Sheffield Marble In The Rough

Where else would you find the elusive remains of marble from the same quarry that was initially commissioned to supply the materials for the Lincoln Memorial but in the middle of a junkyard? Reggie (for those new to the blog, he and Norah are the visionaries that dreamed up our project here at Howard Hall Farm) was telling me about a project he worked on that included redoing a stoop for a gorgeous Victorian home here in the Hudson River Valley. Apparently, to be historically accurate, he wanted to find the marble that would have been used around that time, which came from a local place called The Sheffield Quarry in Sheffield, Mass.

The catch: The Sheffield Quarry was commissioned to provide the marble for the Lincoln Memorial. Their marble was used for the base, but they couldn't keep up with the demand, and another quarry took over. (That's why anyone who's seen it will notice that the base of the statue is white marble, but the rest has grey veins.) The loss of that job drove them to ruin and put them out of business in the 1850's....So how in the world was he supposed to find some of this special marble?

A rumor reached him that SOMEWHERE there were some small chunks remaining from the quarry that hadn't been used. So he and a friend got into the car, and drove through the torrential absurdity of a hideous sleet storm to the area near the quarry. They passed a junkyard on the way, and knowing that junkyard guys are some of the greatest holders of secret local lore and clues, they decided to see if they could help. So they took the car along the windy road, passed through the graveyard of rusting car carcasses, and found the two proprietors sitting beside a fire.

(Now here's where serendipity comes in from the rain to play.) It turned out that the remaining pieces of this Sheffield marble were closer than they suspected. Two 10x10 foot pieces remained and were hiding out (where else?) right there in the center of the junkyard!

So they were able to redo the stoop as history dictated.

And now the exciting new addition to our home at Howard Hall Farm: (can you guess?)

We got a piece of Sheffield marble for our entryway!
The boys installed it yesterday, and it's stunning!