ETCHED IN STONE
Stonecutter has left his mark when it comes to memorials in Rhode Island
CRANSTON — Anthony Sciolto sits behind the wheel of a forklift, his gnarled hands moving deftly as he works the machine’s hydraulic levers and attempts to balance the weight of a 15-ton slab of granite.
Blind in one eye and deaf in one ear, the 99-year-old Italian stonecutter and owner of A. Sciolto & Son Monuments, on Dyer Avenue, moves the slab to a corner of his workshop where Sciolto and his son, Anthony Sciolto, Jr., will use hammers, razor-sharp carbide tipped chisels, pneumatic tools and sandblasting equipment to create a work of art worthy of memorializing a departed loved one.
St. Ann Cemetery, seen from a distance from the back of Sciolto’s 541 Dyer Ave. shop, is one of the most active cemeteries in the Diocese of Providence. Established in the 1850s, St. Ann is situated on 191 acres overlooking Randall, Dyer and Print Works ponds.
Sciolto, a stonecutter and monument mason doing business in Cranston since 1954, reckons a good majority of the headstones in that cemetery are probably from his family-run shop, known throughout the state for its fine granite monuments and Italian
marble statuary.
“We also do a lot of service work for granite signs and memorials,” says Sciolto, whose work includes the Rhode Island Jewish War Memorial in Warwick and the Veterans Memorial Wall in Bristol.
His latest commissioned project is the 21 Heroes monument dedicated to the 21 Pawtucket natives who died in the Vietnam War. The monument will be unveiled during a ceremony May 21 at Slater Park in Pawtucket.
The Sciolto family began in the monument business when Sciolto’s father, Vito Sciolto (born 1890 in Falcone Messina, Italy) began working in the Italian quarries and learning the stonecutting trade. He came to Providence in 1906 and began work in local monument shops, then perfected his skills working for several years at the quarries in Barre, Vt.
Returning to Providence in 1913 with his wife, Nancy, Vito opened the first Sciolto monument shop at 418 Atwells Ave.
“My father came here from Italy when he was 16. He was a hard worker,” says Anthony.
Anthony was born on Memorial Day, May 30, 1917, in Providence, one of three children, and it wasn’t long before he was following his father to work and learning the art of stone-cutting. “I started hanging around his monument shop when I was 5 years old,” he says. “That’s all I knew.”
Sciolto says he dropped out of high school because he wanted to work for his father. “When I was in school the teacher came up to me one day and said ‘you should go work for your father because you’re always drawing pictures of monuments on your desk,” he said. So, at the age of 16, Sciolto did just that.
“It’s been a father-and-son operation ever since,” he says.
Sciolto married his wife, Gertrude Rossi, in 1941. Married for 71 years, they had a son and three daughters. Gertrude died five years ago at the age of 93. “She was a wonderful wife and mother. She was the best thing that ever happened in my life,” he says.
Two years after his father’s death in 1952, Sciolto borrowed some money from the bank and opened his own shop on Dyer Avenue in Cranston, which started out as a one-car garage.
This father-and-son family tradition continued when Sciolto’s son, Anthony Jr., who was 16 at the time, began learning the skills to assist his father at work. After studying at the Rhode Island School of Design and serving in the military, Anthony Jr. returned to Cranston to join his father in the family business full-time. Today, they work side by side creating unique memorials which can be seen in virtually every cemetery in Rhode Island as well as several monuments which have been shipped worldwide.
The granite headstones seen in cemeteries are made from natural granite that was formed hundreds of millions of years ago from molten lava. After cooling, granite rock formations were formed throughout the world where many quarries are now established. At these quarries huge blocks of granite are extracted by drilling, blasting and sawing. The blocks are then sent to a factory where automated saws and polishers with the help of skilled workers cut and finish the stone for different applications such as building materials, home furnishings and headstones.
Sciolto gets his granite from quarries in Barre,Vt. The special African jet black granite he uses comes from Elberton, Ga.
The process of creating a granite headstone starts with a piece of granite that has already been cut to the speci- fied size and with the appropriate finish. In most instances the surface to be engraved is polished. The stonecutter will then lay on the surface of the headstone a stencil made of rubber with an adhesive backing in which the design and lettering has already been transferred to. Years ago, the artist would cut the design and lettering out with an artist's knife such as an X-Acto knife. Today, companies use efficient computer stencil cutting machines that allow for greater accuracy and higher volume output.
Granite headstones are then placed in a sandblasting room for the final carving process. A worker uses high air pressure and special sand forced through a nozzle at the tip of the hose which then carves out the design and lettering. Sandblasting is very much like erosion only at a very high rate of speed and in a controlled environment. After sandblasting, the carved areas are colored in black to provide contrast so the lettering and design will stand out. After sandblasting, the headstone is prepared for delivery.
“A typical granite headstone takes about four hours from start to finish," Sciolto says.
At almost 100 years old, Sciolto has no plans to retire and still works beside his son – who turns 70 in September - every day. He credits his longevity to a healthy lifestyle. A vegetarian for the past 10 years, he lifts weights and every day eats the same breakfast of oatmeal and fruit.
“The main thing is to not let your brain get sour," he says.
Sciolto says he still goes to the shop every day because he likes the challenge of each job.
"And, I'd like to think my father would be proud that I'm still doing it and that he is looking down and smiling," he says.