Cold Spring Granite Company and the Henry N. Alexander Family

St. Cloud was an ideal place to settle if you were a quarryman looking to make a living in the 1880s. The area was rich with a multitude of colors of granite. All that was needed was the right skill set. It was an opportunity just waiting for the likes of the experienced, Scottish-born quarryman Henry N. Alexander who at age nine began learning the craft from his stonemason father near Aberdeen, Scotland. Henry came to the United States in 1880 and established a family granite dynasty that today is the largest granite producing company in the United States.

Alexander moved around the U.S. working for various quarrying operations before settling in St. Cloud in 1887. In 1890 he joined forces with other quarrymen in the area to form the Rockville Granite Company. Their first major contract was to create the eight granite columns for the rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol. Ten years later Alexander bought out his partners and as sole proprietor of the company remade it as a family affair. Four of his children participated in the business. Pat was a stonecutter, William was a blacksmith creating tools for the trade, and Nellie was the company's bookkeeper. John did a stint in every area.

When Henry Alexander died of pneumonia in 1913 at age sixty-five, Pat stepped in to lead the company. Though John was still in high school, he assisted his brother, even leaving school to help him complete a contract. He went to college in 1917, but after a year when Pat was called into service for World War I, John returned to manage the company.

Rockville Granite Company had only one quarry while one of its competitors, Clark and McCormick Granite Company had purchased most of the granite rich land in the area. To remain in business, Pat Alexander decided to move Rockville Granite to Cold Spring, a town west of Rockville. The plant opened in the spring of 1921 quarrying "diamond pink" granite. Its first contract was the Stearns County Courthouse. The company grew thanks to such projects plus a strong workforce and innovations in quarrying and processing. In 1924 it acquired a new name to reflect its location, "Cold Spring Granite Company," and a new president, Ferdinand Peters. He guided the company's finances while the Alexanders focused on manufacturing.

Contracts for buildings waned with the Great Depression. However, the granite industry had a revenue source that remained strong: cemetery monuments. Cold Spring Granite focused on innovative production and sales that helped keep the company in business. However, the leadership team that had steered the company through the worst of the Depression suffered a blow when Peters died in 1938. Once again Pat took over the presidency, leading the company through World War II. It was ship bottoms and hull sections, foundation sets for ships, anchor chains and rudders that kept the company going this time around. Cold Spring retooled their heavy production equipment and with a skilled labor force did important manufacturing for the war.

Pat Alexander died in 1948, at a time when the company was overwhelmed by postwar building orders. His brother, forty-nine year old John Alexander, took over as president of the company. By then, Cold Spring Granite was a thriving business with a reputation for excellence. John continued developing the memorial market while expanding the architectural one. John also led the drive for expansion beginning in the 1950s, when the company bought operations in Texas, California, New York and Canada.

In 2013 the company changed its name to Coldspring, and John's children continued to lead the company. Another Patrick Alexander holds the CEO/chairman position in the twenty-first century carrying on in the spirit of family patriarch, Henry.

Structures made with granite from Coldspring's quarries include the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado; the Mormon Temple in Oakland, California; State Department in Washington D.C.; General Motors Headquarters in Golden Valley, Minnesota; Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Bank of America in San Francisco; and the Korean War Memorial in Washington D.C.