Barre, Vermont

Everything Barre is known for

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History of Barre

The Stone Built to Outlast Everyone RoadyGoat

1885

There's a reason monuments and gravestones are carved from granite and not softer rock. Granite's big, interlocking crystals of quartz and feldspar make it extraordinarily hard and resistant to weathering, so a carved surface can hold crisp letters and dates for centuries. That durability is exactly what made Barre, Vermont, the granite capital. The Rock of Ages quarry in Graniteville has supplied Barre Gray granite since eighteen eighty-five, and an enormous share of America's monuments and headstones are cut from this district. When people want a marker meant to stand long after everyone who knew the name is gone, they reach for the rock that shrugs off rain, frost, and time. In Graniteville, lasting forever is the local industry.

4.5 mi away

Why Granite Sparkles: It Cooled in Slow Motion RoadyGoat

Look closely at Barre granite and you'll see a speckled mosaic of glassy quartz, pale feldspar, and flecks of dark mica. Those visible crystals are a clock. Granite is an igneous rock, born from molten magma, but it cooled extremely slowly while trapped miles underground. Slow cooling gives atoms time to organize into big, interlocking crystals you can see with the naked eye. Compare that to basalt, the dark rock of lava flows: when lava cools fast at the surface, crystals barely have time to form, so basalt looks smooth and nearly grainless. Same family of rock, wildly different speed. The polished sparkle on a Barre headstone is a frozen record of magma that took a very, very long time to harden deep below the ground.

4.5 mi away

The Town That Named Itself After Its Rock RoadyGoat

1885

Graniteville is a village inside the town of Barre, Vermont, and it wears its trade on its sleeve. Barre calls itself the Granite Capital of the World, and Graniteville is where the stone actually comes out of the ground. It is home to the Rock of Ages quarry, one of the largest deep-hole dimension-granite quarries on Earth. The famous E.L. Smith pit drops roughly five hundred seventy feet into solid Barre Gray granite, which has been cut here since eighteen eighty-five. So much of America's monument and gravestone stone is carved from this district that the village just took the rock's name and made it official. When a town names itself Graniteville, it is not being subtle about what built it.

4.6 mi away

Rock of Ages Granite Quarry

1885

The world's largest deep-hole granite quarry, 600 feet deep, operating continuously since 1885 near Barre, Vermont.

4.1 mi away

Vermont State House

1857

The smallest state capital in the United States, featuring a gold-leaf dome and one of the finest Greek Revival statehouses in the country.

6.0 mi away

Ben & Jerry's Factory

1978

Vermont's most famous ice cream company started in a renovated gas station in Burlington in 1978 before moving production to this Waterbury facility.

15.6 mi away

Things to Do in Barre

food 16.4 mi away
Ben & Jerry's Factory

Tour the factory and get free samples in Waterbury VT. The Flavor Graveyard is real.

Everything Near Barre

36 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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