Verne Tower calls himself a stone-cutter and what he does as “chopping rock” but as you will see that involves a combination of many different skills. While strictly speaking he is not located in Pine Plains — although I met him while he was working here — the real justification for including him in this website is that his skills and knowledge contribute to the value of communities like Pine Plains.
He is re-creating a very elaborate marble stoop for a historic mansion in Hudson, NY, in his stone-yard just over the Massachusetts state line.
While Verne may be doing wonderful restoration and preservation of historical buildings, I think his real contribution might very well be preserving skills and technology that is disappearing faster than the buildings he works on. Also, all the equipment that you see here was either custom built, restored, kludged, or modified by Verne. And kept in constant repair…
After a lunch break, Verne showed me how he makes the detailed radius end of a step.
And finally, in its place in Hudson, NY, on Warren Street, the “old” stoop just as if it had always been there!