Maine granite helps protect Lady Liberty
ORLAND--Standing tall in New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable landmarks in America. Now, a company in Orland is proudly helping to preserve that historical monument with stone quarried right here in Maine.
With each measurement, chisel, and precise cut, the 65 employees at Freshwater Stone in Orland are making memorable stone work for individual Maine customers as well as customers from across the country.
“Everything from some old lady’s cat marker for a cat that’s passed to giant monuments for the FBI that we did a few years ago at Saint John the Divine, which is a church that’s never been finished. They called on us to do the steps,” explained John Hornton, manager of the architectural division of Freshwater Stone.
Freshwater Stone just completed a year long project with the Statue of Liberty. The statue is inside Fort Wood, an 11 point star-shaped defense system, located around the sculpture on Liberty Island in New York.
“The statue is in New York Harbor and is constantly bombarded by different environmental elements mainly salt water, rain, and snow. So having a hard granite will last hundreds of years,” said Andy Odeen, general manager at Freshwater Stone.
The interior portion of the wall surrounding the statue called the ‘Parapet’ has been crumbling, so to replace and reinforce the wall, Freshwater Stone supplied close to one thousand pieces of freshwater pearl granite from Frankfort, Maine.
“If someone can see our work and it doesn’t look like it was freshly fabricated, that’s when we’ve succeeded,” said Hornton.
Freshwater Stone is expanding and Odeen says he’s looking for even more individuals to join the team and help with future projects.
“Our goal with the statue is to provide a great product for that landmark,” stated Odeen. “And if more work comes, that’s great and hopefully we’ll get that.”
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