Editor’s Note: Sebastian Restrepo is a multimedia specialist at MassLive. The “Forgotten Mass.” photo series represents some of the work he captures from his travels across Massachusetts and beyond. It focuses on abandoned places, hidden gems, historical relics and forgotten lands. If you’d like to submit a tip to New England Uncovered, email srestrepo@masslive.com.
Closed for more than six decades, what remains of Quincy Quarries is a wide-open, grassy space surrounded by towering dark granite. Brightly painted graffiti everywhere brings contrast to the gritty stone.
On a late-May, overcast weekday afternoon, Quincy Quarries Reservation on the South Shore in Quincy was empty except for a man shaking an aerosol spray paint can, putting the final touches on his caricature version of a red alien. The man told MassLive he researched this very spot to come see the graffiti and leave his own mark.
Two hundred years earlier, Solomon Willard chose this granite as a medium for his indelible contribution, too. According to the National Park Service, Willard was the architect and superintendent of construction of the Bunker Hill Monument, one of many skills he taught himself.
Quincy Quarry was chosen as the place to mine granite for the Bunker Hill Monument, according to the Department of Conservation and Recreation, or DCR. The extraction process was so demanding, Quincy Quarry also birthed one of the first industrial railways in the United States, carrying granite a short 4 miles down to a wharf on the Neponset River outside of Quincy, according to the Library of Congress.
According to a DCR flyer, after mining operations ceased in 1942, Quincy Quarry started to fill with water. It became a popular spot for people to dive and swim in. In 1999, the quarry was drained water and filled and the DCR opened the space to the public in 2003 for rock climbing and picnicking.
Today, Quincy Quarry serves as an ever-changing canvas. Rock climbers and hikers alike can wander the 22 acres surrounding the granite outcroppings that once helped build Boston and enjoy the art that nature and others have left behind.
