New Britain herald., 1924-07-12
BLACK ROCK ONE
 Of MANY BOULDERS
Glacial Drift Deposited Huge
 Stones in New Britain

 formerly adorned a portion of Mesl Main street was unN ersallF known as Black Rock li stood on the southeast corner Of West Main and Black Rock avenue, That locality was also known as Raek Hook Nnsi Main street, al is intersection Nllh the railroad, was called the iilaek Rock crossing When The grade crossing was snRplanied by an oNerF head structure, it Was called ihn Black Rock bridge, The street rnnr ning snuihariy lherefrom Was former ly called the Black Rock road, hnt now We call ll Black Rock avenue. The school house al the lower end of that street was called the Black Rock school house so long as il was used ss such, Later, when religious seFf+ Ices gere held in that house lt was called the Black Rock mission, The lincoln street school house bears the initials "B, R,," which signify Black Rock,
 Undoubtedly the boulder called "Rlack Rock" was the largest boulder that apsr settled in New Britain, IL was as large as house, In fact ils upper story was play house for all the children Of that neighborhood' Black Rock fingers m the memory of more persons than does any other one feature Of ancient West Main street. One does not have 10 he very old in order 10 remember it, for it IS only about 40 years since it disappear cd. The last owner Of the Black Rock boulder was the late Reuben W. Had ley. then the proprietor Of popular grocery store on Main street, He had a large heart and allowed many per- sons to run ID large bills when thore was little prospect that he would he paid. Some of the men who were thus indebted to him were skilled in the work of blasting rocks. He asked them If they would blast the rock into building stone. working at odd spells when they could spare the time, with the understanding that such work would he credited on their account. This was agreed 10 and after a time the work of reducing the rock was completed. Meanwhile the men kept on trading as before and when their balance sheet was written mp MT. Hadley found that said balance, in stead of having been reduced, had been largely increased.
 The stones thus blasted from this famous rock are now resting in the walls Of many different buildings, but the only pieces, so far as l know that can readily be identified as such, are now resting in the masonry that forms the front wall of the Lincoln street school house. These pieces are a pair of twin blocks, broken from the original rock, each having an in itial letter cut in it's face. In the same wall ie a block of light colored stone bearing four figures. The three blocks are so arranged that the in- scriptions thereon read "B. R. 1882" The initial letters stand for Black Rock" and the four figures show the date when the building was erected. These stones constitute a simple yet appropriate monument in memory of the old Black Rock school house which ceased to be used for school purposes when this new Black Rock school house was ready for use. These twin blocks are also in memory of the great trap rock boulder which was formerly salient feature of our land scape.
 One definition of a boulder is "a large stone worn smooth by the action of water" A large pebble may be called small boulder. but the defini- tion which applies to boulders of the Black Rock class is "a mass of any kind of rock whether rounded or not that has been transported by natural agencies from it's native. bed" Black Rock was not rounded. Its angular form was well preserved. It came here from some northern point in the ice foe of a former age. The ma terial is basalt. the popular name fol which is trap rock. This is so abun- dant that we cannot state more def. nitely from whence this boulder came nor how far it travelled in transit There is hardly a place in the many trap rock ranges on the north, whic| might not have been the native bed of such a boulder. Although 1t came from a distance it cannot properly bt called a stranger, for it's materi:e i' that of the prevailing rock of thi; section. The several mountains which border our town are of trap rock. Oul fields were formerly covered witt small bouldere, many of which were trap rock. stone wall made of sucf bouders bordered the Russell prop erty on the south side of Lake street some so years ago. Trap rock ledgc' were once common in various part! of the town. The Ledge school house on East Main street was so named from the trap rock ledge that re- nained near by long after the schoo house was built.
 Trap rock enters largely into thu construction of our streets, our houses and our shops. An outline map o New Britain is a fair illustration Of { block Of broken trap rock. In fact w are trap rock town although We arr better known as "rhe Hardware City We formerly had many trap rock boulders Of considerable size in var ious parts Of the town. Probably in, largest of those now remaining lie! close to the roadway on the west ri1' of the Slater road, little above ciin. ton street. Had 1t been thus located on q more frequented street some mo. torist nigh, have wrecked his car or It before this time. A large number of such bouldcrs were formerly scer in Southington, some of which still re- main. There were two immense traT rock boudcrs on the north side o nain street just west of the Quinnl pisc river st PIantsvile. They hooc in the rear Of tho old red school hous, which attended S2 years since The, were blasted away and placed in th,