List of Quarries in Florida & Quarry Links,
Photographs and Articles

(The following list of Florida quarries is not a complete list of all of the historical quarries in the state, only the ones I have been able to locate. If you know of more historical quarries in Florida, please contact me. If you are looking for a specific old Florida stone quarry, feel free to contact me as I may have some material that has not been entered onto this web site yet. Peggy B. Perazzo)

• Quarries in Florida (present-day companies), listed on Superyellowpages.com.

• Anastasia Island, Florida - Coquina Quarry, Anastasia Island (The following text and engravings were published in “Scenes in Florida, in Picturesque America, with Illustrations by Harry Fenn, 1872.) (Also see the section: St. Augustine, Florida - the City of St. Augustine & the Fort of San Marco in the Florida Structures section of this web site.)

  “The quaint little city of St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest European settlement in the United States, is situated on the Atlantic coast, in a narrow peninsula formed by the Sebastian and Matanzas Rivers, on the west side of a harbor which is separated from the ocean by the low and narrow island of Anastasia. It lies about forty miles south of the mouth of the great river St. John’s, and about one hundred and sixty miles south from Savannah, in Georgia.”

  (photo caption) Coquina Quarry, Anastasia Island.

(photo caption) Fort of San Marco, St. Augustine.

• Anastasia Island, Florida - Coquina/Limestone Quarries (circa 1886). from Report of the United States National Museum Under the Direction of the Smithsonian Institutions For the Year Ending June 30, 1886, Chapter entitled “The Collection of Building and Ornamental Stones in The U. S. National Museum: A Hand-book and Catalogue,” By George P. Merrill, Curator, pp. 393.

“On Anastasia Island, about 2 miles from Saint Augustine, there was formerly quarried to a considerable extent a very coarse and porous shell limestone which was used in the construction of the old city of Saint Augustine and of Fort Marion, which was built about the middle of the eighteenth century. The rock is composed simply of shells of a bivalve mollusk more or less broken and cemented together by the same material in a more finely divided state. Fragments of shells an inch or more in diameter occur. The rock is loosely compacted and very porous, but in a mild climate like that of Florida is nevertheless very durable. The quarries were opened upwards of two hundred years ago, but the stone is not now extensively used, owing in part to the dampness of houses constructed of it, and in part to the cheapness of wood. The rock, which is popularly known as Coquina (the Spanish word for shell), is of Upper Eocene age. In the quarries the stone lies within a few feet of the surface, and can be cut out with an ax, in sizes and shapes to suit.”

• Coleman (near), Florida – George R. Steinhauser – Rock Quarry (The following information is from an advertisement in Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, Vol. XLVI, No. 3, March, 1925, Stone Publishing Co., New York, pp 172.)

  “New Companies - George R. Steinhauser, 6925 Michigan St., St. Louis, Mo., has acquired 50,000 acres near Coleman, Fla., and plans to equip a rock quarry.”

• Coral Gables, Dade County, Florida - Venetian Pool was built within a rock quarry (photograph and history) presented by the National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. Click here to read "The History of Coral Gables Venetian Pool" about the history of the Venetian Pool.
• Dade County, Florida - Limestone Suitable for Construction Materials - Resources & Land Information for South Dade County, Florida (includes a map, presented in the “Mineral Resources - Economic Aspects” section of the U. S. Geological Survey web site)
• Daytona Beach, Florida - the Daytona Beach Bandshell (history and photograph) Presented by Volusia County Government.

  The Daytona Beach Bandshell “oceanfront amphitheater is composed of entirely of coquina rock, quarried from the Atlantic Ocean in neighboring Flagler County.”

  Cross Stitching the Coquina-Rock Landmark (photograph and repair information)

• Enchanted Forest, Florida - Photographs of a Coquina Stone Quarry, presented on the Friends of the Enchanted Forest web site. (Scroll down to photos.)
• The Florida Keys - Lower Keys, Florida - The Blue Hole at Big Pine Key. (Scroll down to the “Blue Hole” entry.)

  Rock from the old quarry was used to provide rock for construction of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway. It is now a home for water creatures.

• Florida - Mission Indians Quarried Coquina Stone - “UF Researcher Finds Mission Indians Played Bigger Role in Florida History,” by Cathy Keen, presented as a news release by the University of Florida.

