Stone Forever Leads the Way
The last time people picked and placed stones along the sides of Turnpike Road was centuries ago. My restoration of the walls was a modern day enterprise while theirs was pioneering.
Their idea was to transform a stretch of rugged countryside track, unfit for wheeled transport, into an even-surfaced byway lined on both sides with stock-proof stone fencing. For the privilege of using this length of private road, the developer charged the traveler a fee. For those making their way up and over the hills of Marlboro town, connecting commerce between Brattleboro and Bennington, it would have been a benefit worth paying for. At least that’s what the early road builder thought. But those toiling to build what they called their turnpike road couldn't have known that another route across the high country would become the one favored by the traveling public.
The turnpike lost its paying customers. The money making scheme was abandoned. All that remains of the builder’s aspirations is a mile of disused road, now mostly reclaimed by the forest, but still bearing the name of Turnpike Road. Lately though, there’s been a bustle of activity at the easternmost end, near where the old roadway intersects with the thoroughfare that turned the turnpike obsolete.
For the past three years, that four hundred yard stretch has been very busy with contractor traffic, including many trips of my own to build a number of dry stone walls. It started for me with the rejuvenation of those original turnpike walls. By the second year on the property I was designing and building a circular sunken garden space next to the house under construction. One wall section reached 11’ in height. During the third trip around the sun, the site saw more dry stone walls rise around a greenhouse and attendant herb and vegetable gardens.
The new work required a steady inflow of materials for both soft and hardscaping. Truckload after truckload rolled down Turnpike Road to deliver gravel for fill and stones for walling. On many days three excavators made their way around the site; digging, lifting and shifting. A crew of wallers laid up walls between guide strings that crisscrossed the building site. By the end of the third building season the house was occupied and the plantings were healing in around the stonework.
Life along Turnpike Road has reawakened. It’s a different energy from that of two hundred years ago but similarly filled with high hopes for the future. Many thanks to the Smith family for including Dan Snow Stoneworks in the mix of fine craftspeople involved in their home project. Authentic Fieldstone provided consistently excellent walling stone. A.S. Clark came through, as they always do, with the right personnel and equipment to make the job run smoothly. Dry stone wallers on board for the project included Jared Flynn, Whitney Brown, Jamie Masefield, David Foster and Ben Sandri. Every one a star!