During the
Ice Age, a glacier deposited a diameter rock weighing "at least one hundred tons" on the summit of Rollstone Hill. Over time this boulder became a landmark where people would hike to and picnic. The elements began wearing away at the boulder, and by 1899 large cracks had appeared in it. These cracks were filled with cement, and an iron band circling the stone was added by Thomas Archibald of
Lunenburg, Massachusetts.
Quarrying began on Rollstone Hill and throughout the 19th century the granite from here was used throughout Fitchburg and the eastern United States. The granite was used in the construction of walls, columns, and bridges including ones across the
Nashua River and five across the
Hudson River including the
George Washington Bridge. By the late 1800s concerns began to be raised that this quarrying was encroaching upon the landmark boulder. At the Fitchburg Historical Society meeting on May 18, 1896 Charles Fosdick brought up this encroachment and his concerns about it. A committee was formed to speak with the owners of the quarries to see if the boulder could be preserved. They reported over a year later, on May 19, 1902, that the boulder would be moved and not destroyed at no cost to the historical society. A vote was taken to approve the action, but the boulder was not moved until it was in immediate danger on September 2, 1929. In 1929 the two quarries on Rollstone Hill began removing the final section of the hill between them where the Rollstone boulder was perched. At the urging of state representative Louis N. M. Des Chenes, the mayor of Fitchburg, Joseph N. Carriere, forced the quarries to halt operations so the boulder could be removed. The plans for moving the boulder were fairly simple as all that seemed to be holding the stone together was the iron band encircling it. The plan was to remove this band and the subsequent pieces the boulder crumbled into were to be moved to a small triangular traffic island in downtown Fitchburg to be reassembled. Lines and numbers were painted on the Rollstone Boulder and it was meticulously photographed and drawn so that it could be reassembled exactly the same as it was before the move. After all this planning and documentation, when the iron band was removed the boulder did not fall apart. It took multiple blasts with
black powder to even crack the stone. After it was broken into smaller pieces, they were all transported to its new home. J. Marc Leblanc, a local stonemason, was given the task of reassembling the Rollstone Boulder. The tough job was made even tougher due to
streetcars going by the work site jarring loose stones after they had already been placed. After months of work and all of the money the city had put aside for the project was exhausted, Leblanc could not reassemble it. Out of money and out of time the project was transferred to a special committee headed by U. S. Senator
Marcus A. Coolidge. The committee, state representative Des Chenes, and Leblanc decided the best way to go forward with restoring the boulder would be to discard the inside and only reassemble the exterior portion of the stone. Des Chenes explains, "We just used the outside and tied the parts together with iron rods ... We drilled holes and hooked the rods to the insides of the rock. After the shell of the boulder was fixed in place, Leblanc poured in concrete and filled it up." After the reconstruction, the Rollstone Boulder appeared the same as it did before and is in the same orientation as when it was on Rollstone hill. In 1930 a plaque was attached to the boulder by the Fitchburg Historical society, which stated: The plaque is misleading as the Rollstone Boulder was not brought from Mt. Monadnock, just somewhere in central New Hampshire, there was no popular subscription to save it, and no citizens of Fitchburg were asked to raise money for its move. == Namesakes ==