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Trask House situated on West Street nearly opposite Trask Avenue was occupied by Aunt Lydia Trask as she was familiarly called by her friends of the last generation. This estate of quite a large acreage was owned in 1800 by Mr. David Porter.
Between the last named house and the railroad crossing there formerly stood an ancient house which about 1800 was occupied by Nathaniel Savil and later occupied by Mr. John Galloway. This house was destroyed by fire about forty years ago. [c. 1890’s]
In 1824 Mr. James Hall conveyed to Ebenezer Crane and Frederick Hardwick 5 ¾ acres of land. This being the land later conveyed to Gridley Bryant for use as a quarry from which the first forty feet of the Bunker Hill Monument was obtained.
This quarry was selected for this purpose by Mr. Solomon Willard, the designer and superintendent of construction for the monument. After its selection and purchase by the Bunker Hill Monument Association, the work of quarrying was commenced in July, 1826 and at the end of six months the committee say, “more than three thousand tons of stone have been split from the beds in form and lie ready to roll down the railway as soon as it is opened to them.”
The opening of this quarry was the beginning of systematic quarrying of granite in Quincy, and from this date numerous other quarries were opened in this section and in the North Common until a large and profitable industry was established which made Quincy granite famous throughout the country, and furnished labor for a large number of the inhabitants of the town.
In connection with the quarrying of material for the construction of the monument, it became a problem to find the least expensive mode of transporting the material from the quarry to Breed’s Hill in Charlestown, a distance of twelve miles.
It was finally decided to build a railway from the quarry to tide water at Neponset River near Gulliver Creek; and in January, 1826 the following petition was presented to the General Court for an act of incorporation to construct a railway, the text being as follows.
“The undersigning petitioners represent that it would be of great public utility to establish a railway from certain quarries in the town of Quincy to the tide waters, for the carrying of stone to be used in buildings, that your petitioners are disposed to establish the same or to aid in effecting it, but that it will require a voluntary subscription and employment of a large sum of money, and that such sums can only be obtained by extending the subscription among many persons, and that it would greatly facilitate the enterprise if those who engage in it should act under corporate powers.”
This petition was signed by Thomas Handasyd Perkins, William Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Solomon Willard, David Moody, and Gridley Bryant.
An Act of incorporation was granted by the Legislature and approved on the 4th of March, 1826.
The company was immediately organized and Colonel Perkins was chosen president. The route was surveyed and the railway built during the year and was
2 ½ miles in length and cost $50,000.00.
In the year 1827 the railway carried 2,287 tons of stone from the quarry to tide water at a total charge of $800.45. The track of the Granite Railway Company was originally constructed of stone cross ties bedded in the ground at intervals of eight feet with wooden rails faced with a bar of iron on which the wheels ran. But within ten years the wooden rails had been replaced with stringers of granite hammered smooth on the upper face and having similar bars of iron pinned to their tops. It was officially stated that the maintenance costs on this from of tracks had not amounted to ten dollars a year and the track continued in use until 1870 when it was sold to the Old Colony Railroad Corporation and replaced by a modern railroad construction. Through the incorporation of the Granite Railway into the Old Colony, the line which connects Plymouth with Boston has become the original railroad line in America.
The stone cottage situated at East Milton on the Corner of Adams Street and Squantum Street, was formerly the blacksmith shop owned and operated by Mr. Willard Felt. In this structure were made the wheelwright and iron work necessary for the building of the railway, cars, trucks, etc. This building was converted a number of years ago into a dwelling now (1929) occupied by Mrs. George W. Hall.
