The Marble City

"Sylacauga Emerging," 
 by Craigger Browne, 2012

7.5 ft tall, 11,000 lbs.

When I think of sparkling white marble, I think of Italy. However, after attending the 8th Annual Magic of Marble Festival in Sylacauga, Alabama, that may have changed. Sylacauga, 2.5 hrs south of Huntsville, is known as “The Marble City” because it sits on the world’s largest commercial deposit of Madre cream marble. It has been mined here since 1834 and is described as “the hardest, whitest marble in the world.” The town celebrates this industry for 12 days each April with a free festival that includes live sculpting in the park, quarry tours, and exhibits of works from previous festivals.

One of two tents in Blue Bell Park where the sculptors work throughout the 12 days of the festival. They are given a block of Sylacauga marble. Most of them use a combination of power tools and hand tools to do the sculpting.

This is a basketball player’s torso (still in work), reaching up,
 by Sylacauga native Frank Murphy

I chose to visit in the middle of the week to avoid crowds, and toward the end of the festival so as to see more completed sculptures. I thought the sculptors would not want to be distracted from their work, but it was just the opposite. They were eager to talk and they started conversations with me. Enzo Torcoletti, originally from Italy, now living in Florida, told me how he moved to Canada and majored in English Literature in order to learn to speak English better! He also continued to study art. He had already nearly completed three sculptures during the festival. He likes to sculpt nudes but he was under the impression that Alabamians don’t like them much (he was wrong). He was quite surprised that the sculpture he brought with him for the sale had already sold. Two other sculptors I spoke with started out as wood workers and are new at stone sculpting. One noted that this was a benefit because he didn’t know that he “shouldn’t” try certain things and he is experimenting with abstract works that have deep hollowed out areas. 

Enzo Torcoletti

The people all over town were so friendly and accommodating. As soon as I entered the sculpture sale room in the library the volunteers showed me around and told me about the sculptures. I asked one of the women about the quarry and it turned out she grew up in the quarry's company village (similar to the mill villages in Huntsville) and her family worked in the quarry. Unfortunately, the village no longer exists; it’s now part of the quarry. Another volunteer ended up walking me through some of the sculptures on display in the library. He pointed out a lot of things that I would have missed without a tour guide! I also noticed how much more impressive they look in person; you really can’t adequately experience them from photos. I told my guide that I had not seen the visiting Italian master sculptor, Giovanni Balderi, in the sculptors' area. He saw him walking by right then and introduced me. (He also took my picture with him but apparently my phone camera malfunctioned - no picture.)

B.B. Comer Memorial Library and Richard J. Comer Center - Very impressive, especially for a town with a population of only about 13,000. It contains so much art (including Avondale’s Crockwell painting collection), it’s like a free art museum as well.

“Once Upon a Time…” in memory of Mayor and Mrs. Curtis O. Liles, Jr., sculpted by Craigger Browne, 2014.

Another of four sculptures in “Once Upon a Time…”

The sculptors also bring previous works to sell:

“Never Ending” by Frank Lever, $1800 and “Elegant Aggression” by Bill Cook, $750

"Woman Accused" by FrankMurphy, $10,000 

Many sculptures from previous festivals are on display in the library. Some have been purchased by locals and donated to the library; some have been donated by the artists.

“Ulysses & Penelope” by Renzo Maggi, 2012. It pivots on the base.

“Hero” by Roberta Giovannini

“Sofi” by Giovanni Balderi, 2011
In honor of Sophia Loren.

Giovanni Balderi, Master Sculptor 

from Sylacauga’s Sister City 

Pietrasanta, Italy

“Rapunzel” by Frank Murphy, 2011

“The Mask” by Giovanni Balderi, 2010

“Falling Star” by Don Lawler, inspired by the Hodges meteorite.
 In front of City Hall.

There were no quarry tours the day I visited (due to conflicts with quarry business), but I was able to check out the view of the quarry area at the Observation Point. 

Imerys-Gantt’s Quarry Observation Point is open year round

The observation point is in the red circle at the top right. There are three marble companies operating here. The Sylacauga marble belt is 32 miles long, 1.5 miles wide, and up to 600 feet deep.

The signs include information about the geology of the marble, its quarrying, and its many uses which include being ground to a powder that is used in products ranging from chewing gum and toothpaste to paper and paint.

You can see plenty of Sylacauga marble in buildings around town (as well as in buildings and memorials across the country such as the Washington Monument, the Chicago Post Office, the Chrysler Mausoleum in New York, and Gutzon Borglum’s bust of Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol rotunda):

The festival brochure noted there were sculptures to see at City Hall, so I went into this beautiful building. It turns out it used to be the City Hall (the current City Hall is in the Municipal Complex across the street); now it’s a private business, but a woman working there told me what she knew about the building and let me go up the stairs to see the murals. 

These stairwell murals were painted by Christine Keay in 1979.

Marble isn’t this town’s only claim to fame; Sylacauga is also the hometown of Jim Nabors (“Gomer Pyle”); it's the site of the only documented incident of a person being hit by a meteorite; and it is home to a Blue Bell Creamery! 

I went into the Blue Bell Creamery earlier in the day to get a snack (right across the street from where the sculptors were at work). They have a Country Store and Ice Cream Parlor where you can get a big cup full of ice cream for just $1! There are large windows overlooking part of the factory floor (no photos allowed) where you can watch some of the packaging process. The creamery usually offers tours but they are temporarily unavailable. I was told that they will eventually resume.

The Isabel Anderson Comer Museum and Arts Center is housed in the former city library. (It was closed by the time I made it over there so I’ll have to save it for another visit.) The exhibits include the geological history of Sylacauga marble, artworks by Giuseppe Moretti and contemporary artists, and Jim Nabors memorabilia. 

The museum also has a replica of the Hodges meteorite. On a November afternoon in 1954 Ann Hodges was napping on the couch in her Sylacauga home when a meteorite came through her ceiling, bounced off of her radio, and hit her in the hip. You can see the original meteorite and Ann’s radio at the Alabama Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa (but that's a whole other trip).

The Hodges meteorite and radio in Tuscaloosa