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The Rockaway Quarry was a Calera limestone quarry in Pacifica, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Limestone from the site was first extracted by Ohlone from the village of Pruristac. Beginning in 1776, New Spain used California Indian labor to mine limestone and build structures like the Presidio and San Francisco missions. After the 1906 earthquake, the quarry's limestone was used to rebuild San Francisco. By the 1960s, operations declined, and the quarry permanently closed in 1987. Today it is privately held but is used as an informal hiking trail.
Spanish Empire of San Francisco began in 1769 with the first European sighting of the San Francisco Bay. By 1776, Spanish settlers employed Indian labor to quarry limestone from the Rockaway Quarry to build the San Francisco Presidio and mission buildings. The lime pits were also used to make whitewash. In this period, the quarry was under the control of the Franciscans padres at Mission San Francisco de Asís.
After Mexican Independence and secularization, present-day Pacifica was granted to the mayor of San Francisco and Commandant of the Presidio, Francisco Sánchez, as the Rancho San Pedro. Sánchez used the Rockaway Quarry to produce whitewash for his adobe home, which was completed in 1846.
Following the Mexican–American War, the Rockaway Quarry was sold and quarrying declined. In 1906, however, the dual requirements of Ocean Shore Railroad construction and the 1906 earthquake resulted in the reopening of the Rockaway Quarry in 1907, due to it being one of the few areas in the San Francisco area where limestone was available in industrial quantities. The quarry provided ballast and the trackbed of the railroad, and building material to rebuild the city. The quarry's operators were E.B. and A.L. Stone, who leased the quarry from the Tobin family of San Francisco.
In 1942, the Tobin family transferred ownership to Hibernia Bank. Horace Hill then bought it and established Rockaway Quarry, Incorporated, producing concrete aggregate, ballast, and high-grade limestone during World War II. Other companies began limestone production around Rockaway Beach, and Open-pit mining appeared on the north and west sides of Mori Point by the 1950s. The Quarry was sold in 1953, and leased to Howard Marks from 1953 to 1968, to Rhodes & Jamieson from 1968 to 1975, and then to the last commercial operations, Quarry Products Incorporated, from 1975 until its closure in 1987.
When commercial quarrying ended, much of the area was left in degraded condition with unstable slopes, bare rocky bluffs, and soil vulnerable to invasive vegetation. Invasive species are still commonly found around the area, and portions of the property were converted into a wastewater treatment plant in 2000.
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