Students at the West Rutland High School are finishing up an art class at the town’s old marble quarry. For the last 17 years, a carving studio has been based at the old quarry. It offers classes to visitors from around the country and overseas. And recently the studio started offering stone-carving classes to students at the high school.
School officials say they welcome a chance for students to learn a craft that was a tradition in the area for so many years. Many of the town’s public buildings are made of marble, and the older houses have marble features such as foundations, staircases and lintels. Marble quarrying dominated the economy of West Rutland for more than a hundred years. The town’s marble quarry closed down in the 1970s.