Maine stone headed to New York Harbor

Freshwater Stone in Orland, Maine, has taken on a monumental project this year: the restoration of Fort Hood, the base upon which the Statue of Liberty stands. The job involves replacing 23 stone walls that run around the Statue of Liberty. The 11-pointed, star-shaped base, originally used as a military fort, will require more than 1,000 pieces of granite from Freshwater’s quarry at Mosquito Mountain in Maine, totaling about a quarter-million pounds of cut stone. Historical renovation projects require blending the old with the new as seamlessly as possible. To achieve this result, edges of the fresh-cut stone are being distressed with a torch and hammer to give them an authentic, antiqued look. “The less you can tell that restoration has occurred,” John Horton, Freshwater’s architectural stone manager, “the better the restoration work that was done.” Freshwater Stone sourced, cut, and prepped the 250,000 pounds of granite from their Frankfort quarry. Sadly, the stone sloops that once carried Maine granite to Boston and beyond no longer exist. Instead, Freshwater transported its granite to New York in tractor trailer trucks.