Downtown Quincy Center

The City of Quincy’s rich history includes a unique granite legacy dating back to the 1800’s. Elevation is located on the site of what was the Quincy Quarry.

Quincy granite came to prominence in the 1820’s when the designer of the Bunker Hill Monument selected Quincy’s unique and high-quality granite for this momentous work. To transport the granite to Charlestown, the Granite Railroad (one of the first in the U.S.) was built. Over the next 50 years dozens of quarries opened in Quincy supplying granite for a building boom that stretched from New York to New Orleans.

Today the quarries have been filled in and the Quincy Quarry Reservation stands as a popular spot for rock climbing and picnicking. In Quincy Center, you will also find the Granite Ball Monument, a 9.5-ton polished granite sphere, gifted to the city by the Granite Manufacturers Association in 1925 to commemorate the city’s 300th year of settlement.