  "‘(Mission) Indians from northern Florida and southern Georgia literally provided the food and labor to sustain the Spaniards, even mining the coquina stone used to build the fort (the Castillo de San Marcos) in St. Augustine,’ he said.”

• Florida Peninsula & the Ocala Platform, Citrus & Levy Counties, Florida - the Avon Park Formation Quarries (Marine Limestone with Dolostone), information and photograph by the Florida Geological Survey.

  According to this web site, the “...Avon Park Formation is composed of cream to light-brown or tan, Middle Eocene..., fossiliferous marine limestone interbedded with dolostone.” Exposures of this stone occur near the crest of the Ocala Platform in Citrus and Levy Counties throughout the Florida Peninsula and the eastern panhandle. The stone is composed of cream to light-brown or tan colors.

• Hernando County, Florida - Florida Rock Industries - Brooksville Quarry (photographs)
• Hernando County, Florida - Florida Rock Industries - Vulcan Brooksville Quarry (photographs)
• Hialeah, Florida – the White Rock Quarries (present-day company) This web site offers a list of news articles and photographs relating to the company. (The quotation below is used with permission of The Vecellio Group / White Rock Quarries.)

  "White Rock Quarries is one of South Florida's leading aggregate producers and one of the top three producing single-site quarries in the United States." The company began operation in 1986.

  • Facts About The Florida and Miami-Dade Limestone Industry
• Jacksonville, Florida – the Jacksonville Undertaking Company Marble Business (From Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, Vol. XII, No. 1, December, 1895, “Notes From Quarry and Shop” section, Stone Publishing Co., New York, pp. 82.)

  “The Jacksonville ( Fla.) Undertaking Company has gone into the marble business, and will shortly open.”

• Marianna, Jackson County, Florida - Marianna Limestone Quarry, information and photograph by the Florida Geological Survey.

  The Marianna Limestone was quarried near Marianna, Florida, in the past for use as building stone. The color of the stone ranges from white to cream, and it is fossiliferous, variably argillaceous marine limestone occurring in the central panhandle.

• Mauthausen, Florida - South Wall of the Quarry at Mauthausen (photographs) presented by the University of South Florida, A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust.
• Miami (northwest of), Florida - Ponce Products Corp. Pennsuco Limestone Quarry (circa 1967) (From Mining and Mineral Operations in the United States: A Visitor’s Guide, by Staff, Bureau of Mines, Area Mineral Resource Offices, U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, 1967, pp. 19.)

  “U. S. 27. - Three miles northwest of Miami is Ponce Products Corp.’s Pennsuco Limestone quarry. Most mine and quarry operators fight hard to keep water out of their workings but, since the water table at the Pennsuco is almost at the surface, drilling and blasting is done under water. The broken rock is removed by dragline excavator and piled in windrows to drain. It is then moved to a plant for processing into aggregate and sand.”

• Milton (vicinity of), Florida - the Arcadia Mill Complex, presented on the University of West Florida, Anthropology web site.

  There was once a sandstone quarry in the vicinity. According to this web site, “A mule drawn railroad and a sixteen-mile-long log flume provided means of transportation for the industries.”

• Naval Live Oaks Unit in Florida of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. View the National Park's Gulf Islands National Seashore official home page (including map) by clicking here. You can also view the Naval Live Oaks site presented by eHistory.com for history of the area and some photographs. Another online site indicates that the Old Quarry Trail is located in the northeast section, although it is not mentioned in the eHistory.com site.
• Near York, Florida - Old Limestone Quarries - "Serenity replaces the hustle of old - Sunshine State finds farms, horses and George Steinbrenner," by Bil Bowden, York Daily Record staff. (The following quote is used with the permission of the author, Bil Bowden.) "These gentle grass-covered hills of north central Florida hide beautifully the story of the small community of York that once thrived here..Gone is the Ocala Silver Springs and Gulf Railroad, which served as the town's lifeline to the outside world. Gone, too, are the general store, the sawmill, the hotel and almost 200 York residents. Hidden back in the hills are limestone quarries, which became York's main industry once the land was stripped of its timber.." (The link from which the above quotation was taken is no longer available for free. You can contact the newspaper and obtain a copy of the article for a fee.)
  <http://www.ydr.com/yorks/florida.shtml>
• North Central Florida, the Central Gulf Coast Area, and Northwest Florida - Chert Quarries produced stone for tool manufacture during the Paleoindian Period, presented by Florida Department of State, Division of Natural Resources. (This link is no longer available.) <http://www.dos.state.fl.us/dhr/bar/hist_contexts/paleo.html#quarries>
• North East Florida Bay - Windley Quarry (U.S. Geological Site)
  • Photograph of Quarry Cutter (Scroll down to small image and enlarge.)
• Ocala (near), Florida - Mining of Limerock Near Ocala, Florida

