The story below is from our March/April 2026 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
The Franciscos of Roanoke County have built generations of masterful stone works that have become their family’s signature.
Courtesy of Kelly Francisco
Kelly Francisco, his dad, and brothers at a work site.
There’s something about those Francisco boys, looking at five, working on six generations of rock masonry, most of it notable. It ranges from walls to chimneys, to housing facades, to mausoleums, to rock walls, to homes, to Blue Ridge Parkway bridges, to churches and homes, to a Francisco grandson finishing the work of a Francisco grandfather.
It all connects—fits, if you will—as if it grew out of the ground, which, in a way, it did.
Kelly Francisco is the chief of the Francisco empire. He’s the latest in a line that began with Simon Peter (“Price”) Francisco in 1902 and as each generation took over, the business name remained the same because they were all Franciscos. Each succeeding generation worked for his father, then took over the business after working with preceding generations of Franciscos.
Frank took over in 1932, then came Larry in 1965 and Kelly sometime after 1992. Kelly’s sons, Dakota, Trevor and Logan work with him now. Even daughter Skyler “goes for rock” occasionally, though she has other ambitions that preclude digging and hauling.
Kelly was 19 when his dad died, and he worked in the family business growing up. He didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do when he graduated from Salem High School, but Larry Francisco died of a brain tumor and left Kelly with few options. “I didn’t even know how to measure a job,” he said. “I had to teach myself.”
Each of the Franciscos, in turn, took over the business when their time came and “each was on his own” from Day 1, said Kelly. His mentors were demanding and strict, he notes.
Kelly has so intensely taught himself the business that he can look at a rock in one of his creations and tell you where it came from. Exactly. Most of the rocks these days are born in Giles County, which means a lot of running up and down the interstate to harvest materials for various jobs. He’s even squeezing in rockwork for the home he recently built, after refining the property and living on it with his family for more than a year in a mobile home. It was a cramped lifestyle for a while.
Courtesy of Kelly Francisco
Kelly Francisco building a chimney at his home.
“The hardest part of the work,” said Francisco, “is finding dependable help, and the mentality of it all.” That means “looking at a bank of red mud,” and seeing a rock wall holding it back beautifully. Then “you go out and dig the rock.” That rock will cost about $200 for 15 tons, which he loads onto a truck and hauls to the site. You gotta know the rock, he insists. There are various colors and degrees of hardness, depending on where it is dug. All the while “I have to deal with people. It’s not like going to Lowe’s and picking out a paint color.”
Stonework, Francisco understates, “is a lot of detail.” And when the stonemason is expanding on a previous job—say one his grandfather finished—the rock and the mortar have to match. Exactly.
There “is a lot of stress and strain” with the work, said the 54-year-old Francisco, who feels a lot of it progressively as he ages. “You have to be gentle with the rock” and that sometimes means putting the mason in awkward positions, high off the ground, reaching to his limits to place a crown.
“You get to know the tricks of the trade,” Francisco said. And no, retirement isn’t in the cards for him. He’s currently digging up 60 truck loads of rock for a pond he is building. Like so much of what the Franciscos do—that is different from those preceding them—he is dependent upon having the right equipment, which is expensive.
“You gotta invest to get the rock,” he said. “My dad hand-loaded trucks util he got a Bobcat [loader] in 1985.” And that helped make a difficult job a bit easier. And it led to more purchases, more jobs, better jobs, more income.
And the continuation of the Francisco trademark. Get a custom quote or see more at kellyfranciscostonemasonry.com.
The story above is from our March/April 2026 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!