Granite Industry
Westerly, RI

Babcock-Smith House Museum
124 Granite Street
Westerly, RI   02891
401-596-5704
babcocksmithhouse@gmail.com

Balustrade -- a railing with supporting balusters (short vase shaped supporting columns).

Bench -- a long seat with no back, designed for two or more people.

Boulder -- a rough-hewn monument is called a boulder.

Colonnade -- A series of columns, arranged in order, supporting an entablature (e.g., Atwood Columnade, Stonington, CT)

Column -- The broken column and the fallen column are symbols of the broken life.

Cradle -- symbolizes a final resting placeCross-- the symbol of the Christian faith is the motif for many monuments.

Exedra -- a large niche or recess, usually with a bench or seats with semicircular plan.

Gate -- an opening in a wall or fence for entrance or exit.

Ledger -- A ledger is a granite slab that completely covers the gravesite. 

Marker -- small stones that indicate the location of individual graves. They may have varied styles: ornate, simple, round top, slant, flush, etc. They are often located adjacent to a family monument.

Obelisk -- an obelisk is a thin, four-sided, tapering monument which ends in a pyramidal top

Sarcophagus -- In ancient Egypt , a sarcophagus was a stone coffin into which the mummy was placed after it had been properly prepared for burial. The word sarcophagus comes from a Greek word meaning “flesh eater.” The ancient Greeks called this outer coffin a sarcophagus because it was often made of limestone, which, they thought, helped dead bodies to decompose. In modern times it refers to a monument whose shape approximates a coffin. A sarcophagus may be very simple or quite elaborate.

Statue

Stele-- an upright stone or slab with an inscribed or sculptured surface, used as a monument or as a commemorative tablet in the face of a building

Table Tomb -- a raised ledger supported at each corner by small columns standing on a landing stone.

Tablet -- A tablet may mark the grave of a couple or a single individual.

Urn-- a vase of varying size and shape, usually having a footed base or pedestal; it may be on top of the cap of the monument or freestanding.

Vault -- A vault is large tomb, usually a stone building, with places for entombment of the dead above ground.

© 2012 Babcock-Smith House Museum