Portland Brownstone Quarries

Portland Brownstone Quarries
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
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Location	Brownstone Ave. and Silver St., Portland, Connecticut
Coordinates	41°34′32″N 72°38′36″W / 41.57556°N 72.64333°W / 41.57556; -72.64333Coordinates: 41°34′32″N 72°38′36″W / 41.57556°N 72.64333°W / 41.57556; -72.64333
NRHP Reference #	00000703
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 16, 2000
Designated NHL	May 16, 2000

The Portland Brownstone Quarries are a set of historic quarries in Portland, Connecticut. The brownstone mined from these quarries was an important source for construction in the latter half of the 19th century. The stone from these quarries was used in a number of landmark buildings in Chicago, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New Haven, Connecticut, and Hartford. The site was listed as a National Historic Landmark, which also placed it on the National Register of Historic Places, on May 16, 2000.

Quarrying on this site began in 1690 by James Stanclift, who contracted with the town of Middletown to build stonework in exchange for a deed of land. Commercial quarrying started in 1783 when the Brainerd Quarry Company began operations. During the peak of the brownstone era, more than 1500 workers were employed by the quarries, which shipped stone on their own ships for eight months out of the year. Proceeds from the quarrying business were deeded to Wesleyan University from 1833 through 1884, and stone from the quarries was used to build many campus buildings. As tastes in buildings shifted, and concrete became the material of choice, the demand for brownstone declined. A flood in 1936 and a hurricane in 1938 flooded the quarries, ending their operations. All efforts to drain the flooded quarries have been unsuccessful; one theory is that the floods opened some underground springs, making it impossible to effectively drain the quarries.

In 1994, a new operator, Connecticut Brownstone Quarries, began a small-scale quarrying operation to provide stone for restoration of brownstone buildings.