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Dorothy and Bob Riester moved to the Syracuse area in the 1950's, and began looking out in the country for a property where they could build a summer retreat. Responding to an ad in the Sunday paper, they drove out to take a look at a rural, hilltop bit of land just east of the small village of Cazenovia, about 20 miles southeast of Syracuse. They found the dirt road leading to the property and hauled a picnic to the hill's cleared top. There they enjoyed a spectacular panoramic view of two counties and watched a series of thunderstorms roll past in the distance.
This hilltop property, which the Riesters had bought by week's end, became the kernel of what today is Stone Quarry Hill Art Park. At first the Riesters camped out on the land on weekends, planning for a summer home to be designed and built by 1959. By 1965, they had winterized their retreat and bought the land they needed to build a real access road, so they could live on the hill year-round. Both commuted into Syracuse, where Bob was a senior engineer for the Carrier Corporation and Dorothy, a sculptor teaching art at Syracuse University.
Over the next two decades, the couple expanded the living quarters, improved necessary infrastructure and driveways, and added an A-frame art studio for Dorothy as well as other outbuildings. They built trails, gardens, and ponds. The Riesters also purchased small packets of adjoining properties as they became available, part of the couple's ongoing commitment to preserving open rural land.
Throughout these years, visitors walked the informal trails, visited the gardens, and enjoyed the lovely skyscapes and landscapes that are always part of time spent on Stone Quarry Hill. Often in the sloping natural amphitheater next to their house, the Riesters hosted both formal and informal performances of music or dance for friends and other invited guests.
In addition to private parties, they sponsored special events open to the public. Dorothy's colleagues with the Syracuse Ceramic Guild helped build a raku kiln and a large salt kiln, and then a second salt kiln, on the hilltop. The Riesters hosted SCG events and invited experts to give lecture-demonstrations that were open to classes and the public. Visiting artists would sometimes stay in the Riester's home. In 1979, the SCG held its first public pottery sale at Stone Quarry Hill. The Syracuse Ceramic Guild's Annual Pottery Fair is now a much-anticipated event attended by thousands.
In November 1991 Stone Quarry Hill Art Park was formally incorporated as a not-for-profit organization overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors.
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