A gallery where ideas are carved in stone
The Stone Gallery showroom opens at Seaside Materials
BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer

Anthony Damiano created The Stone Gallery at Seaside Materials in Long Branch to showcase the wide array of design applications for natural stone and manufactured masonry products.

Twenty-three years in the field have given Anthony Damiano a perspective on the past, present and future of the masonry supply industry.

“Most people when they hear masonry supply think of concrete blocks. The masonry industry is behind others by 20 years,” said Damiano.

Now, he is pushing the limits of a trade that has its roots in antiquity.

PHOTOSBY SCOTT PILLING staff

“We consider ourselves sitting in the vanguard position as far as where this business is going and how people look at it,” said Damiano, owner of Seaside Materials on Broadway in Long Branch and its new adjunct, The Stone Gallery.

“Here, what we did is build a gallery devoted to masonry and natural stone applications. Our tag line is ‘Your Idea in Stone.’ ”

Opened in July, The Stone Gallery is an idea center that uses displays and technology to educate customers — tradesmen, professionals and homeowners — about the vast selection of natural and manmade masonry products and to help them visualize the myriad ways in which they can be applied inside or outside a home or business.

In addition to full-scale room vignettes featuring natural and man-made stone products, the showroom has a database of more than 7,000 masonry products that can be accessed and visualized using the latest technology.

Combined, The Stone Gallery showroom and Seaside’s customer service center occupy a 4,500-square-foot space that has undergone a $540,000 renovation.

“We made this a one-stop shop of not only masonry building materials but masonry design applications,” Damiano said.

“The concept is that along with being a gallery dedicated to applications of masonry and natural stone, we built a design center for you to come and apply your ideas with our stone — ‘Your Idea in Stone’ — so you’ll come here with your concept, and we’ll help you create it in stone.

“This is a tool for trades people, interior designers, architects, general contractors and the homeowner,” he added.

Tableaus at the showroom are designed to be complementary so that kitchen, bar, wine cellar, bath and living room settings flow seamlessly together.

The settings showcase a wide variety of state-of-the-art masonry applications including granite countertops; ceramic tile; imported mosaic murals; glass block; natural and manufactured stone facades including fieldstone, ledgestone, brick and stucco veneer; and bluestone, limestone, travertine and marble natural stone flooring.

“We wanted to offer every possible scenario of masonry conceptually to an interior designer, architect, builder, master contractor, homeowner,” he explained. “For instance, they can see a shower with walls made of glass block or a closet renovated into a wine cellar.”

At the front of the showroom, Artisan Kitchen and Bath Studio has a display kitchen that showcases cabinetry and natural stone countertops. Owners Joseph and Britton Laspino are renovating the adjoining space, and when it is completed, visitors will be able to walk from The Stone Gallery to the adjoining studio where a full-scale kitchen and bath design showroom will be located.

In addition to displays, The Stone Gallery is equipped with a touch screen computer system that takes customers on a virtual tour of masonry products in categories of brick, natural stone exterior, interior, cultured stone, marble statuary, fireplace surrounds, glass block, interlocking pavers and clay chimney tops.

“It’s very user-friendly. The customer can sit down at the screen and touch their way to find and print a copy of an application to bring back to the architect, builder, interior designer,” Damiano explained.

The Stone Gallery at Seaside Materials is open to retail and wholesale customers Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A Long Branch native, Damiano began his career with Joseph Calabretta Inc., a family-run masonry business founded in Long Branch in the 1930s. He joined Calabretta in 1985 and credits Sonny Calabretta as his mentor.

“Sonny Calabretta was an icon in the industry and in the area. Everything I learned, I learned from him,” he said.

After a few years, the long-running business was acquired by conglomerate Clayton Block Co., and Damiano was tapped to run the masonry company’s Edison yard.

In 1991, he went out on his own, aiming to establish the type of customer-oriented masonry business the Calabretta family had run.

“My idea was to re-create a small supply company that had camaraderie with local clientele,” he explained.’

Damiano opened Seaside Materials at 671 Broadway in Long Branch in 1991 and soon outgrew the location. In 1998, Seaside moved its yard and offices next door to the present location at 659 Broadway.

According to Damiano, service to customers has helped Seaside Materials expand to an operation with 21 employees and annual sales of $8.5 million serving customers in Monmouth, Middlesex, Ocean and Mercer counties.

“We’re very service oriented,” said the West Long Branch resident. “Comparatively we are priced about the same as our competitors, but we give such good service to customers.”

In addition, the introduction of interlocking concrete pavers and retaining walls helped fuel the company’s growth.

“The hardscape [paving block] business came on so strong and we did great. It allowed us to grow to the next level,” he said.

Having achieved a measure of success in the masonry supply industry, Damiano could have been content to stand pat, but his enthusiasm for the field led him in a new direction.

“Being in the industry for so long, it would have been easy to follow the same pattern, easy not to get into details like fine finishes, glass block windows, stone floors, counters,” he acknowledged.

Instead, Seaside is continuing to evolve.

”Our logo had a wave in it; now it has a wave made of mosaic. The evolution of our business, and the next generation of our company, is not just a wave but a mosaic wave because mosaic is the highest form of masonry art.

“I’ve been passionate about this for a long time,” he continued. “This showroom is an expression of my take on the business since I’ve been in it.

“I was thinking Seaside was like everybody else,” he said. “We were doing a good job with masonry supply, but my enthusiasm about the business … I felt like I couldn’t just show people pieces of brick and stone. I needed samples and displays; I needed to express what the material really looks like.

“I had to keep moving forward and perfect the ability to express all the possibilities,” Damiano said. “What this has done for us is help define our niche, to become more design oriented.

“Before, interior designers didn’t come to us because it wasn’t brought to them that you can mosaic a wall, use stone or brick to do the interior façade of a wall, do a glass block shower. Everything you’re looking at here is an interior application — granite counters, stone floors, mosaics on the wall — it’s endless.”