Illustrated Lecture and Tour of West Cemetery: "Middlebury and the Marble Border of Western New England"

Middlebury straddles what has been dubbed the Marble Border of Western New England, a continuous vein of marble extending from the Canadian border southward through Vermont and the Berkshires. As early as the 1780s regional stonecutters began to exploit this high-quality resource and in the early 19th century Middlebury mechanized its marble production to produce architectural components that were sought by major architects. Their products were marketed through outlets in Boston and New York and shipped as distantly as Montreal, Savannah, and London.

Elsewhere along the range, centers like Rutland, VT, Pittsfield, MA, and Marbledale, CT, were providing thousands of monuments, gravestones, and architectural features to buildings, cemeteries, and town squares; exporting artfully finished products to points south and beyond.

Middlebury’s West Cemetery, with more than 3000 burials and markers, some as early as the 1790s, is a veritable museum of history and art. Frequently, cemeteries located in regions where marble was quarried and worked feature gravestones and monuments that are a testament to the stone carver’s skill and craftsmanship.

Glenn Andres is Professor Emeritus of the History of Art and Architecture at Middlebury College where he taught the history of architecture and urbanism from 1970 to 2015. He served as a long-time member of the Vermont Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and was a trustee of the Henry Sheldon Museum. He is the author of the Walking History of Middlebury, and co-author of the Buildings of Vermont.

Bill Hosley is an independent scholar, historian, writer, and photographer, who retired from a long career as a museum curator and director. He was formerly Director of the New Haven Museum and Connecticut Landmarks and served as a curator and exhibition developer at the Wadsworth Atheneum, where he organized major exhibitions including The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, The Japan Idea: Art and Life in Victorian America, and Sam & Elizabeth: Legend and Legacy of Colt\’s Empire.