The Granite Industry of Southwestern New Brunswick: A Historical ...

18 The Granite Industry of Southwestern New Brunswick: A Historical Perspective
Above: St. George railway station, c. 1906. The station lay along the Shore
Line Railway, formerly called the Grand Southern Railway. SGHA, H076
By the mid-1880s, the town of St. George was hopping. It
boasted five major granite operators that worked about
fifty quarries around Lake Utopia and the Magaguadavic River.
The Grand Southern Railway was completed from Saint John
through St. George to St. Stephen in late 1880, greatly easing the
transportation of stone to market.
Shipments of red and some black granite left by rail and sea
for customers across the continent. The partial list of buildings
and monuments made with St. George stone reads like an
architectural catalogue from the late 1800s: the Parliament
buildings (Ottawa), the Sir John A. Macdonald monument
Above: St. George Basin, c. 1910. This photograph shows the main wharf,
lower bridge, and Tayte, Meating & Co. granite shed on the basin. SGHA, H166
(Kingston, Ontario), the Roman Catholic Cathedral (Boston),
bridges in Central Park (NY), the Metropolitan Museum of
Natural History (NY), the New York City Library, the Evening
Post headquarters (NY), the New York State House, the
Philadelphia Public Buildings, and a fountain on the lawn of the
White House.
The quality and finishing of the St. George granite was superb,
and public demand remained high for years. Yet two factors
eventually throttled the customer base: Canadian rail freight rates
that undercut the domestic market, and United States tariffs that
destroyed the American market for dressed stone.