Griffith Quarry, a registered California Historical Landmark

California Historical Landmark

California Historical Landmarks are buildings, structures, sites, or places in the state of California that have been determined to have statewide historical significance by meeting at least one of the criteria listed below:...

 listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

, was a former granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 quarry

Quarry

A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

 near Penryn, California

Penryn, California

Penryn is a census-designated place in Placer County, California, in the United States. Geographic location is . Penryn is located northeast of Rocklin. The community's ZIP code is 95663 and the area code 916...

.

History

The quarry was established by Griffith Griffith, a native of Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, in 1864. The quarry produced high-quality granite used to construct many buildings in San Francisco and Sacramento, including parts of the California State Capitol

California State Capitol

The California State Capitol is home to the government of California. The building houses the bicameral state legislature and the office of the governor....

. The 23 acres (9.3 ha) that surround the 2-story building, made of granite blocks, are the remains of the quarry and its polishing mill. This mill was the first successful granite polishing mill in California.

The office of the quarry is now the Griffith Quarry Museum that contains history about the site as well as other local history. Some of the original furniture of the Griffith Quarry is intact.

External links

• Griffith Quarry Museum - information
• Penryn Granite Quarry Visit - Walks Through Griffith Quarry - A collection of photos from Griffith Quarry.