Vermont Marble Company - Its Past and Future. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1920. Proctoriana Collection. Vermont Historical Society Leahy Library, Barre, VT.
Vermont Marble Memorials. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1931. https://archive.org/details/vermontmarblemem00verm/mode/2up.
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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