Our most intense and difficult historical research to date has been the search of the elusive Snowflake Granite Quarry owned by the Chester Granite Co. and finished at the Chester Granite and Polishing Works. And the search continues….

“According to tradition, the discovery of the area and eventual pinpointing of the site of the biggest of quarries was accomplished by tracing the pattern of glacial granite boulders to its source, back up the Westfield valley and up the mountainside until it ended in a farmer’s pasture. A quarry on this site was opened in 1888 by Messrs. George Roebuck and Francis S. Gross. Gross had been owner and superintendent of the little “Snowflake Quarry” on the Daniels Place below North Becket Village, which had been opened in 1879 by Brown and Cheney, and under Gross, of Lee, had become the “Snow Flake Granite Quarry of Becket” producing granite of fine texture susceptible to a high polish.

From the Snowflake quarry, Gross brought with him the three experienced Mitchell brothers, John, William, and Alexander, whose descendants quarried until recently in East Becket. Norman Harris became the first boss. The business gradually expanded. The biggest problem barring this expansion was that of getting rough stone down to the Chester finishing sheds. Up at the quarry rim the stone would be hoisted by hand derrick upon a large flat-bed wagon, and since it was all downhill, one team and luck and good brakes would suffice to get the stone as far as Chester Depot.”  -Leonard Spencer

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