John Washburn was six years old when his father, a stonemason, first taught him to mix cement.

Now, 33 years later — and a stonemason himself — Washburn is putting that knowledge and decades of lithic expertise into what might be his most famous work: a granite stone wall at the corner of White Rock Road and Springbrook Road in Westerly, R.I.

A casual observer might not find anything remarkable about it — after all, a wall is a wall.

But Washburn's project is both a work of craftsmanship and a labor of love for his grandmother, his crew and the art of masonry itself.

The project began last winter when the cold weather froze the ground and dried up most area construction work. Washburn has a crew of seven men, and he was looking for ways to keep them employed.

"I depend on them, and they depend on me," he told the Providence Journal for a July 14 article.

His 94-year-old grandmother, who lives in Florida, had recently bought a home in Westerly as an investment and the fence needed work.

Washburn saw it as both an opportunity to both pay his crew and get a job done.

Over the years, his business, Mason Masters in Charlestown, R.I., has built split granite walls at sites across New England. His work can be seen in private residences and public spaces in the state, such as on Atlantic Avenue in Westerly and along Windsor Avenue, near Pawtuxet Village, in Warwick.

Washburn's walls are large, stately structures and the one at his grandmother's house is to be no different.

Westerly Stone Wall Clearly Not Work of Novices

Masonry is as much construction work as it is a craft, Washburn told the Journal. Stonemasons learn to "read" stones to know how and where to cut them.

Before his crew broke ground at the wall site last December, they used electric blankets to defrost the ground so an excavator could punch into the dirt and haul granite slabs from discarded foundation stones at other construction sites. At night they draped thermal blankets over the wall to prevent the stone from freezing.

Following that, they used cardboard cutouts to sketch out a pattern and find, measure and cut stones to fit it.

"Each stone is a personal achievement," he said.

Rhode Island's Department of Labor and Training does not have estimates for how many stonemasons are employed in the state, but Washburn lamented that fewer people are going into the trade, and it is becoming harder to find qualified stonemasons for hire.

One can learn the basics quickly, he said, but it takes decades to become a master.

A closer look at Washburn's wall at White Rock Road and Springbrook Road, however, indicates that his crew is not made up of novices.

Slabs of stone sit on top of each other, at times forming waves and fitting so snugly that they look like Tetris blocks. Cross-sectionally, the structure resembles a pyramid, with either side slanting toward the top.

In a sense, the wall also is a small engineering marvel as it extends about 200 ft. In addition, it is approximately 3 ft. tall, 3 ft. wide at its base and 16 in. wide at the top, although Washburn plans to install capstones that will overhang on both sides.

When completed, it will weigh about 400,000 lbs.

Washburn paid his crew to perform the work out of his own pocket and estimated that the granite wall will be worth more than $300,000 when completed. Currently, the project has been paused for the time being due to other Mason Masters jobs, but he hopes to finish it by this winter.

Labor of Love

The new granite wall also has made him a local celebrity.

"I get calls all the time, [with people asking,] ‘Are you the one doing the wall over there?'" Washburn said.

Indeed, while being interviewed by the Journal for this story, a driver passing by in a black SUV pulled over and told Washburn, "You look like a pyramid builder. I've never seen anything quite like it."

Washburn's grandmother, who makes photo albums of his construction projects, is already working on one for the wall.

The project has been a labor of love for his grandmother, his crew and the craft of masonry, he told the Providence news source. In fact, Washburn is using the same methods that builders used when first setting the granite foundation of the house in 1864.

A fourth-generation stonemason, he takes comfort in knowing the stuff he builds will long outlive him.

"I like its permanence," Washburn said. "Knowing that no matter how long after I'm gone, no one is going to want to move this."