A film by Army Armstrong, 2002
Distributed by the Vinalhaven Historical Society
I don’t remember how old I was when I learned that the Vinalhaven quarries I swam in were at one point vast and busy worksites, but I do remember it being startling. Sitting on the ledges looking down, I tried to force my gaze to go deeper, past the water line – to imagine the depths of the swimming hole unveiled and craggy, filled with men with nothing but hammers and chisels cutting out huge chunks of rock – like the very slab I sat on, looking down – rocks that now were part of famous buildings and monuments in different parts of the country. I started seeing the traces of quarrying everywhere; little things I had hardly noticed before, like a reddened iron bar silently sticking out of a ledge, were now full of the noise and energy of their past. And pretty much just like that, I was on a different island all together.
If they have any association with Vinalhaven, it’s doubtful that many viewers of Granite by the Sea will be as completely ignorant of the island’s quarrying history as I was then (although the film does play as well to children as adults). But no matter what you know, it’s easy, while watching the documentary, to be infected by the sense of wonder and thrill of discovery filmmaker Army Armstrong seems to feel as he digs into the artifacts of an industry and animates the story of Vinalhaven’s granite days.
The meat of the story stretches from 1826, when a Massachusetts schooner captain hauled a first load of stone away from Vinalhaven to build a jail, until 1939, when the last of the paving work dried up, most of the market for granite having given way to cheaper concrete and asphalt (with highways and rail having replaced the seas as the preeminent means of shipping, what little demand remained was met more easily by mainland operations). The narrative peaks with the success of the Bodwell and Webster Granite Company and the “crowning glory” of island granite operations – the removal and shipment of the columns for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.
But rather than simply narrate a string of dates and names, Armstrong moves back and forth from historical photographs of the industry to present-day video of the relics it left behind. Not only do familiar sights make Granite by the Sea particularly engaging for those who know Vinalhaven, but they also emphasize how the glory days of granite 150 years ago helped shape the community of the present. As Armstrong states in the film, “granite was the rock from which a vital economic and cultural community was built – a working community, strong enough to withstand the stresses of change to this very day.”
While the present-day footage and occasional illustration (particularly useful when describing the technique of granite cutting) add variety and color, it’s Armstrong’s loving treatment of the Vinalhaven Historical Society’s fine collection of quarrying photographs that makes his documentary so evocative. The director shows particular skill at animating still photographs – taken by such island photographers as William Lane, William Merrithew and Frank Winslow – by moving his camera over them and interrogating their details, helping the viewer to see through them and glimpse the world in which they were created.
Armstrong, a long-time summer visitor to Vinalhaven and member of the Historical Society, worked on Granite by the Sea – which aired during a Maine Public Television fundraiser in March -between other filmmaking jobs for the past three years, including periodic trips to the island to shoot the video portions and to consult with Historical Society directors Roy Heisler and Esther Bissell. Maine artists contributed all the music used in the film – including the song “Boats of Stone” by part-time Vinalhaven resident and Schooner Fare member Steve Romanoff. Proceeds from the sale of Granite by the Sea will go to the Vinalhaven Historical Society.