( PHOTOGRAPHY BY WOLF MATTHEWSON )
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT : Nick Benson , a third-generation stone carver , in the Newport shop ; Jenn Tinkoff chisels a death date in a tombstone ; the John Stevens Shop work area .
Snapshot : The John Stevens Shop
The tap of chisel on stone fills the John Stevens Shop on Thames Street in Newport , as it has for the past 318 years . Nick Benson , the third generation of stone carvers in his family to run the shop , watches as his colleague carefully inscribes a death date into a slate gravestone . “ Much of our expertise is in letterform — the history of lettering and making letters that we believe are beautiful ,” he says . Founded in 1705 at a property across the street , the shop was run by the Stevens family for five generations before his grandfather , a sculptor who studied at the Art Students League of New York , purchased it with a business partner in 1927 . Benson was fifteen when he started apprenticing with his father and realized he had a natural aptitude for carving . Today , the shop accepts commissions large and small , from the tombstones of Newport residents whose ancestors ’ names were also carved by hand to the great monuments of Washington , D . C . At the Martin Luther King Jr . Memorial , Benson and his team used their timeless methods to preserve the famous orator ’ s words , ensuring an audience for generations to come . Among the inscriptions is a quote from King ’ s “ I Have a Dream ” speech : “ Out of the mountain of despair , a stone of hope .” “ You can read any of those quotes today and they ’ re topical ,” Benson says . “ Those memorialized understood that these were lessons that stand the test of time .” A stone of hope , indeed . — LAUREN CLEM
144 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l JANUARY 2024