In 1846 Orlando Smith purchased land from Joshua Babcock in Westerly, Rhode Island on the Boston Post Road. His interest in the land was engendered by a granite outcrop on the lot. In short order, Smith developed a granite quarry, and by the 1850s granite monuments were being fashioned from the quarried stone. The company’s sculptors included J. G. Hamilton, Edward Ludwig Albert Pausch, Robert D. Barr, and Stanley Edwards.
The Smith Granite Company was incorporated in 1887. Stone from the quarry was used for at least 57 monuments at Gettysburg National Battlefield in PA.
The Great New England Hurricane of September, 1938 caused a loss of power at the quarry. Water could not be pumped from the quarry floor, and it began to fill with water. The blacksmith shop and the crane barn were destroyed. Most of the other buildings were damaged. Scores of employees were laid off. A few years later, World War II caused shortages of steel, fuel and skilled labor. By August, 1945, the bank had foreclosed on Smith Granite and the company went into receivership. In 1955 the last Smith Granite assets had been sold off and the company went out of business. The land was developed into the Granite Center offices and shopping center. The quarry is fenced off and silent.