GOSHEN — In 1938, George D. Judd purchased land at an auction that he had cut stone from for the Cummington Community House’s steps and sidewalk when he was in high school.
“In those days he got a dollar for eight hours,” said Fran Judd, George’s son, noting that horses and oxen hauled away some of the stone.
George D. Judd would go on to found what is now George D. Judd and Sons Goshen Stone for Landscaping. More than 80 years later the business remains in the family, and Judd’s heirs have every intention of continuing on his legacy.
Currently, the company is run by Fran and his wife, Linda Judd, and their son, Albert, with George D. Judd having died 20 years ago in the same home in Goshen where he was born.
Fran, 67, and Albert, 40, have spent their entire working lives at the company.
“To work with family is a great thing. It’s not for everybody,” said Albert Judd, and both he and his father expressed appreciation for getting to work in the family business.
George D. Judd and Sons gets all of its stone from a quarry at 148 Loomis Road in Goshen, the same property George purchased as a young man in the middle of the Great Depression. The stone that Goshen Stone gets from the quarry is a mica schist that the company has trademarked as Goshen Stone and that contains the mineral Goshenite. It is mostly sold for landscaping applications such as walls, pathways, water features and patios, with the company’s website featuring numerous examples of its use.
Albert said that they sell their stone in three different ways — to landscaping yards, to contractors and directly to homeowners.
“We like the full range,” Albert said.
He also said that they ask for pictures of the projects that use their stone from their clients, and the company produces a year-end calendar of such pictures each year.
Linda Judd, a former teacher, heads the office side of the business. The office is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and examples of stone and what it produces, such as steps, are available for demonstration on site. Linda said this is quite helpful for homeowners.
“It’s really kind of fun to watch them work through it,” Linda said.
Prices for paving stones range from $4.25 a square foot to $10.50 a square foot, with wall stone going for $165 for 2,000 pounds including pallet and $195 for 3,000 pounds including pallet. Bird baths and decorative stone, and crushed stone are also sold by the company.
Some of the places that Goshen Stone has been used are at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Williams College, a house owned by the great singer Harry Belafonte in the Hudson Valley and a war memorial in Concord.
Fran said that while he has a hard time selecting the places he’s proudest of having his stone in, he did point to the wall in Stanley Park, which he helped to put in when he was 17 years old.
“It makes me feel good,” he said.
He also said that he can tell when his company’s stone is used in a project.
“It’s fun to travel around and just see the different ones,” he said.
As for Albert, he noted that Yankee Candle has a bench that he cut when he was a teenager, although he did say it’s getting a bit rough for wear.
To get to the stone, trees and soil are cleared from above it, with the loam sifted and sold off. The stone is then drilled into to break it up — a job that Fran still does. Explosives are also used at the quarry.
George D. Judd and Sons tries to keep as much work as possible in-house, including repairing equipment and cutting stone for orders, with Albert doing most of the custom stone cutting.
Albert and Fran said that the industry has changed a lot over time, and that they now use a lot more equipment. They also said that there are a lot more safety regulations.
Father and son said that the company’s business has increased greatly during the pandemic.
“People are home,” Fran said. “We had more people there (at the office) from May till the middle of August in that time stretch than we had in the previous four or five years.”
Albert also noted that a number of their clients have enough money that downturns in the economy don’t affect their ability to invest in their properties.
“We stay busy even when the economy slows,” he said.
Currently, counting family members, the business has eight employees. Albert also said that the business could use two to three additional employees, and that interested people can apply, although both father and son spoke about the difficulty of finding workers.
In terms of continuing to take stone out of the quarry, Albert said that the quality of stone has not degraded as they’ve dug further down.
Fran said he would like the business to continue on, and Albert said he would also be happy if one of his children took over. However, Albert said he’s putting no pressure on them to do so, just as he said his father didn’t put any pressure on him to go into the business.
Albert also said that his youngest daughter, currently 10, is determined to be the first woman to work in the quarry.
“And she’ll do it,” Fran said, although Albert noted the first woman may be hired before her.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.