Frazier Quarry

The Frazier Quarry, Incorp.
Private
Industry Quarry
Founded 1915[1]
Founder Robert Y. Frazier
Headquarters Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States
Area served
 primarily Eastern United States
Products Fire Pits, dimension bluestone, fountains, benches, crushed stone
Number of employees
 50 (2008)
Website Frazier Quarry Home

The Frazier Quarry Inc. (TFQ) is a large family owned quarry and stone product retailer based in the United States. The company is headquartered in Harrisonburg, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. It is the only producer of Shenandoah Valley Bluestone and also provides crushed stone and retail products. The company was founded in 1915 as Betts Quarry and became The Frazier Quarry Incorporated in 1946. The company is a third generation family owned business and derives its name from the owners. TFQ markets its products under its own brand name and also under Stonewall Grey which is for products cut and sawed on location and unique to TFQ.

History

Beginning in 1915, TFQ has been a prominent business serving the Shenandoah Valley, both commercially and philanthropically. Frazier Quarry is one of the largest family owned and operated quarries operating in the United States. The quarry was founded to function as a cornerstone to the region by providing crushed stone for new construction projects and helping to expedite the growth of the Shenandoah Valley. The crushed stone production from TFQ has remained a reliable mainstay in construction projects in the area, and through years of improving practices and setting systems in place, the crushed stone production is operating stably and the quarry has begun other initiatives to supply the Valley with high grade stone products. The most notable new direction is the production of “The Valley’s Own Bluestone” which has helped to resurrect the region’s architectural legacy of Bluestone construction by once again providing it from a local source. Other aspects of the expansion are largely Do-It-Yourself (DIY) outdoor living or landscaping projects including: landscaping stone, all natural stone intraconvertible fire pits/fountain kits, flagstone, and solid stone garden benches. The DIY approach to the product line has allowed TFQ to offer low prices for high quality products through selling directly (not through middlemen) and creating products that do not require professional installation.

Historical Innovation

Bluestone is an identifying characteristic of Shenandoah Valley architecture, beginning with the areas first settlers using the native stone from their own land for foundations and chimneys. It is a type of limestone that is so named because of its dark blue-grey color that will eventually weather to a light grey. Architects from the area had historically embraced the bluestone legacy and it was continued with the construction of major universities and important historical sites including the aptly named “Bluestone Campus” of James Madison University, the Virginia Military Institute, Washington and Lee University, Belle Grove Plantation, and the Stonewall Jackson Home. The obstacle that the architects of the aforementioned buildings faced was that there was no large bluestone quarry in Virginia, they had been forced to look further afield after their initial building projects (the first construction used stone from the projects' immediate vicinity) and transport their bulk amount of stone from Pennsylvania or New York. As costs began to rise with transporting such heavy materials and other fabricated materials such as brick and siding became more available, institutions were no longer able to afford to continue their bluestone legacy. Realizing that a vital piece of the area’s cultural paradigm had become out of reach, TFQ had a vision of restoring the Valley’s capabilities to honor its architectural stone foundation. The result of the vision was to bring the Valley’s Own Bluestone to a commercial scale with the Stonewall Grey product line from the Stonewall Division which debuted in early 2005. The stone’s name commemorates Stonewall Jackson and also demonstrates and pays homage to its close ties with the Shenandoah Valley. TFQ has been able to provide architectural bluestone to architects, builders, masons, and consumers more efficiently than ever as a result of their investment into the Valley through their ingenuitive and state-of-the art stone shop capable of providing custom stone dimensions to order. TFQ has orchestrated a kind of assimilation of eras that envelopes the Valley’s architectural past, its current technological growth, and its potential for the future.

Community involvement

The Frazier Quarry has a large role in the Harrisonburg community. TFQ provides tours of the quarry to elementary school students and well as donates stone to community projects. Some examples of what the quarry has provided are: a stone garden to the local public television station, Stonewall Grey Split-Faced Stone to the downtown Harrisonburg Liberty Park, a natural stone fountain to the Harrisonburg Visitor's Center also known as the Hardesty-Higgins House, a custom inscribed Stonewall Grey Garden Bench to the local Harrisonburg High School, and also crushed stone for a local boy scout to use with his Eagle Scout project to build a therapeutic riding ring for disabled children.

Environmental consciousness

The quarry collaborates with builders and contractors to place an emphasis on local stone, thereby reducing fuel costs on the shipping. It also researches how its stone can be utilized to construct LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) facilities, promoting both the use of all-natural building material.

All Natural - a natural alternative to artificial and man-made building products.

High Calcium - neutralizes acids in streams, lakes, and soils.

Erosion Control - Large stone boulders "Rip Rap", help prevent and control erosion.

J-hooks - a novel use of rip rap in a stream or river to cause an eddy current/backwater that protects streambank ecosystems as specified by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland fisheries. Riparian Buffer Zone - rip rap placed on river banks along with vegetation to slow flood waters. AgLime.

Clean Air – Their low-emission quarry machinery utilizes Caterpillar’s revolutionary ACERT engines, high-performance engines that adhere to the Environmental Protection Agency’s required Tier 2 and Tier 3 restriction, while improving performance, durability, and fuel efficiency.

No Chemicals – there are no chemicals added during the process of quarrying and processing stone. Only petroleum fuel and lubricants are utilized for the machinery.

Recycled Oil – any waste oil and lubricants from the quarrying process are collected and burned in specially-designed furnaces to heat the shops during the winter.

Land Reclamation – an ongoing process of reclaiming any disturbed land that has had the limestone extracted. They fill, re-grade, and re-vegetate those areas, creating such useful sites as parks, school grounds, agricultural land, arboretums, etc.

Wildlife Preserves – TFQ preserves the natural habitats of the plant and animal life in these areas surrounding the quarry by keeping out trespassers, prohibiting hunting and off-road vehicles, and maintaining open fields of grasses and hay that are beneficial to the wildlife.

References

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