Jones Brother Granite Shed - Home of the Vermont Granite Museum and Stone Arts School
The historic Jones Brothers Granite Shed is a 290-foot long, wood-framed straight shed built in 1895. The building is an early example of this innovative design which replaced the horseshoe shed with its associated boom and derrick, and took advantage of new technology for moving granite by utilizing interior, overhead cranes. Its linear plan, light timber frame construction, shed roofed wings along the eaves sides, gable roof with ventilating cupolas, numerous paired double hung windows and clerestory windows created broad, well lit interior open spaces which accommodated the new technology. Built during the boom period of Barre's granite industry, the Jones Brothers Company was instrumental in expanding the granite industry in Barre due the fine quality of granite extracted from the quarry it owned, its skilled labor, and its implementation of innovations in granite manufacturing technology.

Once considered to be "the largest granite manufacturing plant in the world," the Jones Brothers Company had over 600 employees and occupied 100,000 square feet of operational space until it closed in 1975. Built in 1895, The original 30,000 square feet building is a straight granite shed design with two overhead cranes that were originally powered by a dam and turbines from the adjacent river. The building has unique cathedral-like lighting from almost two hundred windows.

Read more about the Architecture of the Vermont Granite Sheds in a November 5, 2007 article by Paul Wood for the Barre Montpelier Times Argus Online. (Historic photos used with permission of the Vermont Granite Museum.)

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