Granite was an unincorporated town in Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. In 2010, its population was estimated to be 316,236. Chesterfield County is now the fourth-largest municipality in Virginia . Its county seat is Chesterfield...

. It was originally located along the Richmond and Danville Railroad

Richmond and Danville Railroad

The Richmond and Danville Railroad was chartered in Virginia in the United States in 1847. The portion between Richmond and Danville, Virginia was completed in 1856...

 five miles west of Manchester

Manchester, Virginia

Manchester, Virginia is a former independent city in Virginia in the United States. Prior to receiving independent status, it served as the county seat of Chesterfield County, between 1870 and 1876...

 and about a mile south of the rapids of the James River

James River (Virginia)

The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...

 along Powhite Creek

Powhite Creek

Powhite Creek is an stream rising near the unincorporated community of Bon Air in Chesterfield County and flowing into the independent city of Richmond in central Virginia...

.

A community in the stone industry

According to documents on file at the Library of Virginia

Library of Virginia

The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia, its archival agency, and the reference library at the seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and is located at 800 East Broad Street, 2 blocks from the Virginia State...

, in April 1872, notice was published in Petersburg

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...

 that Mathew Hall had been appointed postmaster of a new U.S. Post Office at Granite.

Granite was named for the granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 rock formations which underlie the rapids of the river at the geological fall line

Fall line

A fall line is a geomorphologic unconformity between an upland region of relatively hard crystalline basement rock and a coastal plain of softer sedimentary rock. A fall line is typically prominent when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or waterfalls...

 which begin downstream from the current Williams Island Dam

Williams Island Dam

Williams Island Dam is located on the James River in the independent city of Richmond, Virginia. Just below the dam, seven miles of rapids mark the descent of the river downstream through the geological fall line region to the navigable tidal portion below Richmond, which extends southeast to...

. Mining this granite was the basis for quarries which were located on both sides of the river in the vicinity. Granite stone quarried nearby was used to construct the State, War and Navy building in Washington DC and to build the 3-foot granite walls of Richmond's Gothic City Hall at 10th and Capitol Streets which was completed in 1894. (It became known as "Old City Hall" when replaced in 1972 with a new structure). However, some quarrying operations had already been active in the area since the early 18th century.

Quarries and companies which operated near Granite were listed in Mineral Resources of Virginia by Thomas Leonard Watson, Ray Smith Bassler, Heinrich Ries

Heinrich Ries

Heinrich Ries, Ph.D. was an American economic geologist, born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Columbia University and at the University of Berlin. He was employed principally at Cornell University, initially as an instructor , as an assistant professor , as professor, and as head of the...

, and Roy Jay, published in 1907 as:

• Granite Development Company Quarry
• Hawkins Quarry
• Krim Quarries
• McIntosh Quarries
• Middendorf Quarries
• Netherwood Quarries
• Old Dominion Granite Company's quarries

At that time (1907), Granite Station was located on the Southern Railway

Southern Railway (US)

The Southern Railway is a former United States railroad. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894...

 (successor to the Richmond and Danville Railroad) and the McIntosh Quarry had a spur track. The McIntosh Quarry furnished the stone used in the approaches and steps in the renovation and expansion of the Virginia State Capitol

Virginia State Capitol

The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government in the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the third capital of Virginia. It houses the oldest legislative body in the United States, the Virginia General Assembly...

 which had recently been completed (1904-06).

Suburban growth reaches Granite

Manchester merged with Richmond in 1910 and the combined city grew rapidly. Soon Granite was not a remote place. As the land around the Granite area was developed with new streets and housing after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Granite lost its separate identity as suburban growth overtook it. A portion of modern-day Forest Hill Avenue was earlier named Granite Road, and extended from Westover Hills into Chesterfield County, ending at Bon Air

Bon Air, Virginia

Bon Air is a census-designated place in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. The population was 16,366 at the 2010 census. The community is considered a suburb of the independent city of Richmond in the Richmond-Petersburg region, and shares a post office with Richmond...

.

Most of the Granite area of Chesterfield County was annexed by the independent city

Independent city

An independent city is a city that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity. These type of cities should not be confused with city-states , which are fully sovereign cities that are not part of any other sovereign state.-Historical precursors:In the Holy Roman Empire,...

 of Richmond

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

on January 1, 1970. The neighborhoods in the city in the area of Granite include Granite Acres and Willow Oaks. Nearby, Netherwood Drive was named for the former quarry at its western end. Since 1959, Granite Recreation Corporation has occupied the former site of the Granite Development Company Quarry. The entrance driveway off Glyndon Lane has a private grade crossing of the railroad.