BLUESTONE QUARRIES

The BLUESTONE QUARRIES were situated in the small village of Bluestone near the intersection of Green and Bluestone roads in S. EUCLID. In its heyday, Bluestone was home to about 400 people and contained a general store and post office, 2 saloons, a temperance hall, a church, and boarding houses. The village sprang from the single industry of quarrying the rock from which the town took its name. In 1867 Duncan McFarland opened a quarry on the east bank of Euclid Creek in the southern section of Euclid Twp. In 1871 his sons, James and Thomas, opened one on the west bank. The McFarland brothers sold their interest in 1875 to the Forest City Stone Co., which became one of the area's largest producers. Euclid bluestone is a bluish-gray sandstone, dense and fine-grained, and harder, stronger, and less friable than the better-known Berea sandstone. The stone was used for sills and steps, foundations, and laundry tubs, but its greatest use was for sidewalks. Bluestone reached the peak of its growth in the 1890s, when immigrant laborers from Sweden, Italy, Ireland, and Canada were working 5 quarries. By 1910 concrete had begun to replace stone as a building material, and the quarries began to feel the effects of the competition. By the end of the decade 1 company remained active. Bluestone became part of S. Euclid when that village was incorporated in 1917.


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