ABSTRACT
Chapter Two follows granite paving blocks from the Fox Islands of coastal Maine to the smoothened pavement of Broadway in the 1890s. Cities along the Atlantic seaboard grew rapidly at this time, with paved street grids and large institutional buildings, bridges, and monuments. Granite, a hard and noble material, was a material of choice. Large government contracts profited quarry owners and drew granite cutters to small towns like Vinalhaven, in the Fox Islands. As the islands’ quarries deepened and New York City’s streets hardened, quarry owners profited at the expense of precariously employed and poorly compensated workers. In response, Maine quarry workers organized the country’s first stone-cutting union. The heavy flow of granite from Maine to New York was disrupted along the material trajectory as paving workers in New York went on strike in solidarity with Maine workers. The chapter explores how material flow, rather than an abstract vector, is carried by human hands, and can be powerfully disrupted by them.