  Limerock deposits near Ocala are among the most abundant in the nation. The limestones of Florida are of vast importance, contributing generously to its development in supplying material so extensively used in road construction, concrete aggregate, ballast, lime and cement manufacture and also as a building material.

  Postcard photograph, #0-11; E8569; made by Eastern Photo Litho Company, Lowell, Massachusetts; distributed by Hartman Litho Sales Company, Largo, Florida; postmark December 30, 1949.

• Plantation Key Colony, Monroe County, Florida - Plantation Key Quarry Photographs in the “Rock Quarries” section of the Keys Historeum web site presented by Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys.
• St. Augustine, St. Johns County, Florida - Anastasia Island - Coquina Limestone Quarry (history) It's St. Augustine's most famous stone; and it has a history, by Margo C. Pope, the St. Augustine Record (staugustine.com), March 12, 2000. The Coquina stone was used in building the Castillo de San Marcos, which was built from 1672 and 1695. Click here to see a close-up view of coquina, the native shellrock. The rock was quarried on Anastasia Island and transported to the building site for the construction of the Castillo. It was soft when quarried but hardened after the rock dried. (You now have to register with the staugustine.com newspaper before you will be allowed to read the above-cited article. The registration is free.)
  • Anastasia State Recreation Area, Florida State Parks - Photographs and history of the area and Coquina Limestone Quarry industry.
  • St. Augustine, Florida - Coquina Quarries on St. Augustine Island (photographs and history), presented by the Florida Online Park Guide.
• St. Johns County to Palm Beach County & Inland, Florida - Anastasia Formation Coquina Quarries, information and photograph by the Florida Geological Survey.

  According to this web site, the Anastasia Formation Coquina “is composed of Pleistocene...interbedded sands and coquinoid limestones.” The color is described as an orangish brown “consisting of whole and fragmented mollusk shells in a matrix of sand, cemented by calcite.” For over 400 years coquina has been used as a building stone in Florida. You can read more about the locations of the exposures at the link above.

• Windley Key, Florida - Key Largo Limestone Quarry at Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park

  According to this web site, Henry Flagler began quarrying Key Largo Limestone at Windley Key during the early 1900s. Key Largo limestone is fossilized coral. After purchasing the land, the Florida East Coast Railroad used the stone to build Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad in the early 1900s and completed in 1912. The limestone was used to fill for railroad beds and embankments. From that time until the 1950s the quarry produced decorative stone called “Keystone.”

  Visitors at the Geological State Park can still walk along the “eight-foot-high quarry walls to see cross sections of the ancient coral and learn about the quarry and its operation.” Visitors can also view quarry machinery that has been preserved at the park.

  Also according to this web site, “This keystone, a decorative building stone, can be seen on several buildings throughout the United States including the St. Louis Post Office, an altar in a New York City chapel and many other locations. Local examples include the Alison Fahrer Environmental Education Center at Windley Key and the Hurricane Monument located in the center of Islamorada.”

  • Buildings and Building Stone - Coquina in Castillo de San Marcos (photographs and geology info.), St. Augustine, Florida, U.S.A., presented by Bruce Railsback, Professor, Department of Geology, University of Georgia.
  • History of Windley Key, presented by Jerry Wilkinson on the KeysHistory.com web site.
  • Pleistocene coral reef: Windley Key Quarries, Florida Keys (photographs & geology), by Dr Roger J Suthren, Geology, Oxford Brookes University; LTSN-GEES Subject Centre, UK.
  • Windley Keys Quarry Photographs (photographs), presented in the Fossil Reef section of the Islandbase.com web site.
  • Windley Keys Quarry Photographs in the “Rock Quarries” section of the Keys Historeum web site presented by Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys.