Jen Herlihy Rakeman

Brief Summary of Unit Plan

Quincy and the Quarries

Essential Questions:

1) How did the quarries in Quincy change the destiny of the area?

2) What are some of the lasting effects of the quarries and their technology today?

Enduring Understandings:

1) The quarry industry dramatically altered Quincy and its surrounding area in seen and unseen ways.

Connection to Social Studies Standard USI.27: Explain the mergence and impact of the textile industry in New England and industrial growth generally throughout antebellum America.

I. Quincy Before the Boom

A. Demographics

i. Look at maps from late 1700’s and early 1800’s

ii. Look at census information

B. Economy

i. Seafaring vs. Farming

C. Transportation Systems

i. How did they affect quarrying?

II. Beginning of Quarry Impact

A. What caused the first major quarrying enterprise?

B. Owners and Workers

i. Immigration

C. Technology

i. Transportation

ii. Equipment

III. First Railroad in the US and the Bunker Hill Monument

A. Railroad vs. Canal

i. Popularity of modes of transport

ii. Public Support

B. Solomon Willard

C. Impact of Railroads

IV. Impact of Granite and Railroads Today

A. What became of the quarries

B. Railroad lines today

Assessment: Students create a projection of what life would be like today

without the granite industry. They would have to utilize the information they

learned about what the industry did for the area and project what may have

happened without it.