OLD HALLOWELL CANNON
June 20, 2020
MUSEUM IN THE STREETS™
June 20, 2020
LAST CRANE STANDING
In 2014 the City of Hallowell dedicated "Last Crane Standing", a monument to Hallowell's granite industry. The monument consists of a wooden granite quarry crane set in a landscaped site in Granite City Park alongside the Kennebec River.
The crane, a gift to the City of Hallowell from Key Bank, is the last example of such devices known to exist in Maine and which numbered in the hundreds if not thousands at one time.
The crane is accompanied by interpretive panels with historic photographs and text relating to the more than 100 year history of Hallowell 's "magnificent white granite".
In the heyday of the Maine granite industry-- the late 1800’s and early 1900’s-- there were a hundred or more active granite quarries across the state. Several of them were in Hallowell; records show there were nine companies here, either extracting granite from these quarries or creating granite products for major buildings, monuments, building stones, paving stones and more.
Installation design by artist
The design for the installation was created by Hallowell artist Chris Cart and is suggestive of an abandoned quarry. The monument was initiated and supported by Row House, Inc., and made possible by the "Last Crane Standing Committee", a group of local volunteers. Local citizens and businesses contributed over $30,000 to make the monument a reality.
In 2019 the crane boom was replaced with a new one as the original wood had weakend.
