HARDWICK

A short history of Hardwick

During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington ordered construction of the Bayley-Hazen Military Road to provide access into the interior of Vermont. It would prompt the development and settlement of Hardwick and East Hardwick.

The land that became the town was granted by the Vermont General Assembly on November 7, 1780, and the town was chartered on August 19, 1781, to Danforth Keyes and 66 others, some of whom were from Hardwick, Massachusetts. Permanent settlement began in 1793 when several families named Norris arrived from New Hampshire. By 1859, when the population reached 1,402, the town had several sawmills and gristmills on the Lamoille River. There were also two tanneries. Over the years, other industries would include a woolen mill, tinware shop, and carriage factory.

The predominant business following the Civil War was granite quarrying, especially after the Portland & Ogdensburg Railway opened service through the town and facilitated shipment of stone. While most of the granite was quarried in nearby Woodbury, the stone was dressed and finished in Hardwick, largely near "Granite Junction", where the rail lines met. The Hardwick and Woodbury Railroad was built to bring granite from the quarries to the finishing shops, and Hardwick became known as the "Building Granite Center of the World". By 1906, 1,200 people were employed in the industry, which was led by the Woodbury Granite Company. Buildings around the country made with Hardwick granite include the Pennsylvania State Capitol, Chicago City Hall, and the 1914 Post Office in Washington, D.C., as well as numerous city halls and custom houses. The decline of the "architectural granite" industry in the 1920s and 1930s left Hardwick in economic depression.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Hardwick, Vermont, revision 1378974043 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.