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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jeff Drum, post: 1556408, member: 6444&quot;]We certainly had raw slate in the colonies, but mining and processing and shipping was not being done until much later. Apparently slate roofing was also being imported from europe until the late 1700&#039;s. There were factories in europe producing this stuff (for example slate table tops) in quantity, and ships going back and forth for trade, so a lot of finished products or parts were sent from europe. European brass furniture fittings is another good example.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Although slate quarrying was not common in the United States until the latter half of the nineteenth century, slate roofing is known to have been used prior to the American Revolution. Archeological excavations at Jamestown, Virginia, have unearthed roofing slate in strata dating from 1625-1650 and 1640-1670. Slate roofs were introduced in Boston as early as 1654 and Philadelphia in 1699. Seventeenth century building ordinances of New York and Boston recommended the use of slate or tile roofs to ensure fireproof construction.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the early colonial period, nearly all roofing slate was imported from North Wales. It was not until 1785 that the first commercial slate quarry was opened in the United States, by William Docher in Peach Bottom Township, Pennsylvania. Production was limited to that which could be consumed in local markets until the middle of the nineteenth century.&quot;</p><p><a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/should-i-replace-my-slate-roof-with-a-synthetic.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/should-i-replace-my-slate-roof-with-a-synthetic.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.nps.gov/articles/should-i-replace-my-slate-roof-with-a-synthetic.htm</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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