Union marble carvers at work, circa 1960

Vito Nicastri, left, and a fellow union member from the Marble Carvers, Cutters and Setters Union, Local 4, posed on the altar of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey in the early 1960s. Local 4 merged with the Tile, Marble and Terrazzo Union, Local 7, whose work is best known for the tile work in New York’s subways.

Employees in a marble shop at 147th Street and Austin Place in the Bronx, circa 1915

Marble shops needed men who could fabricate, cut and polish marble. Men in this shop, one of many in the Bronx, were members of Local 4 of the Marble Carvers, Cutters and Setters. Front row, left to right: Foreman, George S. Hart; Leo Gatto, marble polisher; Domenick Gianpera, polisher; an unnamed draftsman; and a man named Anthony whose trade is not identified. Standing, left to right: Frank Riggieri, polisher; Joe Brigui, cutter foreman; Aladiero Pieralta, cutter-setter; Antonio Crisci, Marble polisher foreman; Alphonse, apprentice cutter. Pressures from industry to use marble cut and polished at the quarry led to the demise of many marble shops in New York City.