In North Hollow just prior to 1920, while prospecting for talc, a lens of metamorphic serpentine, commonly known as Verde Antique marble was discovered. Other strains of this marble were mined in Greece and Italy. This marble has a deep green background with white veining and is generally used for decorative and architectural purposes. The Vermont Marble Company in Proctor owned the quarry for most of the 20th century. *Text and images (above) are courtesy of the Rochester Historical Society.

Quarrying stone in the early 20th century was grueling and dangerous work, but an article published in a 1926 issue of The Vermonter lauds the ease of extraction and increase in production that “the age of electricity” had brought to the industry. The quarry has undergone considerable changes since. In 2001, photographer George Bellerose noted that “six men today can harvest as many blocks as the 90-man work force did dozens of years ago.” The current owners purchased the Vermont Verde Serpentine quarry in 2006, and can attest to the accuracy of that statement, although the work is still grueling and dangerous.

The Fabbioli family has expanded the Rochester quarry in both breadth and depth, and are now extracting the most dense and consistent Verde Serpentine the world has ever seen from the deepest part of the quarry. They also recently discovered and began extracting a line of green schist, which is softer and easier to split, making it perfect for landscape design and decorative uses. Green Mountain Schist is more subtle in its color which ranges from olive to pale gray-green and is visibly flecked with elongated minerals that give it variation and a bit of sparkle.