by Bailey White
Staff Writer
If Michelangelo were alive today, he’d likely work at a place similar to Pedroni’s Cast Stone, Inc. The company specializes in custom-made cast stone manufacturing, installation and restoration and is in its third generation of family ownership.
“My grandfather, Andrew Frank Pedroni, started the business in 1945 with his two sons,” said Craig Pedroni, current president of the company.
Andrew Pedroni came from Carrara, Italy with an education in sculpture and modeling from Italy’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts and spent his early years in the States working in Vermont, Atlanta and at various cast stone companies in Jacksonville.
“During World War II, the cast stone companies shut down to help with the war effort, but when the war was over, they started their own business,” said Pedroni.
Today, Pedroni and his wife Pat run the business. He oversees production from inception to installation and she acts as project coordinator and runs the front office.
And while locals may not recognize the name, the family has left its mark on the city over the years.
Andrew Pedroni worked on The Bolles School when it was first built, and in recent years, Pedroni completed a project at Bolles, restoring the main entrance to its original decorative appearance by digging through yearbooks and old photographs to discover how the door originally appeared.
The company also did work at the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art’s new home, the 1931 Western Union Telegraph building on Laura Street. To replace the original Western Union medallions, they paired with St. Augustine-based artist Enzo Torcoletti [they’ve also used artists Joe Segal and Marsha Glaziere] and worked from original architect’s drawings and from a remaining fragment of the Western Union symbol.
“The originals [medallions] were gone and our work was done from an old elevation,” said Pedroni. “When historical elements are damaged or missing, we reproduce them by making molds and impressions of the existing piece or we reproduce it based on a photograph.”
It is the challenge that this type of work brings that has held Pedroni’s interest for so long.
“I like the creativity this job brings,” said Pedroni. “Every day could bring something different. I’ve been here a long time and I’m still learning new things.
“There aren’t many cast stone companies in this world. We’re one of 32 members of the Cast Stone Institute.”
The company has done work in Saudi Arabia and St. Louis.
“But usually we work within a couple of hundred of miles,” said Pedroni.
At the huge open air studio, the company can create new stone work for fountains, balustrades, staircases or other ornamental work. They also custom build stone counter tops and Pat Pedroni is working on a line of ready-made stone products.
Its sister company, Precast Solutions, Inc., which Pedroni co-owns with vice president James Malenfant, handles installation, restoration and waterproofing.
“They’re the stone doctors,” said Pedroni.