Scotstown Granite Company – Our origins-Laprise-Mercier-Trépanier

 Scotstown Granite Company – Our origins-Laprise-Mercier-Trépanier

Granite ran through our blood and all the way to Barre, Vermont the Trépanier

From 1920 until the early 1970s, three quarries, gray granite, then green and crushed stone, were operated in the Scotstown area.

The Scotstown Granite Corporation Stone Cutting Plant, of which we see the interior of the factory, among other things, supplied the gray granite necessary for the construction of several buildings, including the Sherbrooke Seminary, in 1939, the Saint-Germain church in 'Outremont, in 1930-1931, the Saint-Paul-Apôtre Catholic Church in Scotstown, in 1954.

La Scotstown Granite Corporation, Stone Cutting Plant

A shed, used for cutting and polishing blocks of gray and green granite, was erected by Mr. Sperling on Victoria Street East at the eastern exit of the city, near the railway crossing. The company was in operation until 1945.

The decline of activities

The transfer of the company's activities to Montreal and the quality of the granite (too friable) will get the better of this industry of which only vestiges in the form of ancient ruins remain, if not a lagoon, all now invaded by the forest.

Historical

From 1920 until the early 1970s, three quarries, gray granite then green and latterly crushed stone, were operated in the Scotstown area. From 1880, small quantities of stone were taken for paving the city's streets.

The career of Scotstown

The town's only quarry is the Scotstown Granites Corporation. It is located on Albert Street in the direction of Lingwick at the limits of the territory.

This quarry belonging to M. Sperling opened in1920 and produced gray granite until the early 2000s.

Use

Scotstown granite, from the Albert Street quarry, provided a medium to coarse grain and medium gray color, used for bush hammered surfaces.

Knots and streaks of black minerals are among the main defects of this granite.

1930

A second quarry in the Franceville area on the side of Victoria Mountain (known as Victoria Mountain Granite Production) provides green granit discovered in 1930.

Mr. Alter  Mckenzie, mayor of Scotstown, is the owner along with other investors. The quarry continued to operate until 1955.

Mining Service, Quebec 1933

Le granit de Saint-Samuel et les carrières de Scotstown

The once-important Scotstown quarries remained closed all year.

The majority of these operators carried out extraction on a larger scale.

Workers in the granite quarries and cutting workshops did 97,254 days of work, for the amount of $175,008 in wages, compared to 115,444 days of work and $285,426 in wages in 1932.

Scotstown 1897

Competition in a promising Western Canadian market.Curtis Sperling, president and general manager of Scotstown Granite Company in Montreal, said contractors in the West are using American granite for their new buildings instead of Canadian granite.

 Scotstown Granite operated quarries in the Laurentides region.