Personal Accounts and Stories

Personal Accounts & Stories Relating
to Men in the Stone Industry

Please note that there are other accounts of stone workers involved in the stone trade in the state in which they lived and worked.

The Stonesetters – The Men Who Built the University (Duke University Archives, Durham, North Carolina). This site tells the story of Louis Fara, a native of Frugarola, Italy, and the other stone masons of his era who help to build Duke University. Click here for information on DukeStone.

"July 16, 1990 marked the end of an era in the history of the construction of Duke University. On that date Louis Fara, a native of Frugarola, Italy, and the last of the original stone setters who skillfully laid the Indiana limestone trim on West Campus, died...Fara was representative of a group of laborers whose unique background and contribution will be acknowledged as long as eyes gaze upon Duke's majestic Gothic arches. The laborers' background and their sense of accomplishment have to be pieced together from scattered published interviews. Fortunately, their names are familiar, for many remained in Durham to raise their families. Six decades after the completion of West Campus the city telephone directory still lists the Italian names of Fara, Ribet, Ferettino, Citrini, and Berini. In addition, Giobbi and Greppi worked the stone as well as the highly respected stone workers Macadie and Brown. They worked along side native blacks and mountain whites who had also migrated to Durham in search of steady employment during severe economic times."

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